Montblanc presents watch to Belmont Stakes winner

Elmont, N.Y.–After serving as the official timekeeper of the prestigious Belmont Stakes race that took place on June 5, luxury timepiece manufacturer Montblanc presented the owner of the winning thoroughbred with a special timepiece in the winner’s circle.

Belmont Stakes and Montblanc partnered together to present the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown series of thoroughbred racing, which also includes the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky., and the Preakness Stakes in Pimlico, Md.

During the winner’s circle presentation, Jan-Patrick Schmitz, president and chief executive officer of Montblanc North America, awarded a Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec timepiece to Lisa Troutt of Winstar Farm LLC, the owner of Drosselmeyer, the winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes.

Montblanc shares a historical connection to horse racing, having developed in 2008 the Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Collection, featuring a chronograph inspired by Nicolas Rieussec, a dedicated watch maker for Louis Philippe, the last king of France. Rieussec made history on Sept. 1, 1821, when he succeeded in recording the times of all the horses as they passed the finishing line to an accuracy of a quarter of a second, the brand said in a release.

To capture the running times of the horses, Rieussec used a device in which he “wrote time” using two rotating discs placed beneath an ink-filled marker. By pushing the button on the device, the tip would come into contact with one of the dials, leaving a visible mark to measure the time.  At that point, Rieussec became known as having successfully invented the first chronograph, the first way of writing time.

-National Jeweler Online