Maurice Lacroix Baselworld 2013 Overview — WatchProSite Forum Digest

Ornatus-Mundi · 2013-05-17T09:39:55Z

Explore Maurice Lacroix's 2013 Baselworld releases, including the Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse and Pontos S Diver. Learn about their manufacture capabilities.

Ornatus-Mundi

WPS member · Horological Meandering forum

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Maurice Lacroix have recently invested lots of money and manpower to 'verticalise' their production and are now capable of developing and producing their own calibre's, cases and dials. With these in-house capabilities the company has gone a long way towards becoming not only a true manufacture on i

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Maurice Lacroix have recently invested lots of money and manpower to 'verticalise' their production and are now capable of developing and producing their own calibre's, cases and dials. With these in-house capabilities the company has gone a long way towards becoming not only a true manufacture on its own right but also serving the watch industry at large as a specialist supplier, e.g. for high quality watch cases.

The brand has used its technical prowess to present a whole range of technically and aesthetically interesting watches, and this year was no difference as I will show later.

For starters I would like to remind on the origins of the brand. It started as an assembler and OEM producer of low- and mid-range watches using readily available movements, even quartz-driven ones. Quality was good and the designs very likeable (more on that later). Two fundamental moves changed the direction of the company and the appreciation of the brand in the minds of the collectors, both in the same direction: the acquisition of the case manufacturer Queloz S.A. in 1989 and the presentation of the 'Masterpiece' series of highly desirable and often complicated watches in 1995:

It were those watches (often equipped with historically important and/or highly sought after collectors' movements) that drew me to the brand for the first time, and they were my personal holy grails during my early years of watch admiration, particularly the split-second masterpieces.

The second wave of collectors' awareness came when in 2006 Maurice Lacroix presented their first fully in-house manufacture movement, the Calibre ML106, a gorgeous handwound chronograph movement with a rare 60min counter and a leisurely beating balance at 18000 A/h. It features splendid dimension with 36,6mm in diameter and 6,9mm in height.

The range of in-house calibres has slowly but constantly expanded into a handful of manufacture movements with a great number of fascinating details and proprietary solutions.

Connoisseurship, knowledge and taste evolve, and eventually I moved on. Still, I have a weak spot for the company and I consider them a must if one is looking for excellent horological value for the money. There is a lot to chose these days for any taste and wallet:

In the following I go into deeper detail on a per collection basis.

This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2013-05-17 10:03:49 This message has been edited by AndrewD on 2013-05-22 13:53:59

The Discussion

Ornatus-Mundi

May 17, 2013

Masterpiece Collection

Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse Certainly one of the most captivating watches in the ML collection, and thus in line with the famous Masterpiece Roue Carrée model with its signature combination of clover-leaf and rectangular shaped wheels, the Seconde Mystérieuse is this year's technical highlight offered by ML. On the 2 o'clock position you find the hours and minutes dial which unfortunately is a bit cut off to be really useful. Note how the Incabloc bearing of the balance wheel is accentuated

Kong

May 17, 2013

Masterpiece Collection is ...

well-worth the attention. Thanks for the report and the video of the Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse, Magnus. Kong

Ornatus-Mundi

May 19, 2013

Thanks Kong, I agree

that the Masterpiece collection is very interesting horologically. The designs are sometimes a bit too modernist for me. Best, Magnus

G99

May 19, 2013

i'm a big ML fan and these are some great offerings this year. thanks Magnuss

Ornatus-Mundi

May 17, 2013

Pontos Collection

Pontos S Diver Diving watches are legion within the watch industry and almost any watch maker provides one model. The ML Pontos S Diver is one of the more distinguished offerings out there. It combines style and fantastic legibility with credible technical specifications such as 600 m water resistance, a fully automatic helium escape valve and a diving time scale. The watch comes in a variety of two dial colours (silver and black) and three strap options (leather brown and black, steel bracelet)

Ornatus-Mundi

May 17, 2013

Conclusion: To each its own!

Maurice Lacroix is a brand with a comprehensive range of watches offering top value for the many in almost any range of the market (excluding the top top league). So naturally almost everybody could find something in their offering. The top league is the Masterpiece collection . Technically the Seconde Mystérieuse certainly is the highlight of ML's novelties. But as much as I like the technical ingenuity of the SM I fail to fall for its aesthetics. The design plays with technicality, art and ido

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