Maurice Lacroix reveals a new chapter in their AIKON collection, and returns to their Masterpiece series with the new Master Grand Date.
Maurice Lacroix Master Grand Date
Press Release information with commentary in italics.
Retail price of the Master Grand Date is SGD 11,300 SGD and CHF 7,500.
Commentary
The original Masterpiece from Maurice Lacroix was the Masterpiece Gravity. While the Gravity and the Grand Date share some design DNA, with the off-centre dial and visible balance wheel at 8 o’clock, the new Master Grand Date retains the overall architecture, but adds a grand date, and a different take on the use of glass, finishing and colours. The new Grand Date is also equipped with the quick change strap/bracelet system which Maurice Lacroix calls EasyChange.
We have requested a viewing and photography session and will update with a comprehensive review soon.
The new watch is a partially openworked, off-centre automatic calibre featuring a large date and open balance wheel, this voluminous watchmaking creation opens up new perspectives.
The 45 mm steel case uses dynamic lines, the case/bracelet integration, the bezel’ s arms and the polished, matte AIKON steel case to welcome the new ML331 calibre. It offers a clear view of its balance wheel, visible through a large skeleton opening, and features a large date display with double window.
The large, rounded, skeletonised balance bridge at 8 o’clock floats between the glass and sapphire crystal case back, revealing the AIKON Master Grand Date’ s regulating system. Its background will be intermittently obscured by the passage of the openworked, brushed and snailed rotor . Just above it, at 10 o’clock, Maurice Lacroix has placed a unique double-window large date module. Not by creating a functional layer, which would have added thickness, but by integrating it into the existing height of the calibre. Finally, the small off-centre seconds hand is also open at 4 o’clock, and it is suspended above a well that reveals the ML331calibre.
By playing with the finishes the AIKON Master Grand Date acquires a new level of contrast and legibility. The off-centred Clous de Paris hours and minutes dial, the grained dial plate and the Cordura® bracelet feature a deep, matte and elegant shade of blue. The dials’ bezels, the large applied date window and the small seconds are satin-finished, matching the polished chamfers of the 45 mm steel case, as well as the links of the integrated metal bracelet unique to AIKON. Maurice Lacroix has also revisited one of AIKON’s distinctive features by giving the date window the same shape as the bezel’s arms.
