Classical styles out as brand ponders 'positive' complications
Maurice Lacroix has been enjoying considerable success in recent years and its innovations this year seem set to continue the trend.
The firm announced in Basel the launch of its first movement designed and developed entirely in-house.
'Mechanical movements will be very important to us in the future, but we are not going to totally neglect quartz,' said chief executive Philippe Merk. 'One thing we are trying to give up is classical watches with only three hands. All they do is tick and tock. That's nothing for us any more. We like to think of more complicated watches - complicated in a positive way.
'We also have the potential to achieve much more with ladies' mechanical watches. When a watchmaker adjusts a balance spring, he is adjusting something half the thickness of a human hair, 1/1000 of a millimetre. It's between art and physics. That's why it's so exciting.'
Maurice Lacroix unveiled a stunning new model at BaselWorld in April, the Masterpiece Le Chronographe, in pink gold and in a limited edition of 250 pieces. It carries the company's own calibre ML 106, which took over three years to develop. The 36.6mm diameter makes it the only chronograph movement on the market with such generous dimensions. The chronograph wheel is exceptional in having 300 teeth, made not with the traditional wheel-cutting machine but grown in a special process, atom by atom.
The company chose to go for size with the ML 106 so it could use larger components than are usual in chronographs. This has enhanced precision and reliability.