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 The graphic elegance of Maurice Lacroix

Since 2011, Maurice Lacroix has been under the control of the DKSH group, which has been the brand’s Asian distributor since 2008. After suffering because of some of its strategic choices – a move up range that didn’t tie in well with the economic crisis – the Jurassian brand has not undergone any radical changes but has managed to reaffirm its quite singular identity in the medium and high-end segments (between CHF 2,900 and 12,500 for the latest models).
Presenting no less than 60 new references at Basel this year, Maurice Lacroix continues along its new path offering models with striking designs that are well thought-out and exhibit a contemporary graphic elegance that is beyond reproach.

Each year, a talking piece grabs the attention. After the Roue Carrée, Maurice Lacroix this year presented a superb Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse. As Sandro Reginelli explains, “we tried to offer a piece with a high visual impact that offers a complete alternative in terms of its display but still has a very attractive price point.” Limited to two series of 125 pieces each (steel, with rhodium or ruthenium plated movement, CHF 12,500), the Seconde Mystérieuse carries its name well and offers a unique spectacle. Housed inside a big white pastille beneath the off-centre hours and minutes (one of Maurice Lacroix’s stylistic traits) the seconds appear to float on the dial and move in a completely erratic way. The double-headed hand indicates the seconds on four sections of 15 seconds each, arranged in a cross. It thus performs a fascinating mechanical ballet that seems not just “mysterious” but also quite magical. “The linearity was born from a reflection started by the Roue Carrée and epicycloid curves”, explains Sandro Reginelli. Highlighted by a contemporary skeletonisation, this astonishing watch is powered by the ML125, self-winding movement, the 12th calibre developed entirely in-house.
Among the brand’s other new releases are the racy Pontos S Extreme. Innovative in its use of materials (its case is made of Powerlite®, a material used in aeronautics that is three times lighter and twice as resistant as steel and which can be coloured by anodisation) and its system of operation (an ingenious, patent-pending mechanism coupled with the chronograph pusher operates the rotating bezel inside the case, thus protecting it against any involuntary rotation) this chronograph fitted with the self-winding ML112 movement, based on the Valjoux 7750, was designed by Henrik Fisker, the designer of various BMW and Aston Martin models (CHF 5,300).
With the Pontos S Diver, which is water resistant to 600 metres, has a helium valve, hydrophobic leather strap and a Sellita SW200 movement, Maurice Lacroix shows that it is possible to offer a high-performance watch with a refined design that is contemporary but with vintage touches, at an unbeatable price: CHF 2,900.

  Oris as a democratic warrior

In the same price segment and producing exclusively mechanical watches, Oris, born in 1904, has always tried to offer “a good design with a democratic spirit and therefore at a reasonable price,” as Rolf Studer, vice-president of the brand, explains. The brand’s new stand aims to convey the same message. “We wanted to show our philosophy, which is similar to that of the Bauhaus movement, not in purely geometric terms but through the values of openness, transparency and, I repeat, democratisation,” he adds.

AQUIS REGULATEUR by Oris

But to enable these “democratic” prices (between CHF 1,550 and 3,500 for the new releases at Basel), you need volume. This is estimated at around 60,000 watches per year.
Oris presented models dedicated to the worlds of aviation, the automobile and diving, as well as some incursions into jazz territory. Among them are the astonishing Aquis Regulateur divers’ watches. It’s not the first time that Oris opts for a regulator type display for a divers’ watch (we recall the Oris TT1 “Der Meistertaucher”, which was launched in 2006 and was water resistant to 1000 metres) but this type of display is usually associated with more classic designs. Nevertheless, the legibility of the minutes, which is a priority in diving, is much better on a regulator display. Sold in a set with a rubber strap and self-adjusting diving bracelet, this original, robust and highly legible divers’ watch, which is water resistant to 300 metres, retails for CHF 3,200. Absolutely nothing further to add! “We made 100 to start with,” explains Ulrich Herzog, executive director of the brand since 2001, “but demand quickly grew and then we were copied”. The ransom of success?

Also in the field of diving, the ProDiver Pointer Moon has a precision retrograde moon phase that works on a cycle of 29.5 days. This means that it can indicate very clearly the tide tables on the dial, against a red arrow. The request for a precision moon phase and tide tables (available for the northern and southern hemispheres) came specifically from the professional diver Roman Frischknecht, who is also an ambassador for the brand. Powered by a Sellita SW200 base movement and equipped with a module specific to Oris for the precision moon phase complication, it retails for CHF 3,200. Again, nothing more to add, for an innovative watch with a great dial.
Still in the world of diving, the star of the collection is without doubt the Aquis Depth Gauge. A world first: as the diver descends deeper, water enters a groove moulded into the edge of a very thick sapphire crystal through an opening at 12 o’clock and gets compressed by the pressure of the air inside it. Under the action of the water, the groove turns dark grey. The measurement of depth is then indicated very simply anti-clockwise around the dial by the visible boundary between this dark grey, the water, and the light grey of the air. (For more details, see Keith Strandberg’s article in this issue.) After a few notes from a melody by John Coltrane, to whom Oris dedicated its very Fifties Blue Train watch, we move on to the next stand.