Review: Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Gravity
Great value. Affordable. These are ways in which most of the Maurice Lacroix range can be described. And that’s no slander: Maurice Lacroix do very well at making great value, affordable pieces. Got a budget around the £1,000 mark? Buy one. I highly recommend them. Got a bit more money to spend, or perhaps even a lot more money to spend? Then you’re probably looking elsewhere. But wait, where are you going? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
Tucked away among the budget-busting watches is the Masterpiece collection, what Maurice Lacroix describes as ‘the perfect synthesis of Maurice Lacroix know-how.’ This is where you’ll find best stuff, the secret stash hiding behind a front of value watchmaking. I imagine the Masterpiece collection to be the result of pent-up watchmaking creativity, an explosive need to design and build more than just mass-market-friendly pieces. And that’s a good thing, because there are no holds barred here, only imagination and realisation.
You have to admire Maurice Lacroix for keeping up the Masterpiece collection, because I bet the accounts department has begged them to shut it down. Like Abarth to Fiat or TWR to Renault, the Masterpiece collection is a skunkworks producing things that will only appeal — to the point of purchase — to a small number of people. No need to sugar coat it — Maurice Lacroix will know as well as the rest of us that people won’t be clamouring in their thousands to buy a Masterpiece watch (they come in limited runs, after all) but they do know that we love to see them and admire them. When the people at Renault approached the people at TWR and asked them to put a V6 in the back of the Clio, they knew they weren’t on to the next big seller — yet they did it anyway, because they’re enthusiasts, and so is Maurice Lacroix.
The latest addition to the collection, the Gravity, comes in two styles: steel and PVD’d steel. We’ve got the latter; it’s the most visually impressive, the smattering of bold colours picked out by dark grey PVD. There are blues, purples, yellows and reds, tracing the path through the front-mounted escapement from the balance to the indiction. But look closer: that pallet fork has no jewelled teeth — and it’s bright blue! That’s because it’s made of silicon, a hard-wearing, naturally lubricating metalloid. The escape wheel is, too.
It’s quite clear that the calibre ML230 is the highlight of the package, taking pride of place under the crystal, relegating the dial to a smaller disk in the top right. Designed and made in house (a signature of the Masterpiece collection), it acts as a platform to showcase what Maurice Lacroix are capable of. At close to £10,000, it’s a steep ask for a watch with that name on the dial, but then the Clio V6 was a steep ask for a car with a Renault badge on the nose. Is it worth it for Maurice Lacroix, making these expensive, fantastic examples of watchmaking? Is the Clio V6 a modern classic, revered and respected by supercar enthusiasts worldwide? The answer, you’ll find, is one and the same.
###Watch Spec | Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Gravity Case: PVD-coated stainless steel Dimensions: 43mm dia Crystal: Anti-reflective coated synthetic sapphire Water Resistance: 50m Movement: Calibre ML230, automatic Frequency: 18,000 vph Power Reserve: 50 hours Strap: Leather Functions: Time | Shop Now
