The new Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace embraces femininity through a poetic expression of mechanical watch art
The new 2020 watch release Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace is a delightful ladies watch that is sure to melt some feminine hearts (especially given the dial has two mechanical hearts beating at 9’o clock).
Released earlier this year around Valentine’s Day, the new watch model is essentially a homage to the idea of love. Visually striking and full of tiny details, the dials of these new watches are a thing of joy.
Haute couture watches with a difference
But before we go into the details, do you know what the best part of these new watches is?
No diamonds. That’s right. A women’s watch with no diamonds.
And wait for it, no quartz movement either.
Not only are we appreciative of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace collection, we are also in respectful admiration for a brand that has chosen the path less travelled and released women’s watches that aren’t simply diamond-studded jewellery pieces.
The Context
Maurice Lacroix for the first time has included a dedicated women’s watch model since debuting the Cinq Aiguilles Masterpiece collection — previously called Les Mécaniques — in 1992.
This model is available in two versions: one with a blue aventurine dial and a second with a white mother-of-pearl dial.
The watches include a unique seconds display at 9’o clock where two hearts rotate, a metaphor for the highs and the lows besetting all relationships, however, they always remain together, locked in a perpetual embrace.
Poetry aside, this display is a beauty of a mechanical work of art in itself. A reinterpretation of Maurice Lacroix’s patented Square Wheel indication — the brand first introduced this in 2010 — it is characteristically defined by inter-locking jaws that rotate to reveal the seconds.
Every tooth has a unique profile, made to infinitesimal tolerances, engaging with its adjacent counterpart with seamless precision. A discreet marking indicates the prevailing second without marring the clean dial design.
Features of the Reference MP6068-SS001-160-1
The Movement
The heart used — calibre ML258 — is an automatic winding manufacture movement beating at the frequency of 4Hz (28’800 A/h). It comprises of 37 jewels and boasts of a 36-hour power reserve.
The movement is visible through a display case-back and is generously decorated as well.
It features rhodium plated bridges with Colimaçon and M logo lining, a rhodium plated skeleton rotor with vertical Côtes de Genève finishing, and a combination of sandblasted and Colimaçon decoration.
The movement is encased inside a 40mm diameter and 14.00mm thick polished stainless steel case that is water resistant up-to 50m (5 ATM).
The Dial
The watch face shows the traditional functions of central hours and minutes along with small seconds at 9’o clock and a retrograde calendar at 5’o clock.
The dial is where most of the magic for this watch occurs.
This white mother-of-pearl with silver powder printing is a joy to look at. Featuring rose gold plated hands and hour indexes, it’s the definition of subtle elegance.
To complete the look, the watch comes on a white cream calf leather strap with a folding clasp in stainless steel.
Features of the Reference MP6068-SS001-430-1
The technical specifications are the same for this version but the dial is different. And like the Frederique Constant Flyback Chronograph we looked at, this second version in blue is our favourite.
The blue aventurine with silver powder printing features rhodium plated hands and hour indexes along with markings in Arabic numerals for seconds at 9’o clock that frankly make it easier to tell the seconds compared to the first version.
To complete this starry look, the watch comes on a blue calf leather strap with a folding clasp in stainless steel.
Watch Ya Gonna Do About It?
I literally sighed when I saw this watch for the first time. It was a sigh of relief.
In addition to a women’s watch that is not a quartz or a diamond studded version of an existing men’s watch, the new Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace features numerous other nods usually reserved for men’s watches:
A. The watches include a retrograde calendar complication that was first launched by the brand in 1999.
B. Additionally, the watches feature a decorated movement: in 2006 the brand launched its first in-house calibre ML-106 and since has been fitting Masterpiece watches with manufacture movements.
C. The stainless steel case — yup, no fancy gold or platinum here — is again something different for a women’s collection.
D. And so is the non-conventionally large (for women’s watches) case of 40mm diameter.
The new 2020 watch release Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace is a playful, elegant dress watch.
The most striking feature of this watch is the uniquely charming dial.
The mother-of-pearl dial version is marked by lines radiating from the seconds display at 9’o clock — depicting the day — while the aventurine dial looks like a night sky full of stars —depicting the night.
The open-worked (skeletonised) leaf-shaped hour and minute hands contrast well with the dial increasing the legibility.
At 5’o clock is another wonder; an arrow-like hand — symbolising Cupid — points to the retrograde date indication, tastefully expressed with a series of circlets.
This is captured with the poetic statement on the dial, ‘je t’aime un peu, beaucoup, à la folie!’
It translates to ‘I love you a little, a lot, madly’. The retrograde date indication is essentially a whimsical nod to a woman’s everyday changing mood about love.
Talk about capturing women’s eccentric nature! My wife reading this agrees.
The new Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace embraces femininity through a poetic expression of mechanical watch art.
Go on, its your turn to embrace it.
For more information on this watch and other Maurice Lacroix watches, head to their website here.
