2013/03/04

Maurice Lacroix the Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse

 

Masterpiece Collection
Inspiration of contemporary mechanical watchmaking

Spearheading the Maurice Lacroix Manufacture, the Masterpiece collection strikes a clever balance between technology, tradition and modernist esthetics. It represents the brand’s expertise and, in particular, its mastery of retrograde complications, moon phases and chronographs, while creating a new image for the measurement of time.

The timepieces of this flagship collection meet the highest standards of mechanical watchmaking set out by renowned Manufactures. The cases, dials and movements attest to the quality of their design and execution down to the minutest detail, which in turn reflects the brand’s rigorous approach to research and development.

The esthetics of the Masterpiece Collection have evolved towards a contemporary design inspired by the art of living. Featuring modern finishes and silhouettes, this collection promotes a new experience of watchmaking that is firmly attuned to today’s world. Combining expertise and daring style, these watches revisit tradition with simple elegance, avoiding pretense and excessive extravagance. Created for modern-day dandies for whom performance and etiquette are everyday necessities, these watches embody the identity of a young brand whose innovative edge has given rise to a solid reputation.

This year, the Masterpiece Collection receives a proud addition to its ranks in the form of a timepiece whose technical and esthetic qualities are rivaled only by its originality. Driven by the ML215 caliber, a movement entirely designed and developed in-house, it offers a unique interpretation of a skeleton dial, complete with an amazing innovative seconds display that is clearly inspired by the same spirit of creative freedom as the Masterpiece Roue Carrée model. This newest addition is called the Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse.

Its powerful design and  precise operation firmly entrench this new model in the context of an urban and hedonistic 21st century that appreciates an elegant approach to timekeeping, thus satisfying the expectations of a sophisticated clientele that is ever more demanding.

Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse

In 2010 Maurice Lacroix made a statement about his vision of time by launching the famous Roue Carrée model, which, following widespread public acclaim, has expanded into several different versions. Offering much more than just its esthetic appeal, this watch has marked out an innovative way of measuring the passage of time. This year, continuing in the same rich vein of avant-garde creative freedom, the Swiss-based brand, is pleased to present its Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse watch.   This marks a new first in the history of watchmaking.

Awe-inspiring Captivating Unexpected This timepiece is aptly named: Mystérieuse (Mysterious) inspires and intrigues. Its certainly hard to take your eyes away from the gray disk dominating the skeletonized inner workings of the movement. Numerous elements testify to Maurice Lacroix's supreme know-how, whether it be the impressive seconds indication and the skeletonization, or the off-centered hours that are one of the brand's trademark features. Yet the perplexing seconds indicator remains the most captivating of mysteries. Driven by the ML215 caliber – a new Maurice Lacroix Manufacture movement and the twelfth to be entirely developed in-house – the mysterious hand marks out a linear reading of the seconds, in alternating horizontal anf vertica 15-second cycles. The blued hand turning on its axis, as though in full levitation, produces the captivating optical illusion. The mechanical mystery behind this impressive feat remains a unsolved.

The hours are displayed at 2 o'clock and are also indicated by metallic blued hands, while the rest of the dial is skeletonized around the movement bridges, in a striking geometrical style that is very contemporary and available in two versions, coated in either rhodium or ruthenium. The self-winding ML215 mechanical movement is visible through the sapphire-crystal back of the 43 mm diameter steel case. Its finishing automatically places it in an exclusive category of timepieces offered only by the very finest workmanships.

The Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse is available in two limited series of 125 pieces each.