The evolution of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece collection

Buffy Acacia

The story of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece collection is a curious one. While the company was born out the most turbulent period watchmaking has ever seen, the transformation of this one line has reflected the way the brand itself has evolved over time and found its true identity today. To fully understand the Masterpiece collection is to know Maurice Lacroix at its very best, so we thought it time to take a closer look at the highly evocative line and chart its course through the life of this relatively young company.

There is no doubt that the quartz crisis was an extremely difficult time in the watch industry. Over a thousand brands were killed of as the rising tide of technology from Japan arriving at the same time as a global financial crisis. However, right in the eye of the storm, Maurice Lacroix was established by a holding company in 1975, and found enough success to continually expand the business. By 1980, Maurice Lacroix was performing well enough that its parent company, Desco von Schulthess, ceased selling components to other watch brands. It would take another 12 years for the first Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece to come out, giving the young brand more horological chops.

It’s frankly amazing that Maurice Lacroix not only survived during the ‘70s and ‘80s, but thrived enough to acquire high-end manufacturing infrastructure within 15 years of existing. It didn’t have any brand power to rely on, in fact the name was posthumously dedicated to a board member who passed away during the early stages of the company’s formation.

There are plenty of watches to which you could attribute its success, like the Calypso which eventually inspired the Aikon, however it’s the Masterpiece collection that really kicked things into another gear. Setting up shop in picturesque Saignelégier, Switzerland, Maurice Lacroix unveiled Les Mécaniques collection in 1990, which was renamed Masterpiece in 1992.

Of course, you hear the word “masterpiece”, and your mind jumps to the kind of watches that make you choose between your wrist and a house deposit. Maurice Lacroix has never been like that. At the time, it was mainly customising off-the-shelf movements which helped keep the prices relatively attainable. Take the ML106 for example, based on the Venus 175 and developed with the help of Andreas Strehler, a famed independent watchmaker in his own right, it quickly took on the affectionate nickname of the “Owl Movement” thanks to the two large sub-dials at 3 and 9. The first watch to use the Masterpiece moniker was the Cinq Aiguilles (French for “five hands”), with hours, minutes, seconds, date and day all displayed with centrally positioned hands, courtesy of a modified ETA 2836-2. From there, the complications got even grander.

There were complete calendars with moonphases, GMTs, split-seconds chronographs, retrograde displays, night/day indicators and power reserves, all with highly classical designs, gold or two-tone cases, and mostly white, patterned dials. In order to give off the energy of high luxury, the brand had to get creative with calibres. For example, the reference 76840 Masterpiece Calendrier Rétrograde used a reworked ETA/Unitas 6498-1 as its base movement. Adding a retrograde date and power reserve display isn’t exactly an off-the-shelf task, so clearly Maurice Lacroix wasn’t afraid to get into the nitty-gritty of watchmaking. Starting off with a popular and prolific base movement then adding functionality summarises the “work smarter, not harder” attitude which results in high-end complications for affordable prices.

While the essence of the Masterpiece collection continued, the style was allowed to evolve throughout the 2000s. No longer was it confined to an outdated sense of opulence which didn’t reflect its true price point, but the new, contemporary designs actually elevated its perceived value. For example, the 2007 edition of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Le Chronographe in stainless steel looks like a watch that could be released today when compared to the original Les Mécaniques models that were brought out just 17 years earlier. The vertically brushed dial is blackened sterling silver, and the needle-sharp hour and minute hands give a pointed contrast to the blocky arrays used in the jumbo chronograph registers.

Although the Masterpiece collection had seen some Squelette (skeleton) watches before, the 2010s bursted with them. Not only them, but the deconstructed dials of the Roue Carrée (square wheel) were debatably even more mesmerising displays than a tourbillon. Simply put, it uses a square-shaped cog connected to a clover-shaped cog in place of a running seconds hand. Retrograde dates saw a big spike in popularity too, and the public appreciation for Maurice Lacroix tended to be growing along with its rate of manufacturing. Watches like the Masterpiece Mysterious Seconds in 2013 reached a point of sci-fi futurism, proving that the Masterpiece’s days of traditionalist values were solidly behind it, and 2014’s Masterpiece Gravity set a new precedent for Maurice Lacroix’s luxury expectation.

The open view of the calibre ML230 on the Gravity wasn’t just about having a pretty view, it was intended to show off its early adoption of silicon escapement components. Most of the regulator, the pallet and the escapement wheel was made in silicon for its low-friction and resistance to both heat and magnetism. The use of the “in-house” label is still open for lively debate however, as Maurice Lacroix had manufacturing help from Sigatec for the silicon parts and Atokalpa for the standard parts.

Coming into the modern Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece catalogue, and there are only six non-limited references across three collections available at the time of writing. New editions are always evolving, but the attention to detail now seems to be at an all-time high. The Square Wheel remains in a 43mm case with its asymmetric and hypnotising display, and each dial experimenting with textures such as clous de Paris or côtes de Genève. The Embrace is a 40mm, more romantic take on the Square Wheel concept, with love hearts instead of the square and clover, and a French phrase which translates to “I love you a little bit madly” on the mother-of-pearl or aventurine dials. There’s also the Triple Retrograde, distilling the date, day, and a second time zone into retrograde displays. The Triple Retrograde is also a great example of how the brand has adapted to the reduction of ETA movements available, as the calibre ML291 is a thoroughly modified Sellita SW200-1 with an additional module. Maurice Lacroix has even joined the world of collaborations, with the Masterpiece Skeleton Label Noir its latest limited edition.

As for what we can expect from the future of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece, I have no doubt that the brand will continue to push the boundaries of complication and value even further, while continuing to develop the fan-favourites which have been established over the last three decades. Considering the amount of two-tone watches that have been released lately, perhaps it’s time for some early Masterpiece reissues?