Today's timepiece is the Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse Only Watch, from Maurice Lacroix.
MAURICE LACROIX
Maurice Lacroix begins it's history in 1961 when Zurich-based Desco von Schulthess AG (founded 1889) acquired an assembly facility named Tiara in Saignelégier, a town in the Canton of Jura. From there, it produced private label watches for third parties. Desco had represented luxury watch brands such as Audemars Piguet, Heuer, Eterna and Jaeger-LeCoultre since 1946. In 1975 the first watch bearing the Maurice Lacroix name appeared and by 1980 the name had become so successful that they ceased production for third parties and focused on being able to produce timepieces completely in house.
In 2001 Maurice Lacroix S.A., once a division of Desco von Schulthess AG, became an independent company, one of only a few independent Swiss watchmakers, and has since become one of the most successful brands.
The manufacture significantly invests in maintaining state-of-the-art facilities allowing the brand to introduce new movements and keep up with rapid growth and change while staying true to it's love of design, perfection and fine materials.
The first completely in-house movement was released in 2006, the "Masterpiece Le Chronographe"
Video showing the incredible Masterpiece Seconde Mystérieuse
Continuing in the 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 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.
Masterpiece Seconde Mysterieuse Only Watch
Catalogue Description:
| Maurice Lacroix, Masterpiece Seconde Mysterieuse, Piece Unique for Only Watch 1/1 A fine and unique self-winding, ADLC coated wristwatch with mysterious seconds. Accompanied by a fitted box and Certificate. Frequency 18,000 vibrations per hour, 2.5 Hz. Power reserve 50 hours 48 Jewels. Adjustments in 5 positions after full winding and in 2 positions after 24 hours. Decoration mainplate, bridges and rotor sand-blasted and coated with black ADLC finish, Bridges featuring diamond-polished edges and engraved ML logo. | |
| C. Stainless steel, sand-blasted case, bezel and crown with ADLC finish, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, screw-in case-back with wide sapphire crystal revealing the ADLC-treated rotor engraved with inscription ONLY WATCH 2013 – PIÈCE UNIQUE 1/1”, water-resistant to 50 m (5 atm). D. Sand-blasted sides framing an openworked dial revealing glimpses of the movement, engraved off-centred, numeral-free hours and minutes dial, “Mysterious” black seconds disc, light grey and black indications, faceted black gold-toned hours and minutes hands, faceted black gold-toned seconds hand with black/grey-coated tips, standard steel buckle with ADLC coating. M.Mechanical automatic Manufacture movement, Calibre ML 215, hours and minutes indicated by off-centred hands at 2 O’clock, “Mysterious” seconds display at 6 O’clock | |
| Estimate: 15,000 EUR - 20,000 EUR |
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