Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A Blur of Cool - Maurice LaCroix Pontos Décentrique GMT & New Chronographs


The Maurice Lacroix Pontos Decentrique, a recent recipient of a Red Dot Award in product design for its very unique time display. Most inventive is the use of polished and unpolished sapphire crystal that reveal and obscure the day/night display as well as hightlight, blur & focus the date feature. Off-center dual time-zones powered by a ML 121 caliber.

Originally offered in a limited edition of 999 in titanium, you can now get the watch in stainless steel. ML Website-->Link

Close-up of day/night disks and date reveal


Pontos Movement


The Masterpiece Le Chronographe, besides creating some very interesting chrono registers, Europastar describes all the gory details;

"The Maurice Lacroix manufacture ML 106 chronograph movement has unique proportions for a wristwatch chronograph – 36.6 millimetres in diameter. In this manufacture movement, a traditional column-wheel controls the chronograph functions. The chronograph’s chain, however, has been completely reinterpreted. The most significant innovation is the use of a release lever, which guarantees optimum functioning of the chronograph wheel. On traditional chronographs, the ‘start’ and ‘zeroing’ sequences are critical, because the blocker, which stabilizes and holds the wheels in posit-ion, switches back. This in turn allows the chronograph centre wheel to run free for fractions of a second, until the zeroing lever hits the switching heart of the chronograph. It is this loss of control that can result in incorrect time or date indications if the watch meets with an impact. This new design has minimized this risk – it guarantees the correct positioning of the individual chronograph components, and hence the accuracy of the information displayed, by pressing the blocker against the wheels for longer than was previously possible. Maurice Lacroix has already registered a patent for this reinterpretation of the chronograph sequence.

The ML 106 calibre also features a stop second – when the crown is pulled out, the balance halts and the seconds hand stops and a counter hand with a time span of 60 minutes which demands a significantly higher level of watchmaking complexity than the more frequently used 30- or 45-minute counters. The ML 106 calibre also features top-quality components, like an elegant swan neck precision adjustment and two genuine gold chatons in the chronograph bridge."

Another new release in the Masterpiece line, the Maurice Lacroix Masterchrono, based upon a ETA 7750 chronograph movement and a dial in sterling silver.


Click to find more chronographs




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