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Maurice Lacroix Downsizes a Skeleton

Maurice Lacroix has worked with movement specialist Sellita to create a new skeletonized version of the watchmaker’s best-selling Aikon. And unlike most of the watchmaker’s existing skeletonized watches, this new model, the Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm, with its namesake 39mm diameter case size, is the smallest –and first unisex – open-worked watch within the full Maurice Lacroix collection.

The new Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm.

Collectors familiar with Maurice Lacroix know that it has a long history of making skeleton watches. Especially within its Masterpiece collection, this contemporary manufacture has long offered alluring open-worked dials alongside a host of interesting models with multi-hand retrograde functions.

Noting that it wanted to create an affordable skeleton watch with the brand’s existing high quality-price ratio, Maurice Lacroix aimed to work with Sellita to “apply its expertise to the creation of a new, contemporary model with smaller case dimensions.”

With this new Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm, the company adds to existing work with the movement specialist to create Automatic ML115 (base SW200). With considerable transparency, circular grained finishing and combined sun-brushed and sandblasted décor, the new watch successfully says ‘contemporary’ within an often very classic mechanical watch category.

Thus, instead of delicate filigree we see curved, matte-finished bridges that nicely expose the movement’s gearing and escapement while maintaining the torsional strength needed in a casually sporty watch.

Maurice Lacroix also fits the Aikon Automatic Skeleton 39mm with the brand’s Easy Strap Exchange system which allows the wearer to swap the bracelet for one of the leather or rubber strap options without using any tools.

Price: $3,450.

 

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Doxa Re-Issues ‘Army’ with Watches of Switzerland

Doxa teams with Watches of Switzerland to launch the Doxa Army Watches of Switzerland Edition, a black ceramic-cased version of a matte black steel Doxa military watch from the 1960s.

The new Doxa Army Watches of Switzerland Edition.

Like that now highly collectible Doxa Army watch, the re-edition is also finished in matte black, which recalls the original model’s role as a watch designed to reduce glare during active military duty.

The original model was one of the very first watches to use a coating process (oxidation) that at the time was relatively new to the watchmaking industry.

Doxa also echoes the sand-beige dial of the original model on this re-issue, framing it with a matte black diving bezel that matches the 42.5mm by 44.5mm case. Inside Doxa fits a COSC-certified automatic Sellita movement.  

Doxa is also packaging the watch with box sporting the original camouflage pattern used by the Swiss Army at the time the watch debuted. The box includes two straps: one made from black FKM rubber and one NATO strap with a camouflage pattern.

Watches of Switzerland offers the new Doxa Army Watches of Switzerland Edition in a limited edition of 100 pieces.

We expect this nicely considered homage to Doxa’s rich military-watch history to sell very quickly, especially in light of the always active Doxa collector community.

Price: $4,500

 

Specifications: Doxa Army Watches of Switzerland Edition

(Reference 785.00.031.20)

Case: 42.5mm x 44.5mm x 11.95mm matte black ceramic, titanium chamber for the movement, sapphire crystal, unidirectional matte ceramic rotating bezel, screw-down titanium crown, threaded titanium case back, water resistance to 300 meters.

Dial: Beige with orange hour and minute hands, coated with SuperLuminova, painted outside minute track, white numerals and dot at 12 o’clock coated with SuperLuminova.

Movement: Automatic Sellita SW200-1, COSC-certified.

Strap: Black FKM rubber, color-matched with the case, folding clasp, black PVD coating, featuring Doxa fish symbol and adjustable wetsuit extension. Additional NATO camouflage strap included in the box.

Price: $4,500.

 

 

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Reservoir Debuts Chronograph and Retro Hi-Fi Display

Echoing power meters typical found on hi-fi amplifiers, the dial of the new Reservoir Sonomaster Chronograph displays not only an unusual bi-retrograde seconds/date display, but also the Franco-Swiss watchmaker’s debut chronograph.

The Reservoir Sonomaster Chronograph is the watchmaker’s first chronograph and the its first time display with hour and minute hands.

Reservoir teams with Swiss custom movement maker La Joux-Perret to create the new 43mm steel watch’s movement, new automatic caliber RSV-Bi120, a manufacture bi-retrograde chronograph with column wheel.

Well-known for its dashboard-inspired jump-hour watches, Reservoir veers from that digital-hour formula on the Sonomaster Chronograph with another first for the brand: a traditional two-hand hour and minutes display.

And underneath those two hands (and a red-tipped chronograph seconds hand) you’ll find the two other displays not found on other Reservoir watches: traditional 30-minute and 12-hour chronograph counters.

Still, it’s the unusually large fan-shaped indicators that set this watch apart from other retrograde models. The wearer will check the dial on the left to eye retrograde seconds with a scale marked 0-30. The thin hand flies back every half-minute. The date display on the right is marked 0-31, with a retrograde fly-back return at the end of the month.

Thin lines

While the Sonomaster Chronograph directly references the VU meters found throughout the broadcast industry, Reservoir notes that the form, a slim needle pivoting against a scale drawn in an arc or a straight line, is also reminiscent of horizontal speedometers found in American cars of the 1950s and 1960s.

Both types of meters included a so-called ‘red line’ that warned of high levels of decibels or watts or a dangerously high RPM on a dashboard.

On the Sonomaster Chronograph, Reservoir further references broadcast instruments with a brushed finish crown inspired by amplifier control buttons. The pusher shapes are inspired by bass and treble buttons.

Reservoir treats all the watch’s hands with SuperLuminova and also opening the caseback to reveal the automatic movement with column wheel.

Price: $6,100.

 

Specifications: Reservoir Sonomaster Chronograph

(Ref. RSV04.SN/136.BL (Black & Beige)

Case: 43mm stainless steel with brushed finish, domed anti-reflective sapphire crystal. Water-resistant to 50 meters, clear case-back,

Dial: Black & beige, hands with SuperLuminova, tachymeter bezel.

Movement: Caliber RSV-Bi120 manufacture bi-retrograde chronograph movement, automatic mechanical winding and column wheel (base LJP-L1C0), 60 hours power reserve, 28,800 vph frequency.

Displays: Chronograph (central second, 30-minute counter at 12, hour counter at 6), bi-retrograde date and seconds (120°), hour, minute hands.

Bracelet: Black leather strap with white stitching, steel butterfly clasp. Price: $6,100.

 

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Under the Radar: The Angelus Chronodate

All week we’re reviewing 2022 debuts presented during Watches and Wonders 2022 that, perhaps, you didn’t read too much about in the first wave of online reporting.

 

One of the more impressive new chronographs debuted earlier this month in Geneva, the Angelus Chronodate is this watchmaker’s tribute to a chronograph it made eighty years ago in 1942.

The Angelus Chronodate Red Gold

True to the common bi-compax layout of many chronographs of that era, the retro update at 42.5mm is larger than the original Angelus Chronodate. It remains highly legible with similar big sub-dials and red-tinted chronograph hands. That very cool bi-compax layout is encircled by a peripheral date, which Angelus notes is also a direct reference to the original model.

The Angelus Chronodate Titanium.

Most effectively, Angelus has placed the watch’s counters and applied Arabic numerals on matte dials, like frosted glass, which provides a winning sporty effect and sets this series apart from so many other retro chronographs.

Angelus powers the watch with its own Caliber A-500, which is a 4 Hz chronograph with a column wheel and horizontal coupling. An historical Angelus logo graces the rotor.

And while the dial and layout are historically inspired, the Chronodate case is decidedly modern. Its modular frame protects the movement within a container made of carbon composite. Indeed, the chronograph’s push-pieces, the ring inserted between the case middle and the 12-notch bezel are also cut from this matte black material.

Angelus is making its Chronodate is available in three limited series’ of twenty-five pieces each. The red gold Chronodate features a blue PVD dial while the titanium versions are available in two color schemes, opaline white or blue PVD.

Prices: $23,100 (titanium) and $43,300 (red gold).

 

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Under the Radar: Chopard’s L.U.C XPS 1860 Officer

All week we’re reviewing 2022 debuts presented during Watches and Wonders 2022 that, perhaps, you didn’t read too much about in the first wave of online reporting.

With a trio of glorious chiming watches and a terrific flying tourbillon model highlighting Chopard’s 2022 Watches and Wonders debuts, it’s no wonder this handsome limited edition might have garnered less attention than it deserves.

Chopard’s L.U.C XPS 1860 Officer.

With a gold 40mm case, a forest green guilloché gold dial and a hinged officer-type back cover, the new L.U.C XPS 1860 Officer, which bears the Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark, is both distinctive and elegant.

Much of its distinction lies within its gold case. Inside Chopard has placed its celebrated ultra-thin (3.30mm) L.U.C 96.01-L movement, which is the first Chopard Manufacture caliber from 1997.

Built with Chopard Twin technology and a 22-karat gold micro-rotor, the movement supplies two stacked barrels that guarantee a 65-hour power reserve and confer chronometer-certified precision. All L.U.C models with a small seconds display are certified by the Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC).

As noted, the watch’s forest green dial is built on a solid gold base. In the center you’ll find a hand-guilloché honeycomb motif that also adorns the back cover. Until the 1920s, Chopard engraved all its watch movements and covers with this beehive and bees to symbolize industry.

The bees appear in random manner, which means each watch engraving is slightly different from another. Chopard reprised the bee symbol at the advent of the L.U.C collection in 1996.

L.U.C Caliber 96.01-L

 

Price: ($33,500, limited to 50 pieces)

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