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Maurice Lacroix Brightens its Aikon Grand Date 

Maurice Lacroix shakes up one of its all-black models with new, bright colors, transforming the formerly dark Aikon Master Grand Date Black into the new Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolor. The watch, formerly available only in more traditional black (or dark blue) garb, takes on a new, playful guise with the new offering.

Maurice Lacroix is offering the Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolor in four colors, each a limited edition of fifty.

The debuts retain the watch’s primary technical features, namely its large date display, visible balance wheel and the open-worked small seconds display. You might recall that Maurice Lacroix placed a specialized orange version of its Master Grand Date into the 2021 Only Watch charity auction.

But Maurice Lacroix shifts the design’s mood, adding fun to the Aikon Master Grand Date’s technical, in-house design. 

To do this, the watchmaker offers the Aikon Grand Date Technicolor as limited edition series of fifty pieces in each of four bright, metallic colors: yellow, orange, blue and green.

Furthermore, the date display itself is colorful, with the numerals presented the same bright colors as the dials.   

Maurice Lacroix says it was inspired by the success of its 1990s-era Calypso collection, a series of watches bathed in bright colors.

The new 45mm steel watches display time on an off-center dial finished in a criss-cross  ‘Clous de Paris’ pattern, just above the small seconds display. Black facetted hands are coated with a healthy dollop of SuperLuminova and a touch of red enlivens the tip of the small seconds hand. Inside is manufacture caliber ML331.

As with all its Aikon models, the new series features an integrated strap. Maurice Lacroix provides a black rubber strap and a colorful strap to match the dial.

Maurice Lacroix now packages it all its watches with the same material it uses for its eco-friendly Aikon #tide collection. This means the new series is boxed with packaging made of recycled ocean-bound waste bottles. The watchmaker says it takes thirty-four bottles to make each watch box, which means thirty-four fewer bottles polluting the sea.

As noted, Maurice Lacroix is making the Aikon Master Grand Date Technicolor available as a limited edition of fifty pieces in each of four colors. 

Price: $9,650.

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The Watches

Oris Sets Lab-Grown Diamonds into Aquis Date 

Oris sets lab-grown diamonds onto the dial and bezel of its Aquis Date to create the new, stylish Aquis Date Diamonds.

The new Oris Aquis Date Diamonds.

With a rich cherry red sunray dial, the new model is the first watch from Oris with this particular gem setting. The brilliant-cut lab-grown diamonds, indistinguishable from an Earth-mined diamond of equivalent quality, frame and add luster to the already luxurious dial.

 

Oris has utilized the Aquis Date collection in the past to highlight other unusual dial options. You might recall the watchmakers eye-catching Aquis Date Upcycle or its spiffy New York Harbor Limited Edition, each of which offered unusual dials that also signaled the brand’s ongoing attention to environmental awareness.

The 41.5mm steel watch is set with a total of 1.2 carats of diamonds. (See specifications below for more details). Inside you’ll find a Sellita-based Oris Caliber 733 automatic movement protected with an impressive 300-meter water resistance rating. Oris offers either a steel bracelet or a matching cherry red rubber strap.

Price: $5,500. 

Specifications: Oris Aquis Date Diamonds
(Reference no. 01 733 7766 4998-07 4 22 68FC / 8 22 05PEB) 

Case: 41.5mm multi-piece stainless steel, set with 48 Top Wesselton E-G, VS1, brilliant-cut, lab-grown diamonds. The crystal is sapphire, domed on both sides with anti- reflective coating inside while the caseback is stainless steel, screwed, with see-through mineral glass. Water resistant to 300 meters.

Movement: Automatic Oris 733 (Sellita-based) with hours, minutes and central sweep seconds hands, date with quick setting, stop second device, date window at 6 o’clock. Power reserve: 38 hours.

Dial: Sunray cherry red set with 44 Top Wesselton E-G, VS1, brilliant-cut, lab-grown diamonds and Super-LumiNova. Applied indexes.

Strap Multi-piece stainless steel metal bracelet with folding clasp with extension, or cherry red rubber strap with stainless steel security folding clasp. 

Price: $5,500

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The Watches

Franck Muller Adds Damascus Cases to Vanguard 

New in 2023, Franck Muller’s new Damascus Steel collection celebrates the art of metallurgy as it extends its best-selling Vanguard collection with sporty, skeletal and dressy editions, each using Damascus steel cases.

One of two models in the new Franck Muller Vanguard Damascus Steel Dial collection.

Originating in the Near East with steel likely imported from India, extra-strong Damascus steel features a wood-grain-style pattern. Artisans in Japan are perhaps the best-known Damascus artisans for their Damascus work on Katanas, the emblematic swords of the Samurai warriors.

The blackened example from the new Franck Muller Vanguard Damascus Steel Racing collection.

Franck Muller creates its own style of Damascus steel made using two types of non-magnetic stainless steel (which allows a watch movement to function). Its grain design is naturally revealed when immersed in an acid bath, and each piece offers a unique pattern.

The new Franck Muller Vanguard Damascus Steel Skeleton.

Within the barrel-shaped Vanguard collection, all models measure either 45mm or 46mm across. Within each style, Franck Muller offers a model with blackened surfaces and a lighter, natural Damascus-grain surface, each framing a Franck Muller manual or automatic movement. On all watches, even the buckle is made of Damascus steel.

The three-hand with date Vanguard Damascus Steel Dial models arrive with a grosgrain leather strap ($13,100). The Vanguard Damascus Steel Racing series exposes its movement with slanted, open-work markers and an inner seconds dial ($24,200).

The darker version of the Vanguard Damascus Steel Skeleton.

The most dramatic series here, the Vanguard Damascus Steel Skeleton ($44,200), echoes the existing, contemporary Vanguard Skeleton series, but with Damascus bridgework that matches the case around it. Inside you’ll find a Franck Muller manual-wind movement with seven-day power reserve.

 

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The Watches

Krayon’s Solar Art

Krayon’s stunning artisanal complication, the Anywhere Métiers d’Art Azur, is cased in platinum, and indicates hours and minutes via two hands in the center of a dial that appears to be suspended in the center of the watch.

The Krayon Anywhere Métiers d’Art Azur

The time display is surrounded by a sun-icon solar display that indicates the time over 24 hours. The ring-shaped display is divided into the diurnal sector (sky blue) and a nocturnal sector (midnight blue). These displays indicate the sunrise and sunset times, a read on the inner bezel.

The date and month are seen on a subsidiary dial at 6 o’clock.

The new watch echoes the Swiss independent watchmaker’s superb Krayon Anywhere Edition Only Watch 2021. The exceptional dial is created by an enamelist who has deposited, by hand, a dot of lacquer until the desired blue color obtained, producing a truly unparalleled result.

Krayon explains that as a double calendar, for which all months last 31 days, the watch requires only five annual adjustments, easily and quickly made using the crown in both directions.

Krayon has equipped the Anywhere Métiers d’Art Azur with the in-house Caliber C030, entirely assembled by Rémi Maillat, Krayon’s founder and master watchmaker.

The manual-wind 39mm by 9.5mm watch offers an impressive eighty-six hours of power reserve. A limited edition of fifteen, it offers the purchaser the opportunity to set the watch to the city or location of his or her choice for the indication of sunrise and sunset.

Price: CHF 150,000. 

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The Watches

Diver Drums  

Louis Vuitton adds two new options to its GPHG-award-winning Tambour Street Diver collection.

 

The Louis Vuitton Tambour Street Diver Burning Rock.

Louis Vuitton’s year-long celebration of its bedrock Tambour case in 2022 pays homage to the design’s many variations on the inverted-drum shape, including its much-acclaimed dive models.

With its Diver’s Watch Prize from the 2021 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in mind,  the global fashion brand and watchmaker recently added two new options to its Tambour Street Diver collection.

New within the collection are the orange-accented Tambour Street Diver Burning Rock and the Tambour Street Diver Urban Green. 

The duo borrows hues from Louis Vuitton’s own historical designs, and in one case (the orange model) recalls traditional dive watch coloring devised to ensure easy legibility under water and in darkness.

Both watches are 44mm steel-cased dive-inspired watches with ETA-based automatic calibers and luminescent white hands, numbers and indexes.

The Louis Vuitton Tambour Street Diver Urban Green.

Both offer screw-down crowns to ensure water resistance to 100 meters and each come with a Louis Vuitton-branded interchangeable rubber strap. Price: $7,805.

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