What makes the Masterpiece Gravity such a technological triumph, Maurice Lacroix tells us, is that it is the first watch to have its movement’s entire assortment — balance staff, pallet lever, pallet staff, escapement wheel and escapement wheel pinion — made of lightweight, self-lubricating silicon. (Other watch brands have introduced silicon escapements into their movements, but none have used silicon for all of these components.) Maurice Lacroix’s watchmakers have also built the movement — which I learned today is the company’s 13th in-house caliber — in a way that the most eye-catching components, including the huge, oscillating balance wheel and moving pallet lever, are visible on the dial side. The watch gets its name “Gravity” from the multi-level construction that makes it appear as though the off-centered hours-and-minutes subdial is floating beneath the domed sapphire crystal and above the movement.
The Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece comes in two versions — one that the brand dubs “classical,” which has a stainless steel case (43 mm in diameter), a white-lacquer subdial with Roman numerals for the hours and minutes, blued steel hands, and a clous de Paris engraved pattern on the dial side of the movement plate.
The “contemporary” version of the watch has a steel case with an anthracite PVD finish. Its hours-and-minutes dial features diamond-cut indices rather than Roman numerals, the hands are rhodium-plated rather than blued, and its plate has an engraved “Grand Colimacon” pattern. The small seconds subdial has a red hand, contrasting with the blue hand of the classical model.