Maurice Lacroix, recently acquired by Asia-focused "market services expansion group" DKSH, offered a wide array of new timepieces at this year's Baselworld. Among the additions to its Masterpiece collection is the new Masterpiece Worldtimer, a world-time watch available with two different dials with world map motifs depicting two continents.
The watch has a 42-mm-diameter stainless steel case, with both satin-finished and polished surfaces. The names of 24 world cities are printed on the outer periphery of the dial; inside this ring is a 24-hour scale with Arabic numerals, and inside that one is a 12-hour scale with Roman numerals. There are two different dial executions, one for Europe and the other for Asia, with their respective continents engraved in the dial's center. The European dial features guilloché work with a Clous de Paris motif. The outlines of the silhouetted continent are in blue, matching the blued hands and hour-markers. The Asian version has a silvered dial, with a sun-brushed, satin finish on the engraved continent along with an opaline treatment on the oceans. This model uses rose gold for its numerals and hour and minute hands and has a blued seconds hand.
Both versions of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Worldtimer have day/night indication on a subdial at 9 o'clock and the date on a subdial at 6 o'clock. The central 24-hour hand (rose gold on the European dial, black gold on the Asian) indicates the time in your home time zone on the 24-hour scale. To change the current time on the main dial, a traveler simply presses the push-button on the side of the case, which advances the 12-hour hand.
The movement in the watch is Maurice Lacroix's self-winding Caliber ML164, which has a power reserve of 40 hours and features numerous decorative touches, including circular graining and côtes de Genève on the wheels and bridges, and côtes de Genève on the gold-plated rotor. Both versions of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Worldtimer are available on black (Europe) or brown (Asia) crocodile leather straps or a polished and brushed steel link bracelet. All four executions of the watch, all priced at a rather modest $4,800, are pictured below; photos can be enlarged with a click. Detailed specs of the watch are below the photos.
Movement: Maurice Lacroix Caliber ML 164, automatic; 25 jewels; frequency = 28,800 vph (4 Hz); 40-hour power reserve; adjusted in three positions when fully wound and after 24 hours; decorated with rhodium, circular graining, côtes de Genève; gold-plated rotor with côtes de Genève decoration
Functions: Hours, minutes, central seconds; hand-type date indicator; hand-type AM/PM indicator; 24-hour world time indication via central hand
Case and strap: Stainless steel, diameter = 42 mm; domed sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating on both sides; screwed caseback with sapphire viewing window; water-resistant to 50 meters; on black or brown crocodile-skin strap, lined with black calfskin and black over-stitching, or five-row steel bracelet with brished/polished finishes; folding steel clasp with push-buttons
Dial and hands: "Map" dial with silver sun-brushed continents and opaline oceans (Asia) or silver guilloche and blue shore lines (Europe); black gold/silver (Asia) or blue/silver (Europe) 24-hour disk; rose gold (Asia) or blue (Europe) Roman numerals; rose gold hour, minute, and second hands with black gold 24-hour hand (Asia) or metallic blue hour, minute and seconds hands with rose-gold 24-hour hand (Europe)
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