Maurice Lacroix’s Masterpiece Embrace is an unconventional take to ladie’s timepieces. It uses some mechanical complications with a dial side visual representation of eye-catching moving parts. Namely, a seconds mechanism displayed by rotating gears and a retrograde date.
Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Embrace
The Case and Dial
The timepiece is aesthetically feminine, using a mother-of-pearl dial on the white version and a blue aventurine dial on another. The stainless steel case however, weighs on the larger side at 40 mm. Otherwise, the case is a typical 3 piece construction with an open-caseback.
The white mother-of-pearl dial houses a contrasting rose gold tone hands set and skeleton heart seconds gears. The dial is cut with off-center radiating lines emanating from the seconds indication.
The larger case size is in part due to the size of the movement and its modules for the seconds transmission and retrograde date.
Skeletone leaf-shaped hour and minute hands display the time while in the lower portion of the dial is an arrow-like hand, a reference to Cupid. It points to the retrograde date indication, more aesthetic than it is functional, since it is hard to read the date without doing some counting.
When in love, the heart can miss a beat and the head can be overwhelmed. This is captured with the poetic statement on the dial, ‘je t’aime un peu, beaucoup, à la folie!’.
The most eye-catching feature of the Masterpiece Embrace is the model’s small seconds display, a reinterpretation of Maurice Lacroix’s patented Square Wheel indication. Every tooth has a unique profile, engaging with its adjacent counterpart. Both versions of the Masterpiece Embrace feature their own interpretation of the heart’s appearance.
The Masterpiece Embrace is presented on a coordinating calf leather strap, paired with a stainless steel folding clasp.
The Movement
Housed within the sumptuous case is a Manufacture movement, the Calibre ML258. This automatic movement features machine finishing with embellished rhodium plated bridges. It also uses a rhodium plated openworked rotor with vertical Côtes de Genève motif and a combination of sandblasted and Colimaçon decoration.
Concluding thoughts
The watch is priced at US$6,990. It’s got a nice dial, a fun complication and is rather good looking. Considering its approach, the brand might be going for a more accessible ‘Van Cleef & Arpels’ Poetic collection. At 40mm, the watch is large for most ladies’ wrists, especially for the Asian market. The retrograde date might be fun to see jump every month, but every non-31 day month will require a pin-button pusher reset to adjust the date. Understandably, it is hard to find a retrograde date complication in another brand for ladies, but we are not sure if that feature is that much of an appeal.
At this price, there are many competitors that a female consumer can consider, and it is no surprise that most would gravitate towards a Rolex Datejust or a Cartier. In fact, some models from the 2 brands are actually more affordable than the retail price of the Maurice Lacroix. But while those two brands are more ‘conventional’, other alternatives from Zenith or Jaeger-leCoultre maybe worth considering for less common options.
