Hands-On With The Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Gravity

During the Baselworld novelty presentation at Maurice Lacroix, we were happily surprised by the new Masterpiece collection. Apart from the ‘Square wheel’ and ‘Mystery’ line-up, perhaps the most interesting novelty was the Masterpiece Gravity. We already posted some live wristshots on our @fratellowatches Instagram account. Now, we present our hands-on review of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Gravity with better photos.

Maurice Lacroix describes the Gravity as ‘the force that is intended to attract admiring glances’. And to be honest, the Gravity was the first thing that caught our attention on the presentation tray, containing some of the novelty watches for this year’s Baselworld.

The large and domed sapphire crystal gives a great and clear view of the off-centre dial, balance wheel and small seconds at first sight.

The fact that they moved the balance wheel and escapement to the front of the watch makes it eye-catching right away. How cool is it to clearly see the ‘beating heart’ of your mechanical watch? Usually, these parts are visible behind a clear caseback or aren’t visible at all. Of course, there are other watches that make the balance wheel part of the visual experience on your wrist. The MB&F Legacy 1 is a good example. Not comparable though as it comes at a six times more expensive price tag. There are even watches that have 2 balance wheels on display like the MB&F Legacy 2 and the Arnold & Son Double Balance wheel GMT. Not even to mention the average tourbillon timepiece.

Back to the Masterpiece Gravity. Looking at the watch from a certain angle really shows you  how domed the sapphire crystal actually is and demonstrates the great ‘gravity defying’ depth of the watch.

There are actually two versions of the Masterpiece Gravity. One version comes with a stainless steel case with a combination of polished and satin finishing. This stainless steel model has reference number MP6118-SS001-110. It has a dial with printed Roman numerals and blued hands. The bridge is finished with a beautiful ‘Clous de Paris’ decoration. The other version with reference MP6118-SS001-130, also has a stainless steel case and has been finished with an anthracite PVD coating. The dial has applied indexes and rhodium plated hands. The bridge is finished with a ‘grand colimaçon’ decoration. Both versions of the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Gravity are equipped with the automatic in-house movement ML230. Maurice Lacroix has been producing their own movements for over 30 years and have created a total of 13 in-house movements to date.

In this side-by-side photo you can clearly see the differences between both models. The black PVD version has modern look with its clean minimalistic finish. The polished and brushed steel version with its brown alligator strap and highly decorated bridge and dial obviously has a more classical look.

Maurice Lacroix incorporated several silicon made parts in the movement. Silicon has been used in the watch industry for over a decade now. It is a self-lubricating, glass-like material that is three times lighter than steel. Known as a hard and light material that is not affected by environmental influences like temperature or magnetism. This is visible when you look at the pallet lever (or fork) and escapement wheel in the movement on the picture below.

We believe Maurice Lacroix has done a great job on the Gravity, which will be available in Q4 2014. Each version is limited to 250 pieces only. More information and full technical details of the Masterpiece Gravity can be found on the official Maurice Lacroix website.