Grande Date & New Way of Working.

Maurice Lacroix has created a striking composition in collaboration with Mahindra Racing, known as the ‘Aikon Master Grande Date’, which is part of the well-established AIKON collection. Maurice Lacroix has been developing watches for more than 40 years, usually trying to offer watches to the general public, which are affordable, but which have a design that is a reference design of the brand and which are perceived as being of great value. Maurice Lacroix's current flagship series, the Aikon, grew out of another company's models that was a benchmark in the 90’S, the Calypso.

With this new model, we can continue to enjoy the Aikon collection, which was introduced by Maurice Lacroix in 2018 and allowed the swiss company to become a benchmark in the field of sports watches, versatile watches for everyday use at a more friendly price. With this new version Aikon Master Grande Date, Maurice Lacroix carries out a small facelift by integrating some high-end elements, with a large double-window date and open balance wheel.

To build success it is necessary to induce large doses of work and sacrifice, it is not a short term process at least not in order to achieve something worthwhile. The same can be said with the development of a new watch model, the brilliance and aesthetic beauty with which we can appreciate the final result has taken a great deal of hard work. It took three years to develop and complete the ‘Aikon Master Grande Date’ project.

The first thing that strikes you about the new Maurice Lacroix Master Grande Date is its original display. It is equipped with the new in-house calibre ML331, as opposed to the outsourced automatic movements of other AIKON models. Things that strike me about this model at first glance are the off-centre dial at 2 o'clock and a small seconds hand underneath. The tourbillon balance wheel can be admired on the front and has small screws that allow this balance wheel to be variable, it can be adjusted with precision to improve the accuracy of the movement. Another beautiful aspect of the balance wheel is that it has a leisurely oscillation which is pleasant to behold. This is due to the relatively slow frequency of the movement at 18,000 vibrations per hour.

The original idea was to rework the same spirit that made the gravity model, the ML230 calibre, but from scratch and working freely to produce the new Master Grande Date ML331 calibre as a result. We wanted to follow the same aesthetics, incorporating the elements that make this watch attractive, such as the visible escapement on the front, and the off-centre hours and minutes indication, but redesigning the movement to make it slimmer to fit in the AIKON case and to give it a little twist they added the grand date indicator in the caliber.

The introduction of the grand date mechanism was the most creative, as it was not built in a conventional way. The star wheel that advances the date discs is toothed both on the inside and outside of its diameter. The quick-correction mechanism fits on the outside along with a small flexible finger attached to a gear train wheel that advances the star wheel. Inside is a second set of teeth that advances the single and ten-figure discs as a space and thickness saving method. This is because the large date gear train is inside the diameter of the star wheel, which allows the discs and windows to be larger and the whole mechanism to be more autonomous, as well as reducing the number of wheels required.

Unfortunately, this mechanism is hidden, but if you look at the back of the watch, you can see the clean, modern and finely finished Calibre ML331.

-How did they integrate this additional function into the 'Aikon' case, known for offering a flat sapphire crystal, without being too thick and bulky?.

"This was a challenge, for the construction team, to integrate the grand date function, and remain thinner than the gravity watch. This was possible with a clever solution. With the 'gravity', the gear train is central and to offer the off-centre display, we added a model. But with the 'master grande date Aikon' we omitted the model and directly offset the gear frame. And then we could save some thickness and easily integrate the 'grand date' animation. While the 'gravity' calibre is 9.05 millimetres thick, the 'grand date' calibre is 8.40 millimetres”".