Maurice Lacroix - Brand History

Not only did this upstart brand not have a history, but Maurice Lacroix himself did not exist. He was a mere marketing invention, with a name that parent company Desco von Schulthess presumably fancied was both impeccably Swiss and sufficiently distinguished to suggest a luxury brand.

Naturally enough, that meant that there was no room for warm and fuzzy tales of how the founding brothers had fallen out over the shape of the future – pocket or wrist? – or how old uncle Ernie had pioneered a ground-breaking movement. On the other hand, if Maurice Lacroix was denied a past, it also had the ability to fashion a future to its own liking, an opportunity it has seized with both hands.

Take a look at the brand’s Les Classiques line and, as the monicker suggest, the link to great watches past – not Maurice Lacroix’s, of course – is obvious. This is a collection along classic and almost austerely beautiful lines, even where it involves chronograph or moonphase. Indeed, the antique feel of the “Classiques” watches is strong enough to withstand even design twists that are distinctly contemporary.

At the same time, the Maurice Lacroix collection also includes more design-forward pieces that are built on a conservative base - whether through the shape of the case, the colour of the dial, the simplicity of the basic lineaments of the watch – that keeps them grounded. Watches like the Pontos Decentrique or the Masterpiece Lune Retrograde or the yellow-bezelled, black-faced Miros Sport are typical in being stylistically “different” while retaining a definably handsome rigour.

All this might suggest that Maurice Lacroix is trying to be all things to all men. The brand would surely argue that, rather, it wants to capture man in his entirety. True to that aim, it sponsors everything from kiteboarding attempts across the hostile Bering Strait to young entrepreneurs awards.

Its brand ambassadors are similarly diverse, ranging from activist-punk-knight Sir Bob Geldof to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales to golfer Justin Rose. The pitch, from a company that also describes itself as one of the few remaining independent Swiss watchmakers, is “authenticity.”

Maurice Lacroix formally became independent of its parent nine years ago. Since then it has begun its own production of complex watch movements and, with the Memoire 1, produced what it claimed to be “the first mechanical watch with a memory, an entirely new ‘Grande Complication’.” It has done more than that over the years since 1975. In its short life, Maurice Lacroix has proved that authenticity is about much more than age.