iW Magazine Fall 2019 | Page 93

THE TIME ON YOUR MAURICE LACROIX AIKON MERCURY MAY APPEAR normal at first glance, but tilt your wrist and watch the hands float aimlessly. Have they forgotten their purpose? Not at all. Simply hold your wrist upright in standard time-reading position and watch as the hour and minute hands return to their positions. Maurice Lacroix has developed yet another of its eccentric dials with this new watch, following up on earlier odd-displays that include the Masterpiece Roué Carrée (with interlocking eccentric gears) and the Masterpiece Mysterious Seconds. Here, Maurice Lacroix adds its own module to a Sellita automatic movement to hide a double snail-cam mechanism beneath the dial. One snail cam is associated with the display of hours, making one complete rotation every twelve hours, while the second cam connects with the minute hand, rotating once every sixty minutes. When the wearer looks at the watch, gravity pulls two weighted levers into contact with the snail cams. As the cams rotate, the levers drive the hour and minute hands to indicate the correct time. When the wearer drops his hand, the watch hands fall away, though timekeeping continues, ready to reappear when the wrist again rises. Maurice Lacroix has thoughtfully filled the hands with white SuperLuminova and added counterweights that offer additional visual interest whenever the hands cross. The circle on the minute hand and the “M” on the hour hand briefly align to form the Maurice Lacroix logo when the hands are at rest. This unusual time display is housed in a contemporary 44mm steel case, offered with both black alligator leather strap and a five-rows metal bracelet. Price: $7,690. FALL 2019 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 93