For the first time, the Masterpiece Square Wheel Retrograde brings together in a single watch two of Maurice Lacroix’s signature complications: the square wheel and the retrograde date. Visually, both these elements share the dial, producing an unusual combination of shapes, with the square wheel and the clover-leaf-shaped gear alongside the arc of the retrograde date, taking up three-quarters of the visible area.
Maurice Lacroix, which has its headquarters in Saignelégier in the Swiss Jura, introduced its innovative square wheel back in 2010. It is the result of the watchmaker’s own research into different ways of telling time, and its association with the Haute Ecole de l’Arc in Le Locle, just half an hour away. Mechanically, the two wheels – one square and the other clover-leaf-shaped – mesh together perfectly. The square wheel, driven by its clover-leaf partner, can govern either the hours (as in the very first Masterpiece Square Wheel watches) or the seconds. But behind this relatively simple description lies a world of cutting-edge technology and execution, in terms of calculating the angles of the teeth on the two gears, which are all different, and the materials used, along with the photolithography and electroforming procedures used to machine micro-components measuring just 0.5 mm thick.
Maurice Lacroix has always shown a preference for retrograde displays, or even double retrograde; they can be used for power reserve, calendar, moon phases or second time zone, all of which can be found in Masterpiece watches. The needle moves along an arc and, at the end of its journey, it jumps back to the beginning and starts over again.
In the new Masterpiece Square Wheel Retrograde, the square wheel mechanism displays the seconds using one of its spokes as a pointer. Compared with an hour wheel, a seconds wheel naturally revolves more quickly, offering a unique animation on the watch face. The highly readable retrograde date is displayed along a generously-proportioned arc between 4 and 6 o’clock.
The Masterpiece Square Wheel Retrograde comes in a 43 mm steel case with a depth rating of 100 metres, in a choice of two dial colours: silvered with blue accents, or black with red gold. The hobnail motif underneath the square wheel and the date register provides a striking contrast to the sand-brushed surface of the silvered dial. On the black version, vertical Geneva stripes bring a traditional note to a highly original and contemporary dial.
The sapphire caseback reveals another fascinating sight – the wheels and gears of the self-winding Calibre ML 258. It features a module developed and assembled in the Maurice Lacroix workshops, and beats at a frequency of 28,800 vph, offering a power reserve of 36 hours. The skeletonised rotor is decorated with Geneva striping, and the bridges are sand-brushed and snailed.
Both versions of the Masterpiece Square Wheel Retrograde come on a black alligator strap with an Easychange system. They are priced at CHF 6,900.
