ON THE WRIST: Maurice Lacroix Aikon Venturer Blue Automatic & Fiaba Ladies Moonphase Quartz Watch

 

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Ernest Jones / Milton Keynes, 13th September 2021

Over the next few weeks I will be posting six posts* focusing on watches I tried on during my recent visit to the 'MK' Centre in Milton Keynes. I haven't been there since September 2019 and much has changed in the meantime; thankfully the John Lewis is still there, but there are quite a few empty shops along the sides of the centre unfortunately. The MK Centre is still quite well served for watch shopping though as it has Beaverbrooks, Goldsmiths, Lyons (which has Hublot and Rolex as well as TAG Heuer and Tudor) and not one but two Ernest Jones! 

Even so, I knew there probably wasn't going to be a lot of fresh TAG Heuer to try on, because there really doesn't seem to be much new coming out this year, and what has appeared seems mostly to be limited editions that are never going to make it to the shops. Undaunted I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out some other brands and so with that in mind I took the trouble to try on a Tudor Black Bay, a Bell & Ross BR05, a Breitling Endurance Pro and this Maurice Lacroix Aikon Venturer. I also tried on a couple of TAG Heuers too, but we'll get to those later.

As I said earlier Ernest Jones has two shops for some reason, each carrying a different selection of brands... the 'main' store is in the middle of the centre and carries Breitling, Tudor, Omega, Bremont, Gucci, Rado and perhaps Rolex, but no TAG Heuer. But oddly I can't remember whether the second store carried it either? I don't think it did, because I did comment on the fact in the main store and they didn't tell me to go to their other store. They did have a selection of pre-owned (mostly run of the mill) TAG Heuer in the second store's window though, including a CAR2A1Z Heuer 01 Skeleton which was 'optimistically' priced at about £3500. Good luck with that!

But this Maurice Lacroix Aikon Venturer caught my eye in the window and I thought I would give it a go. This was actually the last watch I tried on and like some of the other watches I tried on today it wasn't until I got it onto my wrist that I realised quite how much I liked it. First of all I am a sucker for a cool rubber strap and this one is really cool. I could live without the slightly tacky 'M' logo stuck on the side but I liked the fact that it had quick release buttons for the spring-bars and I really like the Hublot-esque vibe this one gives off. 

The watch is 43mm, but it feels more like a 42mm. I'm guessing the angled ends of the case and the short 'lug to lug' measurement help it there. I don't really see this as a 'cheap' alternative to a Hublot though, more like a more desirable Oris Aquis. Incidentally, Oris was nowhere to be seen today and a while back my wife was trying to find a local store she could return her Atelier skeleton dial watch to for repair (the old ETA 2824 seized rotor nonsense) and it turns out there really aren't any local stores - that doesn't seem like a good omen for them.

The dial isn't as exciting as it could be, it's quite flat... I would have preferred some kind of sunburst or a metallic finish of some kind, but it's very legible and from what I could see in the store the lume is present and correct; hard to tell how strong it is though to be completely honest. Actually, now I'm thinking about it, maybe it's not so much Hublot it reminds me of, but perhaps it's that Ulysee Nardin Diver I tried on a couple of years ago in London? Or maybe a mixture of the two... 

It seems pretty fairly priced at £1650 and comes with a free watch roll when you buy it from Ernest Jones. The watch is Swiss made and features an automatic movement (ML115) which features a 38 hour power reserve. Don't be fooled though, despite the name the movement is the same as you will find in the Aquaracer, a Sellita SW200 albeit with a Maurice Lacroix branded rotor. 

At the same time my wife also decided to try on a Maurice Lacroix timepiece (she's not as single minded as I am and already has both an Oris and an Omega in her collection) which caught her eye. The oddly named Fiaba Moonphase features a quartz movement, 36 diamonds, a cabochon crown and costs a reasonable £1090.  

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I think this one caught my wife's eye because of the ring of diamonds on the dial, something she liked on the ceramic Formula 1s that came out 7-8 years ago, but which were only available on the larger of the two sizes (she ended buying one of the smaller ones with diamond hour markers instead). She did say to me later though that she didn't like the 'M' logo at the '12' position and I must agree that it's not my cup of tea either.

Still for the money it seems a pretty decent piece, I don't really think either of us will be adding a Maurice Lacroix to our collections though. They were both nice, but not remarkable in any meaningful way. I guess once you get to a certain point with a collection you need something that really makes an impression to convince you that you 'need' to buy it, and these didn't quite do that.

I was quite impressed though, and I think if I'd come across this watch earlier in my watch collecting journey (for example, when I was considering Oris Aquis ownership) then it might have been a different story. It's times like this when I slightly regret that I opted to go exclusively TAG Heuer; sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be nice to have a more varied collection, but there we are. If, like me, you like the Ulysee Nardin Diver but find the prices a bit hard to stomach maybe this would be a good option?

*Since I wrote this post I have also visited London, so you can also expect 'On the Wrist' posts about the following watches: Dior Grand Bal, TAG Heuer Dato 45 160th Anniversary, Chopard Alpine Eagle, Chopard L'Heuers du Diamant, TAG Heuer Aquaracer 844, TAG Heuer Aquaracer Blue Tortoiseshell and the TAG Heuer Carrera Porsche Special Edition - lots to do!