Can't Get the Omega x Swatch Moonswatch? Get the Maurice Lacroix Aikon #Tide Instead and Help Save the Planet
Maurice Lacroix recently announced its partnership with Watchworks, the country’s distributor of several prestigious Swiss watch brands with retail shops nationwide. Compared with other premium Swiss timepiece brands, Maurice Lacroix is fairly young, with only about five decades of brand history that started in 1975.
The company started off as a third-party watchmaker for other brands in the early 1960s and has since built up its watchmaking expertise, crafting timepieces in its manufacture in Saignelégier, Switzerland. Over the years, it has won multiple awards, with a culture of innovation and excellence in producing sophisticated yet affordable watches.
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Why Watchworks and why the Philippines?
“The Philippines is a huge country with a population of around 113 million people,” says Stéphane Waser, managing director of Maurice Lacroix. “For some time, we have been eager to bring our collection of urban-themed watches and sell them within this dynamic, fast-growing nation. With Watchworks, we now have a local partner with the expertise to make this a reality. It has a strong track record of delivering high standards of professionalism and impressive standards of customer care within this important market. Now, the citizens of the Philippines are able to experience first-hand a taste of the Swiss Jura and its legendary watchmaking expertise.”
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In 2016, Maurice Lacroix released an iconic model from the 90s—the Calypso—and called it the Aikon. It was intended for a generation of millennials who are connected, hip and cosmopolitan with an urbanistic character. At the launch event, the brand announced the introduction of its Aikon #tide watch for this market. While the watch shares the same styling and attributes of the collection, the #tide series uses ocean-bound upcycled plastic combined with fiberglass. It is a composite material that is twice as hard as standard plastic, five times more resistant and has a carbon footprint that is six times less than PET.
#tide or Tide Ocean SA is a Swiss company with several offices in Basel, Lengnau, Ranong, and Hong Kong that was founded when Thomas Schori was originally just looking into the possibility of using ocean plastic for watchstraps. This social and innovative entrepreneur, together with the Swiss University of Applied Sciences, started research on the damages of ocean plastic and upcycled these into a premium raw material for safe and durable goods.
The #tide ocean material is an award-winning material resource that comes in the form of granules for plastic injection, yarn for textile applications, and filament for 3D printing. The result is an endless variety of durable products, from watches to furniture, automotive parts, to apparel, consumer electronics to carpets or sports floors and construction.
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Aside from Maurice Lacroix, luxury brands like Tom Ford and Hugo Boss have also partnered with #tide. For the Aikon #tide watch, it takes 17 used plastic bottles to make one watch on average, including its packaging. The watch’s bezel, case, case back, crown, end-piece and buckle are all made from this composite material.
By supporting the #tide movement, the Swiss watch brand’s long-term partnership aims to collect plastic bottles from the seas surrounding various islands in Thailand as well as Indonesia and the Philippines.
These colorful timepieces use a dial adorned with a ‘Vague du Jura’ motif, a stylish reference to the ocean. The case measures 40mm in diameter and features a flat sapphire crystal, not the cheap plastic ones, to ensure perfect readability. It also has a screwed crown and screwed caseback so it is water resistant up to 100 meters. The Aikon also features with the brand’s Easy Strap Exchange system, allowing the wearer to swap the strap for an alternative without the need for tools. With a reliable and accurate quartz movement one would expect of a Swiss watch, the Aikon #tide comes with a five-year warranty.
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“We have witnessed an increasing number of our clientele falling for the charms of Swiss watchmaking,” Louis Ong, CFO of Watchworks says. “Indeed, it is fair to say there has been a notable surge in interest as consumers discover contemporary watches online. With the arrival of Maurice Lacroix and its various collections such as the Aikon, Masterpiece Pontos, we are now in a position to satisfy local demand for the brand’s watches. The designs of the models, the impressive Swiss craftsmanship and the company’s reputation for delivering high perceived value ensure we deliver a winning package, providing a strong foundation for an enduring relationship between our two companies.”
