Since its debut several years ago, the Aikon watch collection has been what I believe to be the most popular product in the Maurice Lacroix timepiece catalog. Based on the Calypso watch family from the 1990s, the Aikon was meant to be the Swiss brand’s answer to the integrated bracelet watch that would compete in the general category of sports lifestyle watches that was (and still is) quite popular. Since its debut, the Aikon has been presented in many forms and styles, including mechanical, quartz, metal, and plastic, each being relatively affordable given the competition. For 2024, Maurice Lacroix finally adds some new materials to the Aikon collection, including (finally) titanium. Today I go hands-on with two versions of the Maurice Lacroix Aikon Titanium with the trendy purple dial – including the time+date Aikon Automatic Titanium reference AI6008-TT032-430-1 and the Aikon Automatic Titanium Chronograph reference AI6038-TT032-430-1.
Let’s discuss purple first. A few years ago, it was rare to find men’s watches with a purple dial or purple as the main color element. As the watch industry started to experiment with more rich and bold colors that might not have traditionally been appealing to consumers, I did a small analysis in 2023 on aBlogtoWatch to determine what the hot colors were, what wasn’t hot, and what the emerging playful colors are going to be. Purple was ranked very high as an emerging color that would be hot for the future. Either the industry widely read my article or I was reading minds, because since then the number of men’s watches with purple dials (and sometimes entire cases) has exploded. Now, Maurice Lacroix offers two very handsome yet very purple-dialed men’s watches for your consideration. Their combination of a bold matte purple to go with the grayish color of the titanium cases works really well, in my opinion. When it comes to the suitability of purple, it really comes down to the attractiveness of the underlying wristwatch shape, as well as the particular shade (and finish) of purple used.
The other part of the story here is the titanium case. The real benefit here is the lightness in weight over steel. Maurice Lacroix also finishes the case differently and uses sandblasted (versus brushed) and polished surfaces. In titanium, the Aikon is roughly 30% lighter than in steel, and that is plainly obvious when you handle these watches. Lightweight is great, especially when it is combined with durability. I don’t know why it took Maurice Lacroix so long to introduce titanium for the Aikon collection, but I am glad that it finally did.
Otherwise, these two watches have the same case profiles and movements as the standard Aikon Automatic and Aikon Automatic Chronograph. The smaller three-hand Automatic has a 42mm wide case that is 11mm thick and water-resistant to 200 meters. It contains a base Swiss Made automatic movement (base Sellita I believe) that operates at 4Hz with 38 hours of power reserve. The Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Chronograph is a bit larger at 44mm wide and 15mm thick (also 200 meters water resistant) and contains a Valjoux 7750 architecture-based 12-hour chronograph movement (probably also Sellita) that operates at 4Hz with 42 hours of power reserve. The case is thick, for sure, but it wears comfortably on the bracelet if sized properly. Both of the watches have sapphire crystal display backs that offer a view of the movement.
Even though the titanium bracelet ends come on quick-release spring bars, I am not sure if Maurice Lacroix also includes an additional strap option with these titanium watches. Most or many of the steel versions of the Aikon come with an additional rubber strap, but there is no mention of that for these titanium models on the brand’s website. That is a shame since a matching purple strap would have been a very cool additional accessory for these Aikon Automatic Titanium models. Perhaps the brand will consider introducing a strap option in the future.
Even though these watches appear similar to the steel variants of the Aikon they are based on, a lot of R&D needs to go into making the cases properly out of titanium. Thus, there was probably a lot of trial and error in getting these done right. Purple isn’t the only dial color available for the titanium versions of the Aikon (there might be two other color options currently available) but in my opinion, purple is the most spirited and eye-catching (though certainly not the most conservative). Price wise these titanium models have a several hundred dollar premium over the steel variants. Cost for the reference AI6008-TT032-430-1 Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Titanium is $2,950 USD and the price for the reference AI6038-TT032-430-1 Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Titanium Chronograph is $4,600 USD. Learn more at the Maurice Lacroix website.
