The 43mm stainless steel Maurice Lacroix Aikon Venturer was launched in early 2019 and marks yet another major milestone for the brand. Maurice Lacroix Managing Director Stéphane Waser presented the Aikon Venturer in early March 2019 at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa located in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia.
Though the sporty Aikon Venturer looks somewhat different from the Aikon collection that was first launched in 2016, it carries the same design codes, notably the six arms or “claws” on the bezel. This is a key design element inspired by the brand’s successful Calypso line from the 1990s.
While the earlier Aikon models feature a gap or groove in between each of the six “arms” or “claws” that extend from its sides to the top, the good folks at Maurice Lacroix have ingeniously created a flat top for each arm on the Aikon Venturer that serve as 10-minute interval reference markers for the unidirectional rotating bezel. This design element is inspired by diving watches. However, the sides still carry the signature groove, thereby retaining the Aikon’s main design code.
“For the very first time,” the brand highlights, “… the bezel’s six arms have been given a functional role. They extend beyond the ceramic bezel so that it can be easily grasped and rotated.”
Do watch out for the “Vagues du Jura” decoration including the brand’s “M” logo on the case back.
Only two models of the Aikon Venturer were offered at launch. For us, both are handsome masculine watches that are reasonably priced at CHF2,190.
TAG Heuer’s “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” campaign was first launched in 1991 and it was created to pay tribute to the determination of the brand and its ambassadors.
The campaign came to be because sportsmen and sportswomen require intense and full concentration in order to excel in their sport. While facing pressure is inevitable, the brand’s message is that physical sports also involves a strong mental mindset in addition to physical strength and stamina.
Our version of the “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” challenge were attempts to crush and crack open (pun intended) our limited edition TAG Heuer Monaco Gulf CAW2113 with striped on its dial inspired by the Porsche 917 livery.
Watch closely and you might be surprised and even enlightened. Perhaps the question to ask: Do you only see what your mind wants you to see because of your mental blind spot (in a sense, because you scomotise)? Or do also see what many others fail to see?
If we managed to fool you with what you saw in the video, well, do note that it was published on 1 April 2019 – April Fool’s Day, also known as “All Fools’ Day”.
Now who knows the origins of April Fool’s Day?
Well, there isn’t any universally agreed upon history of April Fool’s Day.
One theory is that it started with the Greco-Roman festival known as Hilaria celebrated on 25 March. The celebrations included commoners disguising themselves as nobility to play pranks, masquerades and joking around.
Another possibility is that April Fool’s Day was linked to the first day of Spring or the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox occurs when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, thereby leading to equal lengths of day and night. Such an event happens twice a year, on either 20 or 21 March in the Northern Hemisphere and either 22 or 23 September in the Southern Hemisphere.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox marks the first day of Spring and some speculate that April Fool’s Day is linked to this because Mother Nature fools people with changing and unpredictable weather around this time, according to history.com.
It is even said that the vernal equinox was believed to mark the beginning of the year in the Julian calendar.
There is also mention that April Fool’s Day dates way back to the 16th century. This was after the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, was introduced in 1582 to replace the Julian calendar. The switch advanced the New Year to 1 January. Those ignorant of the change and who continued to celebrate the last week of March to 1 April as the new year were in a sense, fools.
Today, April Fool’s Day is a jocular day for pranks and jokes on others. One example is the prank played by Seiko when it introduced the Presage Senbei or Japanese rice crackers dial for three models.
Interestingly, another famous prank was played by the BBC in 1957 when it reported that there was a bumper spaghetti crop harvested from trees in Ticino, an Itaian-speaking region in Southern Switzerland. This will obviously not be a successful prank today but during the 1950s, this Italian dish wasn’t well-known in the United Kingdom and few even knew what it was made from.
