My second piece of dress watch from Maurice lacroix was a LC 1148. With a chronograph and a moon phase indicator what more can i ask from a dress watch?. At RM5k + , its a bargain buy if you factor in the prices of ML watches displayed in their boutiques.
Firstly, its a dress watch with a quartz movement. Many enthusiast don't buy quartz watches anymore, but let me tell you how annoyed i am waking up every morning and picking up a watch that has stopped and needs winding and resetting. Quartz watches works 365 days non stop without any resetting.
I've not seen this watch before, and i bet its not a new collection as well, but what attracts me the most is the clarity of the dial. I've always loved clean and sharp dials, and this ML fits the bill nicely without being too expensive.
The crown and pushers are also properly finished as it should be in the higher ML models. Edges are rounded and details are superb.
This watch is built of stainless steel at 40 mm diameter, and its got a gold colored surrounding bezel which is really nice without being too flashy, although it tends to scratch easily.
The glass is made of sapphire crystal and it is not coated with anti reflective materials, so its gotta bling a little bit.
This watch sits pretty comfortably on the wrist, and it is secured with a deployant buckle which wraps around nicely on my wrist. The deployant buckle had a very high quality feel to it, but the leather strap doesn't feel too premium.
At 30m's of water resistance, and poor lume in the night, this is not the watch that you'll be wearing for rugged activities. The lume is close to useless when it comes to night reading, and the leather strap becomes uncomfortable once it is wet.
So if you're shopping for a affordable dress watch that is quartz powered, look nowhere. Tag Heuer F1 comes close, but then they are sport models and doesn't go well with blazers and ties.