MAURICE LACROIX Aikon VENTURER GMT

2020 was international tourism’s worst ever year with a whopping one billion fewer international arrivals and an overall decline of 74% (so far) – so the Swiss watch industry knows exactly what is required in such a climate – yes, another GMT cos’ you never know you when you might decide to finally broaden your horizons with, say  an eco-trip to Wuhan, China – I’ve heard their wet markets are not to be sneezed at! It cracks me up just how many GMT / world timers have come onto the market since the Pandemic reared its ugly head; either all these watch companies have a sick sense of humor or a warped sense of optimism cos’ I’m staying right the f@#k where I am for the foreseeable. Still on the flipside of that, a GMT function is certainly one of the more useful complications to have on a diver’s watch or is it? I should know because I have one, a very lovely, JLC MC Diving GMT. In the last decade I’ve used its GMT function exactly – no times. But that’s me (I tend to be a little remedial at times) – but let’s say you’re planning a trip across time-zones, and you prefer the ruggedness of a diver’s watch, here’s a lovely new one from Maurice Lacroix, the latest member to join their Aikon Venturer diver’s watch family, a model that comes in two flavors, black or white. The black version is equipped with a red GMT hand while the white one is on theme with a bright orange pointer. Meanwhile the watch gets the same 43mm in diameter case that the the 3-hands has and is water-resistant to 30 ATM (300m). Powering the new Venturer GMT is an automatic ML 165 caliber with: hours, minutes, seconds, a dual time zone and date at 3 o’clock. MSRP in Switzerland is 2’650CHF. Thoughts? I prefer the looks of the slightly off-white variant – I just feel that it could have benefited from being an all-lume dial.

So what do you think? Are you loving all these new diving GMTs? If you liked this – then perhaps you might want to check out ML’s limited edition Venturer BRONZE - not many people know about it.