Pontos

The Pontos debuted in 2000 as a collection meant to occupy, within the Maurice Lacroix catalog, a space distinct from the lines more oriented toward a young, urban audience: an aesthetic that the brand itself describes as aimed at an audience passionate about art, culture and music, in contrast to the more sporty and exploratory target of the Aikon. The name itself remains deliberately ambiguous — interpretations proposed over time range from references to a "bridge" (ponte) to the Greek sea god Pontos — an ambiguity that the brand has never officially resolved, leaving it to the design to define the line's identity more than the literal meaning of the word.

The Pontos's aesthetic language is built from the start around a few recurring distinctive elements: double "eagle beak" lugs, a smooth, slightly angled bezel and a stepped crown, details that remain recognizable through the collection's twenty years of evolution even as materials and proportions change. In the early years the line focuses on white or gray dials with classic Roman numerals, an elegant-sporty register that over time progressively opens up to more markedly technical executions, including dive variants and chronographs with ceramic bezels.

2020, the twentieth-anniversary year, marks a decisive relaunch moment for the line: Maurice Lacroix presents a monopusher chronograph in a limited edition of 500 pieces at 41 mm, a new 43 mm Pontos Chronograph that introduces, for the first time in the collection's history, Arabic numerals in place of Roman ones, and new Day Date executions in both steel and bronze. In the same period the Pontos S Diver returns to the catalog, after an absence of about a decade, a 42 mm dive watch water-resistant to 300 meters; in 2022 the line is further enriched with the Pontos S Chronograph, which brings the diameter to 43 mm, introduces a ceramic bezel with a tachymeter scale and the automatic ML112 caliber with 42 hours of power reserve, available with a nylon strap or a three-link steel bracelet.