By Jovan Krstevski
When the Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Skeleton Ref. AI6007-SS002-031-1 landed on my desk, I wasn’t exactly doing cartwheels. I’ve been around the block too many times for every new steel sports watch to make me sit up straight. But I’ll say this, after strapping it on and spending a proper week with it, the Aikon Skeleton didn’t just fade into the sea of integrated-bracelet pretenders. It held its ground. This particular reference, the AI6007-SS002-031-1, has a lot going on under the hood, both literally and figuratively. I wore it in the office, out for coffee, even while fixing a stuck drawer (not intentional, but a good accidental durability test). No babying it. No keeping my wrist off the table nonsense. Just wearing it like I would any watch I actually own, and what I got was a timepiece that’s surprisingly self-assured for something priced well below what its specs and styling might suggest.
Let’s start where most watches make or break themselves, the case. The Aikon Skeleton comes in at a very wearable 39mm wide and 11mm thick. In my book, that’s right on the money. Nothing oversized or showy here. The proportions land squarely in that zone most wrists can pull off, steering clear of anything ostentatious. The case alternates between brushed and polished surfaces that interact nicely with light, never veering into try-hard territory. Maurice Lacroix has kept those six claws on the bezel, which are… polarizing.
Personally, I think they give the watch a bit of spine. They break up the circular shape nicely and give the whole thing some muscle without venturing into macho territory. Both front and back are protected by sapphire crystals and the anti-reflective treatment is competent.
I didn’t find myself wiping off fingerprints every two minutes. The screw-down crown is nicely proportioned, easy to grip and doesn’t dig into the wrist. Add in 200 meters of water resistance and you’ve got yourself a proper sports watch that doesn’t flinch when things get wet.
Now, let’s talk dial, or rather, the mechanical architecture that sits in its place. This is a skeleton watch done with restraint, which is something I can’t say about most pieces that try this trick. Maurice Lacroix has fitted a transparent sapphire dial tinted with a subtle blue varnish. It gives the whole front of the watch this cool undercurrent of depth, without making it look like you’re wearing a snow globe on your wrist. You can see all the moving bits, the balance wheel up at 12 o’clock, the mainspring barrel hanging around 5 and thanks to the clean layout, your eyes aren’t darting all over the place.
The bridges form a sort of radial symmetry that makes it surprisingly legible for a skeleton. The rhodium-plated hands and indices are filled with Super-LumiNova and while this isn’t going to light up like a diver in pitch black, it’s more than readable at a glance in low light. I’ve worn skeleton watches that are basically useless after dark, but this one holds its own. The seconds hand floats around the periphery without interrupting the mechanical show going on below, which is another point in its favor.
Underneath all that open-worked real estate beats the calibre ML135, an in-house skeletonized take on the Sellita SW200-1. Now, I know the SW200 isn’t exactly the stuff of dreams, but let’s be fair; Maurice Lacroix has put in the work here. They’ve opened it up in the right places, decorated the bridges with perlage and colimaçon finishing and rhodium-plated everything for a bit of extra sheen. Flip the watch over and the movement’s visible through the sapphire caseback, complete with a nicely decorated rotor bearing the Maurice Lacroix logo and some Geneva stripes.
It beats at a standard 4Hz, has a 38-hour power reserve and winds via rotor or crown. Manual winding is a bit gritty, but that’s par for the course with this movement family. Honestly, it doesn’t matter; I barely needed to wind it. The automatic winding is efficient and I never had it stall out even during relatively sedentary days. While it’s not a haute horology piece, it doesn’t pretend to be one. It’s solid, visually interesting and reliable. For the money, that’s a hat trick.
Then there’s the bracelet, which I’ll admit I was skeptical about at first. Integrated bracelets can be hit or miss, but this one’s a hit. It’s a five-link steel affair that tapers nicely and sits flat against the wrist. No pinching, no hair-pulling, no clunky gaps. I’ve worn much pricier watches with bracelets that didn’t wear half this well.
The double-folding clasp operates with dual push-buttons, snaps shut with a satisfying click and hasn’t popped open unintentionally once. Maurice Lacroix also added their Easy Change system, which lets you swap the bracelet for one of their leather or rubber options without resorting to spring bar tools and expletives. That said, it’s a proprietary system, so forget about tossing it on your favorite vintage leather strap. You’re playing in their sandbox. Still, their straps are well-made and the quick-change system actually works; I tested it multiple times, no drama.
Now for the price. You’re looking at 3,450 Swiss francs, VAT included. For a Swiss made skeletonized automatic watch with this level of finish, spec and versatility, that’s honestly punching above its weight. Of course, it’s not going to compete with something from Audemars Piguet, but that’s not the point. This is for someone who wants a proper mechanical conversation starter, with real-world specs and daily-wear reliability. You won’t find these sitting in AD windows collecting dust either; they move. Maurice Lacroix has positioned this reference well and it’s available through their usual retail channels without any of that artificial scarcity theatre.
So, where does that leave me after a week with the Aikon Automatic Skeleton? Pretty impressed, to be frank. What struck me was that it wasn’t angling for stares, didn’t masquerade as the next big thing and handled the watchmaking basics with quiet competence. It’s the kind of watch that quietly earns its keep. If you’re the sort who values transparency, both literal and figurative and you want something off the beaten path that still ticks the boxes mechanically, this one deserves a spot on the shortlist.
Just don’t expect it to do all the talking. You’ll have to be the one who knows what you’ve got on your wrist.
