The new limited edition from Maurice Lacroix features the artist’s work on the dial, case and bracelet

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Wotto’s Aikon

The new limited edition from Maurice Lacroix features the artist’s work on the dial, case and bracelet

Alexandra Cheney

9 April 2025

It makes perfect sense that British-born, Orange County-living Craig Watkins, known as Wotto, was tapped by Maurice Lacroix, the Swiss watchmaker based in the Canton of Jura and headquartered in Zürich, to create a 1,000-piece limited-edition Aikon. For culture vultures, Wotto needs little introduction, having collaborated with Converse and the Star Wars franchise, Cartoon Network and Redbull. For watch enthusiasts, the Aikon, an accessible take on the elevated yet sporty timepiece with an integrated bracelet, now includes a handful of collections, including day/dates, chronographs and ceramic models. Its latest venture: the Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Wotto Limited Edition with a fully engraved bracelet and steel case.  

Just after he completed a live marker on canvas drawing at Secret Walls in Los Angeles, the British expat took a walk around the parking lot with COOL HUNTING (better light to showcase the intricacies of the watch).

It took you two years to complete this collaboration with Maurice Lacroix, but the origin story goes all the way back to 2022.

The Hungarian artist @Timeengraver emailed me or Instagrammed me and was just like “Hey, I love your art. I engrave watches. Let’s make a watch together. Okay?” And I was like, “Okay.” And then I was like, “What, hold on, what are we doing this for?” And it began this really wonderful but straightforward narrative. He said “just because it’ll be amazing. It’ll be something different.” I’m like, “yes, absolutely, let’s do this.” Like, I have a million other projects that are paying jobs, but yes, let’s stop all that and do this. It was the excitement of doing something so unique and so different. When I saw his work, I could visualize it – we designed a whole watch similar to this one (he said, pointing to his wrist), and he hand engraved the whole thing. I don’t know how we did it, and I don’t know how he had the patience, because it’s very, very small, but then it blew up the internet.

How was the process for designing for a particular brand, in this case Maurice Lacroix, different?

So we went through about six million colors, approximately, and through a lot of color gradients. It´s the gradients where the magic really happened; what we ended up with felt the most harmonious because there’s a lot of black in it. There’s also a lot of color, but because of the gradient we could be loud and subtle. There were all these fine lines, literally, because we wanted something that popped, but not to the point that you wouldn’t be able to see the detail. I work big and small, but this really was like a balancing act color-wise. Which is interesting because the brand didn’t give me constraints. In fact, they were like, “design whatever you want, and we’ll try and make your work work on a watch,” which was a really great way to start.

But there is a theme.

Yes, there is. It’s really like a life cycle of time. I haven’t really talked much about this, but there is a theme to it in that, there’s opposing sides, right? So, there’s a baby here and a coffin here, there’s like a broken heart and a full heart. One’s happy, one’s sad. I don’t remember all of them but there´s a play on opposites; fire and ice, pollution and nature, like they’re all opposing pieces. And I kind of wanted to hide that in there. A lot of what I do in my art is more straightforward. You walk up to a piece, and you look at it, you go,” yeah, I like that,” or “I don’t like that.” But with a watch, if it’s on your wrist everyday and everyday you’re looking at it you find something more that’s cool. It’s a discoverable piece, and that’s what I wanted to carry on with this. It’s got literally hundreds of little hidden icons and things that mean things to me.

Every part of the watch has an extraordinary level of detail, from the stainless steel 42mm case to the multi-link integrated bracelet to the bezel, which features six sets of “claws,” a signature of the Aikon.

It’s never ending, the details. But that’s definitely a theme in my regular work, when I do private commissions, and then somebody will call me a month later and go, “did you put my dog in this piece?” It’s a constant conversation, but I didn’t just default to my regular designs for the watch.

What did you design?

Lots of tall and skinny pieces. The difficulty was finding things and creating things to fit that space, but staying true to the idea of opposing themes and ideas because not everything fits there. There’s a lot of commentary in here too, that I don’t always get into. There’s all sorts of little things. There’s a little copyright sign with wings: that’s a commentary on where we are in the world in terms of protecting copyright and all the stuff that’s happening there. There’s a sad pill and a happy pill, which could be a commentary on so many things.

Let’s talk about the watch face. Designers always think it’s going to be easy and it always turns out to be not so easy.

The challenge of the physical shapes is a huge thing. I can work in circles and I can work in different shapes. But when you have a moving watch, and you have to consider that second hand is going to pass over the art. It all has to fit. There’s a little window that tells you the date and all these little things really help inform and push you as a designer. A lot of people see this sort of thing as constraints or hard, I see it as the complete opposite. I see it as an opportunity and a challenge. So, I get really excited when I can include one of my characters, but then I’m also forced to create new art to fit the space, to make it work. It may sound obvious, but I learned a lot about working with tiny, tiny, tiny, icons and how to capture either an emotion or a feeling. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic Wotto Limited Edition retails for $3,300.