But weren't those the "Mk II" Watchknights, which are what these FotFW Watchknights are being called too?
So if the Lake Doric ones led to these guys, shouldn't that make these Mk III Watchknights?
You could think of the Lake Doric version as a 1.2, or more likely 1.5 iteration - they use the same external chassis as the original Watchknights, but incorporated a number of internal changes for 'reliability and safety'.
Part of the Mk II rollout is also undoubtedly a deliberate rebrand on the part of Kryta's royal engineers to try to put any dark memories of the original series of watchknights in the past...