Fumé and concept dial - The Hallmarks of H. Moser & Cie.

A nice guy, Mr. Moser. He was born in Schaffhausen in 1805 in a family of watchmakers who had the responsibility of managing and maintaining the public clocks of the Swiss town. The young Heinrich, however, was capable and willing but was not given the opportunity to carry out this task, because he was considered too “immature”. So, at the age of 21 he moved to St. Petersburg, to pursue his career as a master watchmaker in Russia.

There he founded H. Moser & Cie. company in 1828 and his success was immediate: he worked for noble families and even for the Tsar and soon the name Moser became synonymous in Russia with high quality watches. Moser went on to develop from an artisanal watchmaker into a true entrepreneur, who created a full-scale production system with an international service and retailer network, from the early to mid-1800s.

The call of his native land brought him back to Schaffhausen in the mid-19th century. There, he contributed to the industrialization of the city, being involved in the building of the first Swiss dam featuring hydro-mechanical turbines to produce energy and connecting the Swiss city with the train.

His Russian adventure ended in 1918, when the company H. Moser & Cie. was expropriated following the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. The company ceased trading completely at the end of the 70s, during the quartz crisis, but was brought back to life in the early 2000s and in 2012 was acquired by the Meylan family, starting a new life and a true evolution of the brand and of the manufacture.

Edouard Meylan became CEO of H. Moser & Cie. and, together with his brother Bertrand and under the guidance of the father Georges-Henri, created a new generation of watches, leading the brand to a new era of fine watchmaking.

Today we certainly don’t want to tell you the whole story of H. Moser & Cie. Better to talk about its watches, indeed, of two in particular: Endeavour Center Seconds Concept and Endeavour Tourbillon Concept. Not before, however, having talked about the genesis of the Concept dial which immediately identifies the watches of this brand.

In 2015, just three years after the acquisition by the Meylan family, H. Moser & Cie. showcased to the world its fumé dial on the Concept model, stripping off frills, indices and logos. «When our customers buy an H. Moser, they are looking for a manufacture watch with a distinctive design created by real craftsmen. We place the emphasis on the product, not on the logo or marketing», explained Edouard Meylan.

With this very strong aesthetic choice, H. Moser & Cie. put the accent on luxury craftsmanship and the beauty of expertise, often eclipsed by the surrounding marketing campaigns, to remind that behind a logo lies the work of talented watchmakers and dial makers. And it was the revolution.

Today, the 2015 watch has evolved but the choice to return to the essential has remained the same as it was six years ago. The Concept series was so successful that H. Moser & Cie. decided to include it in its collection. The fumé dial has become the brand’s signature – it takes more than 200 steps to produce each dial – so much so that “fumé” is now automatically associated with H. Moser & Cie.

But now stop looking at the past like the elderly men do, let’s focus on the present! Now, this fumé dial enriches two new timepieces: Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept Funky Blue Fumé and Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Funky Blue Fumé. Let’s start from the first one, in its steel case version, launched in 2020. 

In this watch everything is about minimalism. The aesthetics reduced to the essentials that already featured the 2015 Concept are, if possible, even more thrust here. The attention is caught only by the exclusive finishing of the dial, with a sunburst pattern which produces a subtle play of light that gradually fades towards the edges, and by the leaf-shaped hands in a truly seductive purple color never seen before.

The fumé dial is created in accordance with the artistic dial-making tradition by one of H. Moser & Cie.’s partners and is now the signature of the manufacture. Nothing is left to chance in its making process; each dial is machined in the traditional way, colored and hand-finished to obtain the unmistakable sunburst pattern.

The 40mm Endeavour case is crafted by alternating polished and satin finishes. Thanks to the size and to the particularly short and curved lugs, it fits the wrist without being uncomfortable or large. Above all, it has the very delicate task of housing the HMC in-house self-winding caliber, beating at 21,600 vibrations/hour and with 72 hours of power reserve, with double hairspring and solid rose gold rotor.

Because the dial is beautiful, almost erotic, but the movement also deserves a very close look. Worked with the so-called “Moser stripes” or “Côtes de Moser” – an exclusive decoration belonging to the manufacture -, it has the oscillating weight engraved with the H. Moser hallmark and the escapement wheel fixed with a blue bridge. Not smoky blue, dear me!, but still a sign of the quality of this watch, where nothing is out of place. By the way, it is made in only 50 pieces. Don’t waste your time if you want to wear it on your wrist…

The Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Funky Blue Fumé in white gold, is also in a limited edition of 50 pieces. With this watch, we are truly in another dimension. If the goal of H. Moser & Cie.’s fumé dial is to strip off every frill that can distract attention from it, in this watch the goal is… missed. For a good reason, however, because the dial makes room to the flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock.

The 60 second tourbillon movement has a skeletonized flying tourbillon cage and Moser’s double hairspring escapement, which helps to reduce friction and significantly improves accuracy and isochronism, aiming to a perfect time measurement. The self-winding caliber HMC 804, as well as almost all Moser calibers, is entirely produced in-house and has three days of power reserve like that of the Endeavour Center Seconds Concept, as well as having the same finishing. Because the obsession with quality crosses all H. Moser & Cie. watches, be sure of that!

The case of the Tourbillon also measures 40mm and, like that of the Center Seconds, is 10.7mm thick. A true miracle, considering the complexity of the movement. A miracle that helps the watch to hide comfortably under the shirt cuff, without bothering. A matter of understatement, we could say…

Both watches come with a grey alligator strap with a pin buckle, in steel for the Center Seconds, in white gold for the Tourbillon. Just to give a complete information, we remind you that in addition to Center Seconds in steel there are two other references, one in white gold and one in red gold; in addition to Tourbillon in white gold, there are the steel one and the red gold one.

Now it’s very clear why the payoff of H. Moser & Cie. defines its watches as “Very Rare”, isn’t it?