FeatureH. Moser’s Chief Talks About Watches That Can Also Very Much Speak For Themselves

Could you offer your perspective on the 2024 novelties from H. Moser & Cie. being showcased at Watches and Wonders 2024?

The two main novelties we have here are the Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton and the Pioneer Centre Seconds. I think it shows the spectrum of H. Moser & Cie, with the high-end Streamliner and the entry-level Pioneer Centre Seconds. There is a new movement in these Pioneers—the HMC 201, which is an upgrade from the HMC 200. It is more skeletonised, and a more modern movement. We believe that it is important to keep standing still, yet continue to evolve as a brand explore new territories, new dials new colours, etc, as we try to keep in mind the younger generation. The industry tends to go higher and higher in price and we need to consider the younger collectors, and to think about how we need to offer interesting things at the entry level also.

On the other hand, the new Streamliner has the double-hairspring tourbillon. It’s in a very compact and elegant, yet very modern case. It took us quite some time to build the symmetry. I think it’s pretty harmonious as a watch.

"The new Streamliner has the double-hairspring tourbillon"

"It’s in a very compact and elegant, yet very modern case. It took us quite some time to build the symmetry. I think it’s pretty harmonious as a watch"

The skeletonisation allows you to see right through the watch

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The idea was to release the Streamliner Tourbillon Skeleton before Watches and Wonders. Why did you decide to delay it, and release the new Pioneer Centre Seconds first?

At the end of the day, we have to think about the audience at the beginning of Watches and Wonders. At the start of the fair, we wanted to launch a watch that was more on the haute horlogerie side and the Pioneers are more democratic, so we wanted to announce it in a bigger way before the fair itself.

"I think [these watches show] the spectrum of Moser, with the high-end Streamliner and the entry-level Pioneer Centre Seconds. There is a new movement in these Pioneers—the HMC 201"

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"The 201 is an upgrade from the HMC 200. It is more skeletonised, and a more modern movement"

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We believe that it is important to keep standing still, yet continue to evolve as a brand explore new territories, new dials new colours, etc, as we try to keep in mind the younger generation

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01

Your campaign strategy presently is to let your watches do the talking. Yet you have to talk about the watches to some extent…

I’m not talking anymore (laughs).

…Okay, but how do you strike a balance between the two?

Yeah, I think this has always been about our watches, our products being at the centre of everything that we do. I remember, a few years ago, I made a keynote speech where I spoke about how we were removing the logo from a lot of our watches, and only have it at the back, like a signature on a beautiful painting. And therefore here we wanted to explain that in a more subtle, yet humorous manner, and that’s how this campaign came about. It’s inspired a little bit by [the movie] Night at the Museum.

That video was hilarious.

Oh, you liked it.

Where do your dial colours come from? How do you decide on a ‘citrus green’ for instance?

We keep playing with it on Photoshop, playing with different combinations. The Pioneer Citrus Green is probably one of the easiest watches that we’ve come up with. With my good friend Nicholas [Hofmann], we were exploring colours and then we landed on this and we decided it was interesting. It’s cool. It actually started when there was a watch on the pipeline that we were not too excited about, and we had to replace it, so we had to come up with another idea. This is different. We wanted to try something a little extreme in terms of colour and we decided to do it and this fair is a good place for us to get feedback from people. This is a good example of that.

And what’s the feedback been like?

It’s a little polarising. Some people love it, some people hate. But then it’s also important to keep being polarising as a brand, especially as a small, independent brand.

Are people comparing it with the Oris Kermit?

I read a few of the comments, and I can understand it’s a light green, like that watch, and there are some similarities.

I actually didn’t think about it until someone mentioned during a touch-and-field session and then it kind of made sense to me.

What’s coming up from Moser this year?

There is a lot coming up. One is the Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Alpine, which is about our collaboration with [the racing team] Alpine and the Formula One Grand Prix. It’s an amazing piece, which is a little bolder in comparison with what we’ve done before. And this is the way we want to go about things with this collaboration.

"One is the Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Aline, which is about our collaboration with [the racing team] Alpine and the Formula One Grand Prix"

"It’s an amazing piece, which is a little bolder in comparison with what we’ve done before. And this is the way we want to go about things with this collaboration"

It’s been awhile since the focus has been on the streamliner collection primarily. Do you ever feel like your other collections get a little ignored in the process?

Yes the streamliner is extremely strong as a collection but as we want to push something new, we will be doing so with the Endeavour and Pioneer collection. The Heritage collection does get a little left out. We are aware of that. If we want to grow these main collections, then we have to step aside from the Heritage for a while. But when we get a good idea for the Heritage, it will be back.

"Yes the streamliner is extremely strong as a collection but as we want to push something new, we will be doing so with the Endeavour and Pioneer collection." Seen here is the new Pioneer Centre Seconds Cosmic Green

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It runs on the new three-hand movement, the HMC 201

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The movement offers a three-day power reserve

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01

When you launch the Streamliner collection in 2020, did you imagine that it would become such a phenomenon back then?

That was the dream. You basically want to create something that that becomes iconic. Now it’s too early to say that it will become an icon. It’s only four years old, and it has potential. It will take time and only time will tell, but it can get there and we will continue to protect the collection, and come out with just the right number of watches, the right complications, and not too many variations. We’ll see how this grows and we’ll see the results 30 years from now.

The Streamliner collection was launched with this chronograph edition in 2020

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The first chronograph was later replaced with this one in blue

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Eventually, the Streamliner was also interpreted in gold. This tourbillon edition comes with a dial in Vantablack

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The Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack series was expanded with this rainbow edition, featuring a bezel encrusted with coloured, baguette-cut gemstones

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01

Four years later, it is going strong and showing a lot of promise, for sure.

It’s showing promise, yes, but it’s very early. There are some amazing watches out there and this one is a little different, so we’ll have to just wait and watch. Will it survive the test of time? Will it prove to simply be a trend, or will it be here to stay? And that’s not for me to say.

Is that why you decided to bring out the ‘smoked salmon’ dial for just one year as you’ve done before with other colours?

That is sometimes because of transition, and we knew we’d be moving from the calibre 200 to the 201, and hence we decided to do that with this new colour for the Streamliner Centre Seconds.

Any thoughts on what you’re going to name the purple dial?

I’m not sure, maybe ‘purple haze’.

We asked Meylan this question prior to the launch of the new Streamliner Centre Seconds Matrix Green and Purple Haze

Last week, H. Moser unveiled the new Streamliner Centre Seconds, with the new calibre HMC 201, which is also seen in the new Pioneer Centre Seconds timepieces

The new Streamliner marks the return of the 'matrix green' dial, which was the first colour that the three-hand Streamliner was first released with

A brand-new colour for H. Moser, this is the 'purple haze', which was named not too long ago, based on Meylan's interaction with us

The new automatic three-day calibre HMC 201 is more skeletonised and refined, and serves as an upgrade among Moser's time-only calibres

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What was the feedback for the smaller 39mm Streamliner and the micro rotor movement?

It’s done phenomenally well. I mean, if we were to have accept all the reservation requests that we received, we would have an 18-year waiting period by now.

This is the Streamliner Small Seconds that the brand unveiled in November. It is a smaller-sized Streamliner, at 39mm

"It’s done phenomenally well. I mean, if we were to have accept all the reservation requests that we received, we would have an 18-year waiting period by now"

So will you retain all the sizes in the collection?

Yeah, we’re going to build on that. There will be the 40mm for the tourbillons, 39mm will stay on the small seconds. And then we have the perpetual calendar and the chronograph at 42.3mm and there could be others.

Was there a feeling of disappointment when the Only Watch auction did not take place in November last year, since you had launched the MB&F collaboration Pandamonium in such a big way back during Geneva Watch Days 2023?

Yes, we were very disappointed and we are very excited now that it’s coming back, with the auction set to take place now in May. But I think it was a healthy reset. It was important that those questions were asked and now the questions have been answered and there is more transparency. I was with Max [Büsser, of MB&F] today. We created some content that we will be showing very soon.

How has Watches and Wonders been for you, in terms of the format, in and in comparison with Geneva Watch Days?

The format is completely different. Watches and Wonders is quite intense, and Geneva Watch Days is far more relaxed. Sure there are meetings after meetings. And you’re meeting 10 times more people than we do at Geneva Watch Days. I think it’ll be good for us to be at both events. It can really work. I had my doubts earlier, but it’s fair to say that there is potential for both. So this year, we will definitely be at both events, and next year, we will be back at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025.

What is the one complication or function that you’ve always wanted to do at H. Moser but haven’t done yet?

That would be multiple complications together. We’ve done a chronograph, a minute repeater, a tourbillon, the perpetual calendar, and now it might be interesting to try combinations of these.

After the interaction, we conducted a little ‘lightning round’ with Meylan. Here’s how it went: