Round-UpKnow Your H. Moser & Cie: Elements That Make The Distinguished Haute Horlogerie Brand What It Is Today
Concept watches, Vantablack dials, transparent logos, fume dials—get to know everything that makes H. Moser & Cie. as unique as it is
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In the world of horology, few brands hold our attention the way H. Moser & Cie. do. Their take on haute horlogerie is a refreshing one, providing the absolute best timepieces you’d expect from a brand of their stature, while also not taking themselves too seriously—a quality we’ve seen through their marketing, advertisements, and concept watches.
The watches are sublime, their voice is their own, the humorous quality of (some of) their marketing manages to make them stand apart from the rest, and the products do the rest of the talking. Whether it’s the fumé dials, the Vantablack watches, the transparent logos, or the minimalist designs, the brand have a bunch of elements that make each timepiece so inherently Moser. Let’s dive into the intriguing elements of the brand.
H. Moser And Their Unique Dials
Fumé Dials
Although fumé or ‘smoked’ dials aren’t exclusive to Moser, the element has undoubtedly become one of the most closely linked features with a Moser watch. The dials have a gradient—usually a transition from a lighter colour in the centre, going darker towards the periphery. This effect, often mixed with a sunburst pattern, results in a mesmerising dial, to say the least. Notable fumé dials include those seen in the Endeavour Small Seconds and the Pioneer Centre Seconds watches, both exemplifying the brand’s dedication to innovation and perfection. These fumé dials usually require 200 steps to make, and the result is oh-so-worth it.
Concept dials; minimalist designs
In 2015, the brand introduced the world to its purely minimalist Concept models, with a dial bereft of indices, logos, and any other markers. The likes of the Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept and the Endeavour Tourbillon Concept gave way to a new kind of dial, often with nothing on it except the hands.
According to the brand, ‘to a dial that expresses luxury, without shouting its branding, communicates emotion without elaborate adornment, and achieves beauty through simplicity. The success of the Concept series led us to add the pure fumé dial to our permanent collection.’
It’s now a part of the brand’s aesthetic, what sets them apart, and ironically enough, logo-less watches are what they’re best known for.
Vantablack dials
For a brand with an affinity for extremely minimalistic dials, Vantablack—a material that absorbs 99.965 percent of visible light—is a godsent. H. Moser & Cie. became the first brand to use the material on dials, since 2018, and it was in 2022 when they introduced a Vantablack-dial watch that was one of the most accessibly priced, and a non-limited edition: the Endeavour Centre Seconds Vantablack.
To date, the brand offer various versions with the same material, including a Streamliner tourbillon, an Endeavour Centre Seconds in red gold, and an Endeavour Centre Seconds Tourbillon. All of them make for some incredible, minimalistic watches.
Transparent logos
In 2021, the brand introduced a ‘transparent’ logo, almost as if to say that even when they wish to put their logo on the watch, they’ll do so in the subtlest form possible.
This revelation came with the collaboration of H. Moser & Cie. with Romaric André—someone who Esquire described as ‘the watch world’s answer to Banksy’. The pair created the Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept X seconde/seconde/ model, a limited edition of 20 pieces, which showcase a pixelated eraser as the seconds hand. The transparent logo, introduced through a campaign called ‘Erase the brand’, was made from transparent lacquer, clearly seen only from certain angles of light falling on it. The transparent logos are now seen in watches across all of their collections.
“We could have more pronounced logos in special editions, while Concept dials will have no logo at all, which is what they’re about. But the regular editions of our watches will all have the transparent logo,” Eduoard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie told The Watch Guide.
H. Moser & Cie. paired up with Romaric André to create the Endeavour Centre Seconds Concept X seconde/seconde/ model, a limited edition of 20 pieces, which showcase a pixelated eraser as the seconds hand. The transparent logo, introduced through a campaign called ‘Erase the Brand’, was made from transparent lacquer, clearly seen only from certain angles of light falling on it
Globolight
The use of Globolight was really H. Moser & Cie.’s answer to: what if we just made the whole thing out of Super-LumiNova instead of filling it into something?
Though the material isn’t patented by H. Moser, they’ve been using it for quite some time. The first use of the material came with the Heritage Dual Time watches by the brand. It’s essentially a ceramic-based material that is mixed with Super-LumiNova, which then gives the brand the capability of giving the material any shape or colour they wish to. Extensively used to create the numerals in the Heritage collection, Globolight is also used to make the numerals in other collections, such as the Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Tourbillon timepieces.
H. Moser And Their Straps And Bracelets
The Streamliner bracelet
The brand launched the iconic Streamliner collection in 2020, and along came the unique integrated bracelet. The design of the entire timepiece, along with the bracelet, is a nod to the sleek locomotive designs of the 1920s and 30s. The bracelet in particular features the now-signature wave-like pattern, creating a seamless flow. This was largely done to ensure an ergonomic fit, providing comfort on the wrist. The mono-link steel bracelet, with its finely finished links, is exceptionally good at taking the form of the wrist.
Rubber and leather straps
In their rubber straps, you’ll often find a perforated pattern, that is, holes on the rubber strap. This is done in an effort to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the strap but also to ensure ventilation, as these perforated straps are often found in the brand’s sportier models, such as the Pioneer collection. The brand also often uses vivid-coloured linings on its leather straps, especially in the Heritage collection.
Tongue-In-Cheek Concept Watches
The Swiss Icons watch
Perhaps what makes H.Moser & Cie. the brand that it is is its appetite for not shying away from a bit of a meta-commentary on the watch industry. There probably isn’t an industry that isn’t as ripe for a mocking as the watch world is, and H. Moser & Cie. are fully aware of the fact. In 2018, H. Moser & Cie. set out to prove the point that there is an inherent lack of creativity in the watch industry, even stating, ‘Many brands, even historical ones, create and produce nothing but substitute substance with artificial hype to stay relevant.’
To prove this point, they launched the Swiss Icons Watch, a timepiece that featured some of the the most well-known elements from the most iconic watches in the industry, fusing various characteristics into one (deliberately) ugly watch. What you see is a bezel shape that has been adorned with Rolex’s famous GMT bezel, shoehorned into an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak octagonal shape. The hands scream Breguet; the tourbillon bridge, Girard-Perregaux; the crown guard, Panerai; the logo is inspired by IWC…the list goes on.
Swiss Mad Watch
Back in 2017, the brand went on sort of a silent protest against the fact that to be able to have the all-important ‘Swiss made’ on a timepiece, only 60 percent of the watch had to be of Swiss origin. This means that 40 percent of the watch can originate from elsewhere without losing the ‘Swiss made’ tag. To bring this to light and the fact that H. Moser’s watches feature over 95 percent of components produced in Switzerland, they removed the ‘Swiss made’ tag from their watches. The same year, they also launched the ‘Swiss Mad Watch’, a watch with a case made of real Swiss Cheese, a dial depicting the white Swiss cross, over a bright red dial, marketed as ‘the most Swiss watch ever made’. It was accompanied by an equally mad and entertaining marketing campaign.
The Swiss Alp Watch series
A year after Apple released their first Apple Watch, H. Moser & Cie. released the Swiss Alp Watch, in 2016, with a design that mirrored the shape of the Apple Watch. This watch was a direct response to the world calling analogue watches obsolete after the launch of the Apple Watch. This timepiece was also accompanied by an equally hilarious advertisement, complete with the sound of an apple being bitten into at the end.
Not only was this hilarious, it gathered a cult following, to the point where H. Moser & Cie. released various iterations of the watch, with the final one featuring Apple’s loading circle at six, but as a small seconds sub-dial.
‘For those who want to measure time, not consume it… The only thing this watch uploads? Life,’ is what the brand said about the final edition.
H. Moser’s Colours
Bereft of any branding or identifiable factors on the dial of the watch, Moser’s mission was to let their colours and their execution become the identifier of their watches. After about a decade and some change of playing around with those colours, it’s appropriate to say that the brand have succeeded at letting their colours do the talking.
Funky blue
Out of all, the most easily identifiable and famous is perhaps their ‘funky blue fumé’ dial. This dial combines the play on the blue gradient that the fumé effect brings, along with the expertly executed sunburst pattern, allowing for an eye-catching play of light on the blue dial.
Cosmic green
Another famous dial colour is ‘cosmic green’, released in 2016. Similar to the funky blue, it features a gradient fumé effect, transitioning from bright green in the centre to almost black at the periphery. This colour is often used in models like the Pioneer Centre Seconds, where the sunburst effect is also visible.
Other Moser signature colours
Other signature colours used by the brand include the burgundy fumé dial watches released in 2020 to mark the fifth anniversary of their concept watches, the blackest black in all the world with the Vantablack dials (which is a material, not a colour), the midnight blue, which is essentially another variation of blue, a ‘matrix green fumé’ seen in Streamliner watches, which is a variation of the cosmic green, among a few others. A more extensive look at Moser colours can be found here.
Moser Movements: A Visual Delight
Moser stripes
One of the distinctive features of H. Moser & Cie. movements is the ‘Moser stripes’, a unique take on the traditional Geneva stripes. Unlike the typical uniform striping seen in many high-end movements, Moser Stripes feature an alternating stripe pattern across the movement bridges. It’s a play on the well-known Geneva stripes and adds a layer of visual depth and refinement.
One of the distinctive features of H. Moser & Cie. movements is the "Moser Stripes," a unique take on the traditional Geneva stripes. Unlike the typical uniform striping seen in many high-end movements, Moser Stripes feature an alternating stripe pattern across the movement bridges. It’s a play on the well-known Geneva stripes and adds a layer of visual depth and refinement
Moser’s movements
The brand have a whole host of in-house movements, that are expertly decorated and entirely visible from the caseback of timepieces such as the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph models. For instance, this particular watch stands out with it’s rotor placed just under the dial, not visible from the caseback. In turn, the entire movement is on full display.
