ReviewVintage-Inspired Minimalism: Introducing The H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Centre Seconds Smoked Salmon
The second time-only watch in H. Moser & Cie’s Streamliner series with a single-link ‘streamlined’ and integrated bracelet, enhanced by a beautiful, retro-looking brownish-pink dial against a cushion-shaped case, will only be available for a year
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Though relatively new, the Streamliner collection has become one of H. Moser & Cie’s most recognised lines, at times even without any obvious branding. The Streamliner line features all sorts of complications—a tourbillon, flyback chronograph and a perpetual calendar, to name a few—displayed on beautiful, minimalistic fumé dials, and an easily-identifiable cushion-shaped case that flows into an integrated stainless steel bracelet with individual links that embrace the wrist. This year, the maison have released the Streamliner Centre Seconds Smoked Salmon, a three-handed, time-only watch with a fumé dial that’s unlike any other pink-orange ‘salmon’ coloured dial in the market. It’s really more beige-ish/brownish/copper-ish/gold-ish than salmon-pink towards the centre, and darkens to almost black around the edges—a ‘smoky’ effect recognised today as H. Moser’s signature dial style. And it will be available only for a year. Incidentally, the Smoked Salmon is only the second three-hand watch in the already iconic Streamliner collection, the first being the 2020 Streamliner Centre Seconds Matrix Green timepiece.
Smoked Salmon: Streamlined, Sleek And Unique
With an aim to introduce a cohesive, fluid, and ‘streamlined’ integrated-bracelet watch into their portfolio, the design team at H. Moser & Cie. turned to Streamliner trains from the 1920s and 30s that were tapered at both ends to reduce resistance, thus increasing speed and efficiency. Inspired by these streamliners, the watch was designed backwards, from the steel bracelet to the lug-less, cushion-shaped case, instead of the other way around. The deliberate absence of straight lines is why the wave-shaped, single-link bracelet flows with beautiful curves—and enhanced ergonomics—from the cushion case around the wrist.
In 2020, the maison launched the Streamliner series with the Flyback Chronograph Automatic, following it with the release of a time-only watch in a rich ‘Matrix’ green fumé dial, which was nicknamed the ‘Green Dragon’. “The Centre Seconds was done to have an entry-level watch in the collection,” Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie, told The Watch Guide in an interview. Wise, indeed, considering the popularity of the ‘Green Dragon’. Today, the Streamliner series consists of watches that feature complex complications, all neatly decorated on H. Moser’s minimalistic dials against the streamlined, integrated stainless steel bracelet.
Smoked Salmon? Chocolate? Gold?
The Streamliner Centre Seconds Smoked Salmon shares the line’s minimalism. So much so, that the white brand logo of its Matrix Green predecessor has been replaced with a clean, transparent, lacquered logo that is only visible at certain angles when light reflects against it. This essentially means that the dial is the highlight of the watch. Its fumé (smoked) dial is enhanced by a griffé (scratched) effect, a finish that is reserved for Moser’s special editions. Not only does this give the watch a vintage look, but the constant play of light on the dial also changes the hue of the smoked salmon, shifting the colour ‘from chocolate through to gold’.
It’s not salmon, though, one might say. To this, Meylan says, “There is salmon and there is salmon. Our inspiration does not come from the traditional Atlantic salmon, or ‘Salmo salar’ to give it its Latin name, but from its very rare cousin, the ‘Oncorhynchus kisutch’.” A seasoned fly-fisher himself, Meylan goes on to describe the salmon as having been ‘allowed to mature in total freedom’. “Massaged each day by specialists using an oil infused with aromatic herbs picked from the slopes of the Himalayas, this species only eats crustaceans that have been pre-digested by pink flamingos. Each individual fish is smoked using a secret recipe made using Scottish whisky. This is what gives the flesh this exceptional colour, and is the inspiration behind our new dial,” he adds, somewhat humorously.
Regardless, the changing hues of the dial—lighter towards the centre and a rich, almost-black near the edges—give the watch its stunning vintage feel. The appliqué indexes are punctuated by an alternating minute track—the only clearly-visible markings on the dial. At an angle, these markers are slightly distorted, courtesy the chamfered edging on the sapphire crystal glass that protects the dial. The Streamliner’s block hour and minute hands have inserts of Globolight—a ceramic-based material infused with Super-LumiNova—which give the hands a similar, three-dimensional, streamlined effect as the case and bracelet.
The Smoked Salmon’s Domed Dial
The 40mm cushion-shaped steel case, with brushed surfaces, flows directly onto the curved and wave-patterned single links of the brushed and polished bracelet, which fits snugly around just about any wrist size. The gently-domed, chamfered sapphire crystal glass curves just as elegantly as the lug-less case and integrated bracelet. With a water resistance of up to 120m, the timepiece also offers a view of the manufacture movement HMC 200 through the exhibition caseback.
Designed, manufactured and assembled by Moser and their affiliates, the HMC 200 is equipped with an automatic bi-directional pawl-winding system, which enhances the efficiency in winding the movement, and the solid 18-karat gold rotor is decorated with double Geneva stripes, a hallmark of H. Moser.
With this fantastic movement housed within the now iconic cushion-shaped case and mounted on the integrated steel strap of the collection, the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Centre Seconds Smoked Salmon will only be produced for a year, making it much, much rarer than the ‘Oncorhynchus kisutch’ (or Coho Salmon) it is named after.
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H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner
6200-1207
