Moser has been making waves lately, starting with the release of the Swiss Alp Watch last January at SIHH – and following up, more recently, with the Swiss Alp Watch S, which was intended to point out that the Swiss Alp Watch wasn’t just a throwaway gag, but also a serious statement about Moser’s identity, and about the identity (and identity crisis) of Swiss watchmaking overall. Some of the boldest designs in Moser’s lineup, interestingly enough, are also the simplest: the Concept watches (which, by the way, are not “concept” watches, these are actual production models) and which include time-only models, as well as a perpetual calendar, and dual-time watches.
We took a hands-on look at the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept late last year and were pretty impressed; the design delivers the month and date, as well as the time, with a maximum of clarity and a minimum of fuss. The new Dual Time Concept does the same thing for the GMT/dual-time complication that the Perpetual Calendar Concept did for the perpetual calendar: shows the time in another time zone in probably the most reductive way possible.
The idea here is extremely straightforward: the red hand shows the time in a second time zone, and as long as you’re at home, it hides under the primary hour hand. When you travel, you can set the red hand forwards or backwards in one hour increments. There’s no date, and the only other element on the dial is a seconds hand which, due to the absence of a seconds sub-dial (or, for that matter, anything else) appears to be floating on the dial. The basic concept isn’t a new one, of course – Patek uses it in the various Travel Time models – but Moser exploits the inherent simplicity of the idea to make the most stripped-down dual timezone watch possible. Dual-time watches can bring out the gadget lover in both watch customers and watch designers – the IWC Timezoner’s a good example of this the-more-the-merrier approach, albeit with a very fun, and quite practical take, on the GMT complication. Just as the complexity of the IWC won’t be to everyone’s taste, the severe reductionism of the Moser won’t be to everyone’s either, but there is something very appealing about how Moser is experimenting with just how far you can go with an economy of means.
The movement is Moser’s in-house, automatic caliber HMC 345, which has a 72-hour power reserve and Moser’s in-house Straumann balance spring with Breguet overcoil.
Each version of the Dual Time Concept (red gold and platinum) is limited to just 10 pieces worldwide, and prices are $ 32,000 and $ 42,000, respectively.
A Little More…
Moser is also launching a new time-only Endeavour Concept, rather friskily named Cosmic Green; the dial is “cosmic green” fumé, and I’ll be darned if it doesn’t live up to the name. With no logo, indices, “Swiss Made,” or anything else on the dial, it actually looks a tiny bit hallucinatory – like something David Bowman might have seen floating by his spacecraft window in the trippy montage at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Although the dials of both the Dual Time and Cosmic Green models sort of hog the spotlight, the movements and cases of these watches are very beautifully made – which has a lot to do with why the dials work; if the rest of the watches weren’t as strong as the dials are, the whole experience would seem pretty unbalanced. As it is, you get a combination of starkness and whimsy up front, with a graceful and original case design, and a technically credible movement backing the whole thing up. In the case of the Cosmic Green, the movement is the hand-wound caliber HMC 343, with a seven-day power reserve, shown on the movement side – Moser’s used the same strategy in the past for the Concept Perpetual Calendar, where the (essential) leap year indicator is on the movement as well.
There are several interesting features about the movements in the Cosmic Green and Dual Time models, including a gold escape wheel and gold lever – a very satisfyingly old-school way to achieve an antimagnetic escapement and a welcome remnant of a traditional approach in what is, these days, increasingly becoming a sea of silicon.
As a general approach to watchmaking, the Concept watches are appealing very much on the strength of doing a lot with a little, which is actually really hard to do well. When you work with only a few elements, everything has to be just so, or the whole thing doesn’t work (the same is true for watches with a lot of elements, as well, but it’s easier to miss minor lapses in design when there’s a lot of clutter; Dr. George Daniels once wrote disparagingly of watches with unnecessarily cluttered dials as “resembling a gas meter” and whether or not the Concepts are your cup of tea, no one can accuse them of that).
There is a starkness to such simplicity, of course, but I think overall, the whole thing works. It only works because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – if it didn’t, these concept watches would be simplistic, rather than simple. But thanks to the rightness of proportions, handling of finish, color and degree of saturation of color, and a hundred other decisions underlying the apparent simplicity, you get a very nice harmonious ensemble. Sometimes you want a symphony orchestra, sometimes you want the clarity of a string quartet.
The Endeavour Concept Cosmic Green: case; white gold, 40.8mm x 10.9mm. Dial, “cosmic green” fumé with leaf shaped hands. Movement, Moser caliber HMC 343, 34mm x 5.8mm; hand-wound with seven-day power reserve, with power reserve indication on the movement, running at 18,000 vph in 24 jewels; Straumann hairspring with Breguet overcoil; gold escape wheel and lever. $ 26,500; expected availability end November/early December.
The Endeavour Dual Time Concept Limited Edition: cases, 18k red gold or 950 platinum; 40.8mm x 11mm. Fumé or sky-blue fumé dials; red hand for second time zone. Movement, Moser caliber HMC 345, 34mm x 6.5mm, automatic; running in 29 jewels at 18,000 vph. 72-hour power reserve; power reserve indication on the movement side. Straumann hairspring with Breguet overcoil; gold escape wheel and lever. $ 42,000 and $ 32,000; expected availability end November/early December.
Find out more about Moser at h-moser.com.
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