H. Moser & Cie’s stated mission is to create very rare watches, and it loves to shock with its promotional activity (remember the Swiss cheese watch?!).
The company makes only around 1,500 watches per year, and is most admired for exquisite dials and cases and fine leather straps.
The brand’s first announcement of 2020 is something of a departure, therefore, because Moser is moving headlong into the crowded market for steel sports watches with integrated steel bracelets; following the likes of Chopard and A. Lange & Sohne into premium models with 5-figure price tags.
“A new line, a new case, a new integrated bracelet, a new movement, a new dial, and new hands. Everything is new, everything is different, yet everything is Moser,” the company states in an announcement for the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic, priced at CHF 39,900.
The sporty watch has taken five years to develop but, from the first sketch, it was always going to be a steel case model with an integrated bracelet.
“We started with the bracelet, comfortable, elegant and different. We then designed this model around the chronograph function, as this was what we really wanted to highlight. The Streamliner is a chronograph which displays the time rather than a watch which features a chronograph. We preferred understatement, ergonomics, and legibility, opting for a central display with no sub dial: perfectly matching our minimalist philosophy. We took the very essence of the chronograph, and raised it to the next level,” explains Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie.
Production is limited to 100 pieces.
The waterproof watch has a brand new self-winding chronograph movement, named the Calibre HMC and developed with Agenhor that drives hours, minutes and central flyback chronograph hands.
But the look created by the combination of the 42.3mm steel cushion-shaped case, integrated steel bracelet and anthracite grey fumé dial is the biggest departure for Moser.
The dial, reminiscent of a vintage stopwatch, is framed by white and red minute tracks, the outer one measuring the seconds and the inner one counting the minutes.
“This chronograph represents everything that the manufacture stands for today,” Moser says. “The result of dedication and hard work, the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic draws a line between the past and the future, with this model marking the start of a new era for H. Moser & Cie.”
