H. Moser & Cie
Pre-SIHH 2019: H. Moser & Cie Pioneer Tourbillon
When the wristwatch properly became a thing just over a century ago it really was all about practicality. Flying and fighting meant that pocket watches didn’t cut it any more, and before long everybody – both soldier and civilian – was wearing a watch. And this sense of a faithful, indispensable companion is what sustains the industry now, albeit for a society with very different needs.
H. Moser & Cie’s pre-SIHH announcement, the Pioneer Tourbillon, was one that caused a double take. It is presented as an “all-terrain tourbillon” with a hard-wearing steel case that is water resistant to 120 metres. Now tourbillons divide opinion: some say it is a beautiful example of the watchmaker’s creative genius; others say it is an unnecessarily complicated addition with negligible timekeeping gain.
But H. Moser has got into quite a habit of doing things its own way. At the last SIHH they did the watch industry equivalent of running naked through the quad by making the Swiss Icons Watch, a mash-up of watch styles from some of the biggest Swiss brands. And the year before it was the Swiss Mad Watch, with a case made of real Swiss cheese in an attempt to draw attention to deficiencies in the Swiss Made label.
Movement
Automatic HMC 804 manufacture movement with a double flat hairspring and minimum three-day power reserve and 18K red gold winding rotor. One-minute flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock – complete with skeletonised bridges – is assembled and regulated independently of the movement, allowing easy servicing
Case
42.8-mm stainless steel case, water resistant to 120 meters
Strap
Black alligator leather or black rubber with steel folding clasp engraved with H. Moser logo[/td_block_text_with_title]