Responsible for some of the most visually arresting dress watches in modern horology, H. Moser Cie. was founded in 1828 by Heinrich Moser, a watchmaker whose creations once adorned Russian nobility and even the Imperial Court. Revived in 2005 by Dr. Jürgen Lange and Moser’s great-grandson Roger Nicholas Balsiger, the brand impressed with in-house movements but struggled financially. Near collapse, it was rescued in 2012 by the Meylan family through MELB Holding. Under Edouard Meylan, who became CEO in 2013, Moser rediscovered its voice, while bolstering its independence through its sister company, Precision Engineering AG, which manufactures components not only for Moser but also for other distinguished maisons.
Moser debuts a minimalist quantième perpétuel in a smoky brown hue, and two improved versions of its curious Flying Hours complication.
That legacy of quietly provocative Art Deco watches continues with the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Smoked Salmon. Measuring 42mm in white gold, it features its namesake, sculptural and ergonomic Endeavour case, while its whisky-toned fumé dial recalls the surprise hit of 2023: the Streamliner Centre Seconds Smoked Salmon.
There’s a playful French pun at work: to order smoked salmon, you’d ask for saumon fumé—and fumé just so happens to describe the signature gradient dials that have been synonymous with Moser for decades. This fumé dial has also been finished with a vertical brushing technique called griffé (French for “scratched”), which Moser has been gradually incorporating into its design language.
Many of us assume that perpetual calendars necessitate cluttered dials, but Moser dispels this myth and strips away the noise. The dial remains strikingly clean, yet it conveys all essential information: a date window at 3 o’clock, small seconds at 6, and even a power reserve indicator at 9. The months? They’re ingeniously displayed by a discreet central hand, which points to the hour markers repurposed as months of the year.
The brand’s logo appears almost invisibly, rendered in transparent lacquer, while 5N red-gold hands and indices bring warmth and contrast against the smoked salmon backdrop. Beneath, the hand-wound HMC 800 caliber delivers a generous seven-day power reserve and Moser’s signature interchangeable escapement. Practicality is also paramount: adjustments are made via the ‘M’-engraved fluted crown, and unlike traditional perpetual calendars, the mechanism is designed to avoid damage even when corrections are made at the “wrong” time of day. The H. Moser Cie. Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Smoked Salmon is priced at USD 68,000.
While the Endeavour line leans towards refined dress watch elegance, the Pioneer collection embraces sportier codes with Super-LumiNova accents, robust construction, and impressive water resistance. This year, Moser adds a twist with two novelties that reimagine how time can be read.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the Pioneer, the Pioneer Flying Hours represents a significant evolution of the wandering-hours display first seen in the Endeavour Flying Hours of 2018. Whereas the earlier model featured gradually rotating hour discs, the 2025 Pioneer Flying Hours adopts a jumping-hours format. Three windows orbit the dial, and the wearer simply reads whichever window is active, following its alignment with the central minute track. This mesmerizing display is powered by the automatic HMC 240 caliber, whose three hour discs rotate independently on separate axes around the central minutes disc.
The watch is offered in two iterations: a 100-piece limited edition in 5N red gold with a glittering aventurine dial, and a non-limited steel version with a white fumé dial. Turning the case over reveals the HMC 240’s finely hand-finished architecture, complete with a bi-directional winding system. Its oscillating weight is crafted in red gold for the gold edition, while the steel model opts for a tungsten rotor—a high-density metal that makes momentum generation and winding more efficient.
Both models maintain the Pioneer’s robust credentials, with water-resistance to 12 ATM, making them as practical as they are innovative. Pricing is set at USD 49,900 for the red gold limited edition and USD 41,200 for the steel iteration.
