Heinrich Moser founded H. Moser & Cie. in 1828; since its revival in 2005, the house has hidden complex watchmaking behind deliberately plain dials.
How it began
Moser was born in Schaffhausen into a family of watchmakers, and he learned the trade from his forefathers. He made his way to Saint Petersburg, where he became the specialist the aristocracy turned to. In 1828 he founded his company, building a factory in Switzerland that employed several hundred artisans. The house estimates that he made around 500,000 watches in his lifetime, from basic three-hand watches to grand complications.
He is also remembered for the industrialisation of Schaffhausen. He returned to the town in 1848, and between 1863 and 1866 he built the Moser Dam. It gave local factories mechanical power long before electricity was installed. He also founded the Rheinfall railway line, which ran from Schaffhausen to Winterthur.
A second start
The modern company began with a phone call in 2002. Jürgen R. Lange, the founder of Precision Engineering, wanted to revive the brand with the family behind it. He asked Roger Nicholas Balsiger, Heinrich Moser’s great-grandson and the family chronicler, to take part. In 2005 the house went to BaselWorld with its first prototype and a first collection that included a perpetual calendar. A year later, that watch won the complicated watch category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
Precision Engineering AG is now Moser’s sister company, and it makes many key components in-house, including the hairsprings. For almost 20 years it has made a double hairspring: two flat springs that shift the centre of gravity in opposite directions, so that each cancels out the other.
The watches
The Endeavour Perpetual Calendar, recognised at the Geneva prize in 2006, shows how the house thinks. Instead of a dial full of windows, a small central hand points to the 12 hour markers to show the month. The leap year indication sits on the movement side, and the date changes instantly at midnight. The calendar can be set forwards or backwards at any time without risk to the movement.
In 2015 came the first purely minimalist Concept model, its dial free of hour markers and logo. Its success led the house to add the plain fumé dial to its permanent collection. On the Funky Blue fumé dial, the colour begins light at the centre and darkens towards the edge, over more than 200 production steps. The Vantablack dials go darker still, with a coating developed for astrophysics that captures 99.965% of light. In 2019 an April Fools’ Day image of a Vantablack watch with all-but-invisible black hands drew so many requests that the house made it for real.
The Streamliner arrived in January 2020 with a flyback chronograph. It was designed from the integrated steel bracelet up, around a cushion-shaped case that recalls the automotive and locomotive designs of the 1920s. A centre seconds model followed in August 2020, and a perpetual calendar in August 2021. The Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic was the house’s first watch in ceramic.
The house today
H. Moser & Cie. describes itself as one of the few independent, family-owned and family-run watch companies. It is based in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, and it designs and produces its own mechanical movements. The house has also made watches from tantalum, precious stones, plants and even cheese.
Roger Nicholas Balsiger, Honorary Chairman of H. Moser & Cie., puts the aim simply: “We are ‘very rare’. And we want to remain distinctly different from other brands, without trying to be anything that we are not.”
Heinrich Moser’s descendants still play an active role at the company. His story is kept at the Moser Family Museum in Schloss Charlottenfels, almost 200 years after he founded the house.
At a glance
- Founded: 1828
- Founder: Heinrich Moser
- Based in: Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland
- Known for: fumé dials, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar, the double hairspring, the Streamliner
- Independent: yes; family-owned and family-run, as the house describes itself
Sources: H. Moser & Cie.’s own website (Who We Are, The Manufacture, Streamliner, Imprint, product pages, and The Chronicles: Chapters One, Two, Three and Five, Double Impact, Perpetual Calendar Explained, Let’s Get Complicated, When Fumé Says It All, Back To Vantablack®, A New Era in H. Moser & Cie. History).