If you happen to’ve been paying any consideration to H. Moser & Cie. over the previous few years, one factor must be abundantly clear — the Swiss watchmaker likes to maintain issues easy. Whereas they might often indulge themselves with an awesome amount of dial textual content, or acquiesce to the necessity for a chronograph scale, Moser has more and more adopted a minimalist method of their watch design, with vast open expanses of dial and invisible logos taking heart stage alongside hammered enamel finishes, minute repeater strikers, and elegantly completed fingers. At present, Moser is throwing all that out, and, in partnership with Massena LAB, the model is wanting again to its historical past for what’s, in some ways, its most conventional launch in years.
The Endeavour Chronograph Compax would, from anybody else, barely qualify as newsworthy. In any case, what model hasn’t dipped again into the nicely to create a historically-minded metal sports activities watch lately? Moser hasn’t, and that’s what makes this collaboration so fascinating. Even the Heritage mannequin, the closest the model has come to the format, isn’t a lot a recreation as a reimagination, a consideration not of learn how to make an outdated watch really feel new, however a thought train in what H. Moser & Cie. may need made have been the fashionable model to search out themselves in a special period.
This new watch just isn’t that. Although not a direct replica of any explicit mannequin, the brand new Endeavour Chronograph Compax is a real reflection on Moser’s historical past, particularly of chronographs produced by the model within the Forties. Primarily, this historic inspiration will be discovered on the dial, the place, in addition to the general format, a handful of particular classic particulars have been resurrected; particularly a 1947 variant of the Moser brand with the model identify spelled out as “Hy. Moser & Cie” and a completely spelled out “Kilomètres à L’Heure” accompanying the multi-tracked tachymeter.
After all, this being a contemporary Moser, it’s not all throwback. The dial coloration right here is in Moser’s signature Funky Blue fumé with a sunburst end, and the case is squarely twenty first century each in dimension — 41mm throughout, 13.3mm thick — and in design and ending, which matches what you’d get with another metal case within the Endeavour assortment. The watch is powered by an HMC 220 computerized manufacture caliber, with the chronograph perform coming from a Dubois Dépraz module, with the bi-compax format displaying small seconds and a 45-minute chronograph.
One thrilling piece of this puzzle is that it represents the primary time Moser, in its trendy kind, has put a chronograph in a non-Streamliner case. For that matter, it’s additionally the primary non-flyback chronograph we’ve seen from them, no less than to my information. Seeing the end result right here, I can solely hope that this watch would be the first in a line of extra ‘typical’ chronographs, however within the meantime, I’m glad to see it used right here.
Being that the Endeavour Chronograph Compax is a collaboration with Massena LAB, it’s extremely restricted with solely 100 items produced. The watch is obtainable on massenalab.com and thru H. Moser & Cie’s web site and boutiques for $27,600.
