When it comes to high-end watches, there are certain images that one conjures in their mind for certain brands. For H. Moser, it’s watches that are so sublimely clean (due to their dials) they become frosty in their sterility, elevating “just” a simple three-hander to something else. Now, with MB&F, they have things that are over-the-top expressions of micro-engineering (and we love them). If there were two brands to ever collaborate, Moser and MB&F are as much of an Oscar-and-Felix combination as one could think of.
But, you see, somehow they’ve figured out how to do it, and they’ve come up with something just as delightful as that combination of peanut butter and chocolate. How’s it done? Well, in two different ways, actually, both giving the nod to the roots of where each of these brands comes from, design-wise.
For the MB&F take, you’ve got the H. Moser ? MB&F Endeavor Cylindrical Tourbillon. While this has that lovely Moser fume dial (in blue, burgundy, green, off-white, or ice blue; 15 of each dial color), it’s very much recognizable as coming from MB&F. For me, that comes in the form of the super highly-domed sapphire crystal. Why so high? Well, to give the room to the tourbillon, of course, but more importantly, to the time display. Rather than a standard set of hands, you have a secondary dial (in etched sapphire) canted up at a 45-degree angle to indicate the time. Utterly mad and over the top, and it’s lovely. And in fact, even with that crazy time display, the fume dial just tones things down to make the watch more approachable.
Now, for the MB&F x H. Moser, you’ve ostensibly started with a watch that is very much a Moser – crisp fume dial with a simple set of hands on it. But then you get the crazy flying vee over the top, and that is oh-so MB&F. While I love seeing a balance wheel at work, the practice of dial cutouts just doesn’t do it for me. Figuring out how to get it up on TOP of the dial? Yeah, that definitely floats my boat.
2020 has been a strange year, and even with that, if you had told me that Moser and MB&F were going to team up, I would have asked what you were smoking. Well, apparently those dials, it would seem, because that collaboration is here. The Moser?Endeavour Cylindrical Tourbillon (15 pieces in each of 5 dial colors) will be running $79,000 while the MB&F LM101 has 15 pieces of four dial colors (blue, green, red, or aqua) coming in at $52,000. So, yeah, those are pricey pieces, and not something any of us are likely to see on our wrists. Moser X MB&F
Tech Specs from H. Moser x MB&F
Endeavor Cylindrical Tourbillon
- Case
- Steel topped by a high domed sapphire crystal
- Diameter: 42.0 mm
- Height: 19.5 mm
- Height without crystal sapphire: 9.4 mm
- Crown at 9 o?clock, engraved with a ?M?
- See-through sapphire crystal case back
- Dial
- Main dial: Funky Blue fum?, Burgundy fum?, Cosmic Green fum?, Off-White fum? or Ice Blue fum? with sunburst pattern
- Hours and the minutes displayed on a 40? vertically tilted sapphire dial at 6 o?clock
- Leaf-shaped hour and minute hands, blued on the reference 1810-1203
- Movement
- HMC 810 three- dimensional automatic Manufacture calibre
- Diameter: 32.0 mm or 14 1/4 lignes
- Height: 5.5 mm
- Frequency: 21,600 vibrations/hour
- 29 jewels
- 184 components
- Automatic bi-directional pawl winding system
- Oscillating weight in 18-carat gold with engraved H. Moser & Cie. logo
- Power reserve: minimum 72 hours
- Cylindrical hairspring
- One-minute flying tourbillon at 12 o?clock with skeletonised bridges
- Functions: Hours and minutes
- Strap
- Hand-stitched black alligator leather
- Steel folding clasp engraved with the Moser logo
LM101
- Engine
- Three-dimensional horological movement developed in- house by MB&F
- Movement aesthetics and finishing specifications: Kari Voutilainen
- Manual winding with single mainspring barrel
- Power reserve: 45 hours
- Balance wheel: Bespoke 14mm balance wheel
- with four traditional regulating screws floating
- above the movement
- Balance spring: Straumann? double hairspring
- Balance frequency: 18,000bph/2.5Hz
- 221 components
- 23 jewels
- Chatons: gold chatons with polished countersinks
- Fine finishing: superlative 19th century-style hand
- finishing throughout; internal bevel angles highlighting hand craft; polished bevels; Geneva waves; hand-made engravings, NAC black bridges
- Functions
- Hours, minutes and power reserve indicator
- Large balance wheel suspended above the dial
- Case
- Available in 4 limited editions of 15 pieces in stainless steel 316, including a special edition with ?Aqua Blue fum?? dial made for the retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons.
- Diameter: 40.0 mm
- Height: 16.0 mm
- 35 components
- High domed crystal sapphire on top and box sapphire crystal on back, both with anti-reflective coating on both sides
- Dial: Funky Blue fum?, Cosmic Green fum?, Red fum? or ?Aqua Blue fum?? with sunburst pattern
- Strap
- Hand-stitched calfskin strap
- Steel 316L and titanium folding clasp
