H. Moser & Cie is a company that’s infamous for producing a watch that looks very similar to an Apple Watch, as well as for their CEO boldly writing an open letter to the President of the Swiss National Bank immediately following the rate policy change in January 2015, which negatively affected virtually all Swiss watch companies.
Moser, as they are often referred to as, is also well known for their minimalist perpetual calendar wristwatches, powered by in-house manufactured movements. In fact, their perpetual calendar won the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix “Complicated Watch” prize in 2006.
The Endeavour Perpetual Calendar is one of the core timepiece collections at H. Moser & Cie and comes in 10 different variations. The version shown features a 40.8 mm x 11.1 mm polished rose gold case, with a silver-plated Argenté sunburst dial.
The dial displays hours and minutes with rose gold leaf-shaped hands and applied rose gold baton indexes for all the hours except 3, 6, and 9 — and with double instead of single batons at 12. There is a retrograde power reserve indication at 9 o’clock, a small seconds display at 6 o’clock, and a date display at 3 o’clock. Additionally, there is a small, centrally mounted arrow-shaped hand that points to one of the 12 indexes, with each representing a month.
Also worth noting, is that the date wheel jumps instantaneously to the next day right at 12 o’clock (something the company calls a “flash calendar” function), as opposed to doing so slowly, which is how it works more commonly on mechanical watches. And while the day of the week is not indicated, on the movement side there is a leap year indicator, making this a true perpetual calendar watch.
The hand-wound caliber HMC 341 mechanical movement measures 34 mm x 5.8 mm and features hacking seconds, a double pull crown mechanism, double-barrel (good for 7 days of power reserve), Moser teeth for all wheels and pinions, an interchangeable Moser escapement, an original Straumann hairspring with Breguet overcoil, a pallet fork and escapement wheel made from gold.
The movement is visible through an exhibition caseback, offering an unobstructed view of the hand-finishing the includes Geneva stripes, chamfering, and polishing on the bridges, including on the traversing balance wheel bridge. Also, perlage on the mainplate, polished screws, and no less than 4 gold screwed chatons.
Finishing off this Haute horology timepiece is a reddish-brown hand-stitched alligator strap with a rose gold folding clasp engraved with the Moser logo. (Ref. 1341-0103)
Verdict
Overall, this is a beautifully executed timepiece. From the sunburst dial to the immaculately finished movement, every detail exudes quality. And technically speaking, there is no other perpetual calendar watch that is this simple to use. Moreover, the case size is tastefully proportioned, in regards to both diameter and thickness.
