BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
H. Moser & Cie is not a brand we cover very often here. Also, to be honest, I don’t find them that interesting unless they’re working with someone, making a complicated watch or making their watches out of food. With that said, they have produced good-looking watches recently, and the newest is the Pioneer Retrograde Seconds watch.
Seeing a retrograde anything on a wristwatch is cool. Is a retrograde indication a complication? I guess so, just. It’s displaying information but in a more complex way than simply having a hand go round and round on the dial. It’s also one of the more accessible complications out there, alongside the chronograph and the date window, as it can be found on watches at all price points, from the most complex Breguets to the Longines Master collection and much more.
Here it’s on the Pioneer, which is at the affordable end of H. Moser & Cie’s model range, although that doesn’t mean this thing is cheap. It’s finished well, though, with a blue rubber strap connected to a brushed and polished stainless steel case measuring 42.8mm x 14.2mm and offering 120m of water resistance.
The main feature of nearly all H. Moser & Cie watches is the dial, and that’s also the focal point here. The midnight blue fumé (smoked) dial starts off with an intense blue and gradually fades out to black around the edges where the applied markers rest. I do wish that H. Moser & Cie put their name on the dial. I know they refrain from it on some of their watches, but I don’t think this should be one of them, especially as you’ve already got the seconds indication. Oh well. The hands are given some SuperLumiNova treatment as well, except for the seconds hand, which has its own thing going on.
As I said at the start and as the name states, the seconds display on this watch is a retrograde one, meaning that it gets to the end and then pings back to the beginning again instead of going around in circles. The snail cam and feeler arm, made by Agenhor for H. Moser & Cie, are on display here so you can see exactly what happens every 30 seconds as the hand jumps back to the beginning. It’s not a necessary indication, but I appreciate that it’s there.
The retrograde second’s function comes courtesy of the self-winding HMC 250 calibre, which is made in-house by H. Moser & Cie, except for the retrograde second’s module. As one would expect, the finishing is going to be of impressive quality, and the 3Hz beat rate with a 3-day power reserve should provide plenty of practicality, which I guess is what H.Moser & Cie aims for with the Pioneer line as a whole.
Although the watch isn’t limited in the number being made, as it’s made by a rather exclusive watchmaker it will be limited by the amount they can physically produce alongside all the other things they do. That’s also reflected in the price, which is $21,900.
