The Swiss watch industry is, by and large, an exceptionally self-serious business. Humor, especially tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation, is a rarity in this industry, and when it does appear, lighter-hearted sentiment is nearly always brought out by enthusiasts, not by the watchmakers themselves. This rarity of humor is part of what makes H. Moser & Cie such a unique fixture in the modern luxury watch landscape. Beyond creating sumptuously refined designs and world-class in-house movements, the independent brand has never been above poking fun at itself and the industry at large in its releases. Past examples have included watch cases forged in Swiss cheese, tonneau-cased watches with smartwatch loading icons as running seconds subdials, and nearly unreadable minimal Vantablack dials with blacked-out hands. For 2022, the brand turns its humorous side loose on one of its mainstays, the colorfully minimalist Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue. For the new limited-edition H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial, the Swiss marque keeps this minimal design intact but adds a host of firmly sarcastic instructions to the wearer directly on the dial.
The 42mm 18k white gold case of the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial is smooth and traditional, maintaining the brand’s uniquely luxe minimalist design philosophy. The overall form is classically simple, with flowing polished lugs, rounded case sides, and a softly stepped bezel design that adds dramatic reflections to the design in images. The crown is flared and lightly toothed, carefully balancing ergonomics and elegance. Around back, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial sports a sapphire display caseback, and while the brand does not list a water resistance rating for this design it’s likely safe to assume this is far from a sporting watch.
H. Moser & Cie uses the dial of the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial to drive home its humorous point. The base dial design is inherited from the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue, with its polished leaf hands, miniature central months hand, curiously mismatched rounded black date window, and its eye-catching aqua blue sunburst fumé dial finish. From here, however, the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial veers off into its own unique visual territory. All of the Funky Blue’s applied indices, scales, and its ghostly 12 o’clock script logo are all removed, replaced by a slew of printed arrows, small diagrams, and text. Each of these text items breaks down the various complications of the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial, including the 12 o’clock instruction to find the leap year indicator on the movement side, as well as the “foolproof” 3 o’clock date display, the 9 o’clock power reserve indicator, and two separate explanations for the central pointer month scale at 7 o’clock and 10 o’clock. If this double explanation didn’t already establish the tone the brand is setting with this release, the vibrant hazard yellow stripe at 2 o’clock emblazoned with “Watch out for very rare 29th,” referring to Leap Day, makes the tongue-in-cheek self-referential spirit of this watch inescapable. On the other hand, despite all the explanations covering the remainder of the minimalist dial, H. Moser & Cie entrusts its wearers with figuring out the 6 o’clock running seconds subdial without outside assistance. With its typewriter-style typeface, simple graphic illustrations, and blue backdrop, this playful new dial text gives the design a blueprint-esque appearance in initial images.
Like its predecessor, the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial is powered by the brand’s in-house HMC 800 hand-wound perpetual calendar movement. Beyond the perpetual calendar complication, the HMC 800 offers an impressively advanced layout, with twin mainspring barrels, a proprietary interchangeable Moser escapement, a Straumann hairspring, and a pallet fork and escape wheel in gold. The finishing for the HMC 800 is every bit as refined as its construction, with broad Côtes de Genève across its cutout bridges along with hand-polished chamfers and a clearly legible leap year indicator wheel. The HMC 800’s twin mainspring barrels allow this movement to reach an immense 168-hour power reserve at a steady 18,000 bph beat rate. Like previous models in the series, H. Moser & Cie completes the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial with a dynamic and deeply textured strap in distressed brown kudu leather.
With a complex in-house movement and striking minimalist design backing up the brand’s rare sense of self-referential humor, the limited edition H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial is a refreshingly lighthearted riposte to a staunchly serious luxury watchmaking landscape that nonetheless packs a serious horological punch. Only 20 examples of the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial will be made, and the watch is available now through authorized dealers. MSRP for the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Tutorial stands at $65,000 as of press time. For more details, please visit the brand’s website.
