The market for new watches has slowed considerably, and brands are furiously looking at ways to engage new customers mainly by releasing more accessible and more value-for-money new watches. That said, there are some who are still willing to take risks. After all, some of the ultra-rich still need to get their watch kicks, right? If money is no object to you, and you want one of the most breathtaking timepiece money can buy… well, you’ll have to look elsewhere because there is only one piece produced of the new H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton watch.
The H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton is actually a different and bolder take on the original Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire watch that we first saw hands-on at Baselworld in 2015.
The story goes that Laurent Picciotto of Chronopassion was so enamored with the original Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Skeleton watch that he acquired it quickly for a million Swiss francs. You can see the original Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Skeleton watch and more about it in our article linked to above. Thanks to its beautifully skeletonized movement and transparent sapphire case, it is a veritable stunner. And if you thought that was amazing, the new H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton will knock your socks off.
Like the model from last year, the H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton watch features a case made entirely out of sapphire. Case size is 41.5mm and thickness is around 14.3mm. The bezel, case middle, case back, and even the crown are all made out of sapphire glass. The crown is also engraved with an “M” that denotes Moser.
Inside is the same in-house skeletonized automatic caliber HMC 803. What is different, however, is the treatment and finishing of the movement. For the new H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton watch, the nickel silver bridges of the movement have been blued using a process called chemical vapor deposition. The blue is said to resemble blued steel and is a nod to traditional watchmaking.
The caliber HMC 803 beats at 3Hz and features a tourbillon with an original Straumann double hairspring that makes a single rotation every minute. Power reserve is a minimum of three days, and it also has a large 22k red gold rotor bearing the hallmark of H. Moser & Cie.
The H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton watch is certainly striking, but it is also quite functional, actually. It has a dual-time function, which can be read by the red rhodium-plated leaf-shaped hand. This second timezone hand can also be hidden under the main hour hand if the lucky owner so chooses. The main hour and minute hands are both crafted out of rose gold. And to aid in legibility, it has a sapphire flange with matching midnight blue indices that mark the main hours.
It is refreshing and quite surprising as well to see the H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton watch amidst the doom and gloom that plagues the watch industry now. But I guess there will always be a market for unique and exclusive timepieces. Like its sapphire predecessor, the H. Moser & Cie. Venturer Tourbillon Dual Time Sapphire Blue Skeleton watch is a commissioned one-off piece with the same price of 1,000,000 CHF/USD/EUR. h-moser.com
