Well. Here’s something I don’t think anyone was expecting: a collab between H. Moser & Cie. and Studio Underd0g. Both brands are certainly known for having their bits of fun, whether it be a Swiss Cheese watch or a strawberries and cream chronograph. Brands all across the market have been working together or bringing in people like Seconde/Seconde/ to modify their watches and add a bit of whimsy. But the chasm that exists between Moser — a luxury brand that prides itself on being entirely Swiss-made and offers things like tourbillons and perpetual calendars — and Studio Underd0g — a microbrand that uses Chinese chronographs in its pizza watches — is vast and only spanned by the rope bridge that is their shared flair for the fanciful. Yet apparently that was enough, and so it is that Moser and Studio Underd0g have come together to introduce what the duo is calling Project Passion, with the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Passion Fruit and 03SERIES Passi0n Fruit sold as a pair and limited to 100 sets.
The Project Passion watches are very different, a chronograph and a perpetual calendar, and are executed at entirely different levels. What links them is the use of a passion fruit colorway with amber and purple and a spot of green. While it’s right up Studio Underd0g’s alley, for Moser the use of color is a bit more daring than its typical hued dials. The colors evoke a sliced-open passion fruit, with the amber and green representing the fruit and seeds and the purple representing the skin. How the watches implement the colors, however, is quite different.
The H. Moser Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Passion Fruit, you get the same beautiful Endeavour case that has made the line so successful. The 42mm steel case is sleek and sweeping with cutaway sides and a polished finish. It’s 12.8mm thick, so it should wear quite well for a watch of its width. The case is finished with a sapphire crystal and a leather strap with a deployant clasp, while water resistance is 120m — significantly higher than the 30m seen on most Endeavour Perpetual Calendars.
The dial is something Moser has never quite done. On top of a purple lacquer base sits an amber grand feu enamel dial with a hammered texture and the fumé finish you expect from the brand. Carved out of this is the big date at 3, the small seconds at 6, and the power reserve indicator at 9. The final touch is the small green-varnish hand that indicates the month. Driving the watch is a beautifully finished in-house hand-wound HMC800 movement, which delivers 168 hours days of power at 18,000 vph and has some updated color accents to tie the movement to the rest of the watch.
While I think the Moser is the more attractive of these two pieces (which it should be), the Studio Underd0g 03SERIES Passion Fruit is the more intriguing of the two. Let’s get some specs out of the way first: 38.5mm diameter, 13.6mm width, stainless steel, sapphire crystal, polishing and brushing. But what makes it intriguing? It’s actually not the dial, which continues SU’s use of a bicompax layout and sees a purple tachy ring, a grainy amber dial with a contrast finish running seconds dial, and a purple chronograph minutes dial with an amber hand accented by a green tip. Notably, the dial is devoid of markers or branding, which creates a further parallel with the Moser.
What’s really compelling here is that this is the introduction of Studio Underd0g’s third line and that it’s another chronograph, not a diver or something else. The 01SERIES featured the same layout but with traditional pushers and using a Chinese chronograph movement. The 03 appears to be moving upmarket, like the 02SERIES before it, by employing a Swiss Sellita movement, this time the SW510M. This hand-wound movement has 63 hours of power reserve at 28,800 vph, and has been put to the test in numerous other watches, making it a no-brainer.
I could never have guessed this collab might happen, but at the same time, I’ve described it to friends as both logical and unexpected. Of course, these two spunky independent brands would work together! As mentioned though, that’s only half the excitement. With the introduction of a 03SERIES, Studio Underd0g is sending a clear message that it’s moving away from the Chinese movements of the 01SERIES and will be anchoring itself at a higher price point. My guess is that when the non-limited 03s are released, they will wholly replace the 01s. The $64,900 price of this set imputes a price tag for the 03 around $1,200. While I think that’s a touch lower than it will eventually retail, I think it’s an entirely reasonable price for what people will get. The Project Passion set, with the H. Moser Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Passion Fruit and Studio Underd0g 03SERIES Passi0n Fruit is priced at $64,900 USD and limited to 100 sets. For more information, please visit the H. Moser website or the Studio Underd0g website.
