Introducing The Moser Endeavour Perpetual Calendar, With Salmon Griffé Dial

There are several companies which are notable for their unique takes on the perpetual calendar complication – ochs und junior, for instance, produces a perpetual calendar in which the indications are also parts of the perpetual calendar mechanism itself. Moser made a name for itself with perpetual calendars the first year that the company was relaunched, in 2005, with what was then called the Perpetual 1. The model, now known as the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar, has been a mainstay of Moser’s collections ever since, thanks to its stripped-down design – it’s hard to think of any way that the perpetual calendar display could be further simplified without fatally suffering in terms of legibility. Moser has just announced the latest version of the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar, with a vertically brushed salmon dial which first appeared two years ago in the Streamliner collection, and which was available for only one year.

Moser calls the finishing a “griffé” pattern; the word in French means “scratched” although the actual finish on the dial is much more regular than the word usually implies. The displays for the perpetual calendar are as minimalist as ever – the date is shown in a large window, arched at the top and bottom, and the month is shown via a small hand on the same axis as the hour and minute hands, but below both. The dial marker that the hand points to is the current month; in the above image, the date is January 12th.

Although the display is as stripped down as it’s possible for a perpetual calendar to be, Moser doesn’t give anything up in terms of quality of the hands and dial furniture and with good reason; with such a spare display everything has to be well finished as any lapse will be immediately visible. The griffé finish has a very warm glow in the salmon version, and will change in appearance as the light changes. There is a grained finish on the seconds track of the small seconds display (and small but very neatly faceted double indexes for the six o’clock marker) and in a small but meaningful sign of attention to detail, the grained finish is present on the frame for the date window as well.

Moser has been taking a different approach to its logo in recent years, with the ornate script now being shown in a nearly invisible translucent lacquer. The choice is an especially appropriate one for an exercise in minimalism like the Endeavour Perpetual (it also suits the Streamliner models very well, with their Art Deco inspired design).

The movement is the caliber HMC 800, which in contrast to the dial is a quite traditional example of Swiss movement architecture, but with some interesting technical features. At 34.0mm x 6.3mm, caliber HMC 800 is slightly larger than the 30mm maximum for wristwatch movements stipulated by the rules for the old observatory time trials, however it also has a very long power reserve of seven days, courtesy two mainspring barrels running in series (for an excellent technical discussion of the difference between parallel and series coupled mainsprings, see this explanation from SJX). The pivots for the two mainspring barrels can be seen at roughly 10:00 and 2:00, with the relatively large pivots necessary to spread out the side-load and correspondingly large, chaton-set jewels.

The view through the caseback also offers a partial answer to how Moser was able to keep the design so clean on the dial side: the indispensable Leap Year indicator is on the top plate (back) side of the movement.

One of the most distinctive features of Moser movements is the use of double balance springs, which are made by Moser’s subsidiary, Precision Engineering AG, which was founded in 2001 by Thomas Straumann, whose grandfather Reinhard invented the balance spring alloy known as Nivarox, for which he received a patent in 1935; his work was based on the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the temperature and dimensional stability of nickel steel alloys, by the French physicist Charles-Edouard Guillaume, who was awarded the prize in 1920. The company Straumann set up to make the balance springs would eventually consolidate with Fabriques d’Assortiments Réunies (FAR) in 1984, and Nivarox FAR would become part of Swatch Group, and would for several decades, have an almost total monopoly on balance spring production in Europe. Precision Engineering AG would deliver their first balance springs in 2007.

The double balance spring on a single balance is rare; it does offer technical advantages, however. As you can see in the above image, the balance springs have outer attachment points separated by 180º which means that as the springs expand and contract, any asymmetry in their “breathing” should cancel out.

The lever and escape wheel are also both in an unusual material for a modern watch: 18 karat gold, which was in the past used for precision watches thanks to its antimagnetic properties. Although gold has higher density and therefore higher inertia than modern alternatives like silicon, this is less of an issue in the HMC 800 caliber, which runs at 18,000 vph (2.5Hz) in contrast to the 28,800 vph beat rate of most modern movements.

The mechanism and design remain as interesting as ever, and the new dial gives it a sunset-like radiance that complements the complication well.

The Moser Endeavour Perpetual Calendar With Salmon Dial, ref. 1800-0207: case, 18 karat white gold, 42mm x 13.1mm, curved sapphire crystals front and back with signed steel crown. Movement, Moser caliber HMC 800, hand wound, 34.0mm x 6.3mm, running at 18,000 vph in 32 jewels. Seven day power reserve from two series linked mainspring barrels; stop seconds, perpetual calendar with leap year display on the movement; Moser double balance spring. Price, $64,000. 

The 1916 Company is an authorized retailer for H. Moser & Cie; please contact us for current pricing and availability.