The Moser Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Funky Blue 6902-1201
“We need the funk.” – George Clinton
Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn’t necessarily rush to quote Parliament-Funkadelic in a watch article, but then, Moser is no ordinary watch company.
Their watchmaking can sometimes be deliberately contrary to the nearly universal tendency in fine watchmaking, to regard the whole thing as a Very Serious Business Indeed. Watchmaking, like just about every other kind of luxury, can be many things but as the great perfume expert Luca Turin once wrote, one thing that luxury almost invariably lacks is anything even slightly resembling a sense of humor. So in watchmaking, we can have many things – regard for tradition, expression of craft, or on the other side of the coin, watches and watchmakers that like to describe themselves as transgressive or even avant garde, but very few with a sense of the absurd and ironic that so often characterizes actual avant garden art and literature (one exception to that rule is Alain Silberstein, whose sometimes downright wacky designs are a breath of fresh air in the otherwise ponderously serious world of horology).
Moser is a company that has given us some fairly wacky and even subversive designs in its own right – who could forget the Swiss Alp watch, which is a mechanical take on the Apple Watch that parodies both its design, and its disposability? Or the 2019 Nature Watch, which is a working watch that literally has (had, at this point, unless you can do things with potting soil horology never dreamed of) foliage growing out of the case? This is all by way of saying that even at its most horologically serious, there is a sense with Moser that we need not take the proceedings too seriously, and that a little levity goes a long way towards making watchmaking something that at these prices, it should be, but often is not – fun. Presented, therefore, for your consideration, the Moser Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Funky Blue.
Birth Of The Streamliner
The word “Streamliner” refers of course to streamlining – that is, making something that’s designed to reduce aerodynamic drag as much as possible. Streamlining is a natural byproduct of rational design and got its start well before World War II, most visibly in the designs of machines where streamlining mattered functionally – planes, trains, and automobiles. Some of the most memorable streamlined designs were steam locomotives, which seemed to embody progress and modernity, typified by the New York Central Railroad’s Super Hudsons, which looked like they were going a hundred miles an hour standing still. Streamlining became de rigueur during the Art Deco era even for objects that weren’t designed to move under their own power at all – Streamline Moderne even became its own separate style – and everything from buildings to radios to telephones to toasters got the streamlining treatment.
Watches have a natural tendency to adopt some elements of streamline designs anyway, as such designs, with their rounded edges and smooth shapes, are pleasant to hold and pocket watches, with their water-smoothed pebble shapes, were streamlined before just about any other kind of machine.
Streamliner Time
The Moser Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Funky Blue is however, much more deliberate in its evocation of Streamliner design cues. You can start with the size – the Funky Blue is 42.3mm in diameter and 14.3mm thick but unlike a lot of watches with that sort of ursine heft, it makes very good use of the real estate it takes up. The case is neither round nor square, but is instead a kind of modified cushion case, with a rounded, brushed upper surface that flows in, dare I say, a streamlined fashion into the integrated bracelet. The case flanks are elaborately finished, with polished edges and a brushed case middle and along with the five-sided chronograph pusher buttons, the sense you get of an affinity between Streamliner, the watch, and Streamliner, the locomotive (or plane, or car, or brave little toaster) is very strong indeed.
The celebration of modernity and progress, in its old-fashioned, optimistic sense, and the feeling that machines are miraculous servants rather than suspect interlopers, comes across very strongly in the Streamliner and the effect is further emphasized by the placement of the chronograph pushers and the design of the dial and hands. The racing style dial and stopwatch-style, bullhead-chronograph configuration make you feel as if you’re sitting trackside at some 1950s iteration of Le Mans, watching a Jaguar D-Type go by. Rather than feeling clumsy and oversized, the smooth forms, sensual curves, colorful (funky!) blue dial, and syringe-type hands all make the watch feel pleasantly purposeful. That tachymeter scale doesn’t hurt either.
The Funky Blue dial, by the way, is something of a signature for Moser, as you’re almost certainly aware if you’ve spent any time looking at their watches – not the blue per se, of course, but rather, the use of gradient or fumé dials in general. Sure, it’s not necessary here, but then again, neither were the racing stripes on the flanks of Streamliner locomotives and with all the other elements, the dial seems less decorative for its own sake, and more a natural expression of the basic nature of the watch, which is to celebrate the machine-ness of machines.
A Thoroughly Modern Chronograph Caliber
It is worth more than just a mention that the Streamliner uses one of the most modern and forward-thinking chronograph calibers as well. As the name of the watch says, this is a flyback chronograph caliber and though you wouldn’t know it at first glance looking at the movement through the display back, it’s an automatic – the peripheral winding system keeps the oscillating mass from obscuring your view of all the other components. The caliber HMC 902 is a variation of the famous Agengraphe chronograph movement, designed by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht – in this case, a flyback variant; the movement exists in other variations as well and has been used in some equally forward looking watches, including the MING 2.01 Series 2 Mosaic chronograph.
Caliber HMC 902, like all Agengraphe variants, was designed in order to solve some of the problems that exist in traditional lateral clutch and vertical clutch chronographs and it’s got a ton of advanced features, including a friction-engaged lateral clutch system, anti-backlash gearing, a special safety system to keep the chronograph correctly engaged if the watch gets a shock, and instantaneous jumping minutes. The reset-to-zero system uses snail cams to bring the hands back to the zero position, instead of the heart cams and hammers found in virtually every other chronograph. None of these features are necessarily noticeable individually when you actually use the chronograph but all together, they add up to a very elevated user experience – Agengraphe chronographs are some of the most reliable, smoothest-operating chronographs on the market and I’ve never used one that wasn’t buttery smooth (to trot out a horological cliché) in operation. Both the chronograph seconds and minute hands are on the same central axis, so what you get are all the advantages of a next-gen chronograph design, with a very clean – streamlined, I daresay – design.
The watch may mix metaphors a little in its name – “funky” and “streamlined” are not two things that usually go together but boy do they make beautiful music together in this watch. It’s one of the most interesting chronographs currently in production from anyone, anywhere – nothing else quite puts the fun in funky like the Moser Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Funky Blue.