H. Moser & Cie. Spreads Its 30-Second Retrograde Three Very Different Watches

On most watches the seconds hand is the dullest thing on the dial. But H. Moser & Cie. doesn't make dull watches. To make the seconds hand more interesting, they've created the 30-second retrograde indicator that runs along an arc for half a minute, jumps home, and does it again, so you get the good part of a retrograde twice as often. The mechanism comes from Agenhor, the Geneva module maker Moser's parent company MELB bought a minority stake in during 2023, and after debuting on the Pioneer, it's now making its way to the rest of the collection. All at once. These are the new Pioneer, Endeavour and Streamliner

All three are 40mm wide. The Pioneer Skeleton is 12mm thick, with a domed sapphire crystal, display back, screw-down crown and 120 meters of water resistance. The Streamliner matches it at 12.1mm thick and 120 meters of water resistance, with vertical brushing and polished bevels on the cushion case. The Endeavour is the slimmest at 11.2mm thick, with grooved flanks and curved lugs, but water resistance drops to 30 meters.

The Pioneer Skeleton, as the name would suggest, doesn't have a dial at all, instead leaving gold indices and leaf hands floating over anthracite bridges, with the golden seconds arc and cam in full view. The Streamliner keeps the familiar dial design that Moser is so well known for: midnight blue fumé sunburst, logo in transparent lacquer, lume on every hand including the retrograde, and the arc for the seconds at the very bottom. The Endeavour goes darker with a "blackor" fumé dial, faceted indices, no lume at all, and gold markings on a black arc. On all three, a small two-tone disc under the cam tells you which half of the minute you're in.

Inside all three is Moser's in-house automatic, calibre HMC 251 in the Pioneer and HMC 252 in the other two, beating at 3Hz with a three-day power reserve. Agenhor's double snail cam sits on top. The Pioneer comes with a steel bracelet and a khaki rubber strap you can swap between. The Streamliner gets its integrated steel bracelet with a triple-blade folding clasp, and the Endeavour a night blue nubuck strap on a pin buckle.

The Pioneer Skeleton Retrograde Seconds (ref. 3251-1200) is priced at €44,200, the Streamliner Retrograde Seconds (ref. 6252-1200) at €37,800, and the Endeavour Retrograde Seconds (ref. 1252-1200) at €35,300. See more on the Moser website.