“We are moving to a state of having everything with almost no branding on it, and just keeping the essence of the product like in a piece of art. I want people to be able to recognize whatever we make as a Moser watch from the distance and it shouldn’t be because we put our name on it.” Excerpts from the interview with Edouard Meylan, CEO - H. Moser & Cie.
“Erythro” is deigned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UAE. It is an Endeavour Centre Seconds concept that comes with a ruby dial limited to 20 pieces with red stripes to reflect the UAE flag. What is the inspiration of this edition in terms of dial and strap and why it was not given an Arabic name?
Mr. Mohammad Seddiqi is the creator of this project, and he came to us wanting to do something different this year. They were working on a big series for the 50th anniversary and he always wanted to be associated with our brand and explore ways to push our creative boundaries. He wanted to play with one of the colors of the flag, playing with a natural stone. We started last year with malachite and it was a great success and that inspired us to do the Falcon Eye and Ox Eye editions this year. Mr. Seddiqi got back to us saying there is a stone that he loved and he really liked the red color that is part of the UAE flag. He was truly inspired and wanted to know if it was possible to make a full sapphire dial. We told him we will try as we had never done it so far and the challenge was to find an appropriate stone which in fact is a long process. He picked the name of this watch as “Erythro” and we really don’t know why he picked that particular name.
During the recent virtual Watch & Wonders you revealed the new H. Moser Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Tiger’s Eye, once again, with a distinctive Moser fumé dial and without indices and brand logos. How confident are you now with such a direction of the brand? No Name and no logo?
We consider what we do as works of art and the signature should be almost accessory. I want people to be able to recognize whatever we make as a Moser watch from the distance and it shouldn’t be because we put our name on it. The challenge here was using a natural stone that can symbolize the dynamism, the versatility and the playfulness of the light on the dial. The Falcon Eye and Ox Eye are very natural equivalents so when people look at it they would feel it is a Moser though we do not have indices or logo. It becomes like a canvas and people can really appreciate it like a beautiful painting. It looks different, so when you look at it and play with a little bit of light you will see a constant change, I think that’s the beauty of it. Moser is a bold brand and we are very confident with the reason for moving towards the concept of no logo and no index. Most standard watches have the transparent logo that we introduced in the Megacool. You will see the novelties we have this year are also going to be with the transparent logo. We are moving to a state of having everything with almost no branding on it, and just keeping the essence of the product like in a piece of art.
The H. Moser Streamliner launched almost 15 months ago was well received by your fans and collectors. Do you intend to reveal soon a new edition to this collection? Will it incorporate new complications?
We are launching the new edition of Streamliner by the end of August. It will incorporate one of the most important caliber/movement that Moser & co is very proud of. So wait and see. The wonder will be revealed soon.
Do we expect more releases from H. Moser during the course of the year? And what are your plans for the upcoming Geneva Watch Days?
For Geneva Watch Days, we will have many interviews, presentations of what already exists and maybe a teaser about the future. There will be a press conference to launch this, and we are not planning to do big things at the moment. As for us, we will focus on what we do well and a lot of people may be seeing those watches for the first time. We have not been able to travel for a long time now and I don’t want to do too many things. I think we need to catch up with few novelties.
We have seen watch brands creating high complications linked to the engine of the luxury car brands. Can you reveal any future plans of such a car association?
None for now. I think we will collaborate in the future not with any sports car but with a Swiss luxury brand rather, not necessarily a watch brand. There is something we are working on. As I said in the beginning I want to expand the circle of people who know Moser and we need bigger brands with greater exposure. I think Moser is quite sexy, so are the two collaborations we are working on for next year. These two brands from outside the watch industry came to us and wanted to work with us.
We have witnessed a new genderless trend in the market. H. Moser appears as a very masculine brand. Isn’t this too segmenting for your development?
I don’t know if we are very masculine and all that. I think we have a lot of colors and this is genderless. Look at the blue lagoon. It is not 50/50 but we are now doing 38mm cases. We are open to case sizes and we don’t want to brand our watches as masculine or feminine. Let us say we design this watch for ladies as well as for men. It’s true that by nature and as an independent brand your focus will be being probably on masculine teams naturally. Many of our watches are a little bigger but to be honest I think 40 or 38mm might be the standard in the future rather going to 42 or 43mm. We will not change the positioning though we might reduce the size a little bit.
Where would be the next big expansion plan for H. Moser brand? And how far are you from having the first H. Moser Boutique/ H. Moser experience in our region? And where?
We have the first boutique already in China. We are working on boutiques in US, and exploring other markets as well. In this region, hopefully not too long from now, (my dream would be by the end of next year) we will have a boutique here. But you need to find the right space, the right size and the right location, but the brand is ready. The brand is ready because we see China is doing well, we have one in Japan doing well. Hopefully, we are opening in New York and in Miami this year. We have one in Hong Kong and we are planning to do one in Switzerland. E-commerce is doing extremely well for us, we sell almost 10 percent of our production online and there’s about 18 months waiting list - So retail is really interesting and rewarding for us.
Where does H. Moser stand on the new trend of the crypto currency and Blockchain?
Now we are working on accepting bitcoin and that’s definitely something I think customers have been asking for a while. We are getting ready for that so online customers will be able to buy against bitcoin. About the blockchain and crypto currency I think it’s a little bit early to create too much complexity for those certification. It is definitely something that will be standard in the near future but I think we are not in the position to be the first one. I think it’s important for us to keep agile and proactive but we need to be cautious playing with a technology that today is in its early stages still.