Moser puts a 30-second retrograde seconds display in three new steel watches

H. Moser & Cie. has added a retrograde seconds display to three new 40mm steel models across its Pioneer, Streamliner and Endeavour lines. The complication sweeps an arc and snaps back to zero, but Moser's version does so twice every minute, once every 30 seconds.

The mechanism was developed with Agenhor SA, in which Moser's holding company MELB acquired a minority stake in 2023. Rather than a single reset each minute, the display returns to zero at the half-minute mark, which keeps the dial in near-constant motion.

The module is mounted on Moser's HMC 250 automatic caliber, a movement with a three-day power reserve. An exposed double snail-cam, in permanent contact with the finger, releases energy stored in the hairspring and sends the hand flying back in one snap.

The rack, visible under the openworked bridge, positions the hand precisely on the track. A two-tone disc beneath the snail shows whether the watch is in the first or second 30-second period of the minute.

Retrograde displays go back centuries and were popularized by watchmakers including Lépine and Breguet, the Paris house founded in 1775 whose founder patented the tourbillon. They can show hours, minutes, seconds, calendar and even astronomical functions, so seconds is one choice among many.

Moser's first model with the display was the Pioneer, released two years ago, with a blue fumé dial and an arc running from 5 to 7 o'clock, reminiscent of a tachometer or fuel gauge. The new version is fully skeletonized and keeps the sporty 120m water-resistance.

Anthracite bridges frame that Pioneer's movement, while gold indices hang suspended over it and gold leaf-shaped hands track the time. The 30-second track, the snail cam and the skeletonized rotor are all golden, and the snail cam is semi-skeletonized.

The Pioneer measures 40mm across and 12mm thick, or 10.4mm without its domed sapphire crystal. It has a screw-down crown, a see-through caseback and an interchangeable steel bracelet, plus a khaki rubber strap with a steel pin buckle.

Super-LumiNova fills the hour plots on the flange and the tips of the openworked hands. The movement is the in-house HMC 251, beating at 21,600vph, and the reference is 3251-1200, priced at CHF 37,726, or EUR 44,200.

The Streamliner and Endeavour

The Streamliner, Moser's integrated luxury sports watch, takes the complication into a smoother shape. Its blue fumé sunburst dial carries a transparent lacquer logo, and the rounded arc echoes the case contours, a take on a genre often defined by sharp angles.

Unlike the Pioneer, its snail cam is placed below the openworked anthracite bridge. The hands, including the retrograde seconds hand, carry Super-LumiNova, and the caseback shows a skeletonized rotor and bridges decorated with Moser stripes.

Vertical brushing and polished bevels run across the steel, and the integrated bracelet has a triple-blade folding clasp. The Streamliner is 12.1mm thick, 10.2mm without crystal, runs the HMC 252 and is water-resistant to 120m.

It is reference 6252-1200 and costs CHF 32,300, or EUR 37,800. The Endeavour, Moser's understated dress line with recessed grooves along the flanks and curved lugs, brings the module into its most restrained setting.

That Endeavour pairs a fumé sunburst dial with a pronounced gradient, classic leaf hands and faceted applied indices, with no luminescence at all. A black 30-second arc has golden markings, and the logo is in transparent lacquer.

At 11.2mm thick, or 9.9mm without crystal, it is the slimmest of the three and is rated to only 30m. A night blue nubuck strap with a steel pin buckle keeps it formal, and the reference is 1252-1200.

The Endeavour costs CHF 30,160, or EUR 35,300. Both it and the Streamliner use the HMC 252 with the Agenhor module, beating at 21,600vph with a three-day reserve, so the price gap is in the case, finish and strap.