A fitting end to a week of behind-the-scenes visits to manufactures, for the first GMT Watch Safari.
In celebration of its 24th anniversary, GMT Magazine is hosting 24 watch enthusiasts for an unforgettable week-long experience that will take them from Geneva to Schaffhausen, from Neuchâtel to Vallée de Joux. Highlights include curated visits to the workshops and manufactures that are the birthplaces of the most exceptional timepieces. Read on for a preview of Day 4 at H. Moser & Cie. and the big reveal of the limited edition of 24 watches for GMT's 24 years. Fresh from Biel/Bienne and a morning spent at Omega, participants will be greeted by CEO Edouard Meylan who will later join them for dinner. The next day, it's back to Geneva for a viewing of the 90 shortlisted watches at the 2024 GPHG – which will almost certainly include models by H. Moser & Cie., already a multiple winner.
Anyone expecting to see silver-haired watchmakers hunched over benches at H. Moser & Cie. is in for a surprise. With an average age of 27, the production team (around two-thirds of the one hundred-strong workforce) is on a par with the brand's management: young and dynamic! Since taking the reins in 2012, the Meylan family has catapulted H. Moser & Cie. to a different plane and is getting ready to move up yet another level.
Start to finish
The watchmakers at H. Moser & Cie. are proud and happy to be doing the thing they love most, and their enthusiasm is contagious. Chief Executive Edouard Meylan has nothing but respect and praise for these talented men and women: "The production team are all highly reactive individuals who focus on solutions, not problems. It's one of our strengths. We're remarkably efficient and can release a new model in the space of a few months, thanks to this agility and mindset." Participants will discover the entire process behind the conception and production of a H. Moser & Cie. watch, from the R&D division through to prototyping, never losing sight of the founder's visionary strategy and values: creative thinking, the desire for excellence and a talent for initiative. Edouard Meylan insists on the rare depth of the manufacture's savoir-faire, which extends from movement development to manufacturing balance springs. The twenty-some in-house movements run the gamut of horological beauty, from a three-hander to a tourbillon to a minute repeater, equipping more than 4,000 watches a year. Is it any wonder that other brands come to H. Moser & Cie. for their balance springs and escapements?
King of the balance spring
Following the integration, in 2012, of Precision Engineering AG, H. Moser & Cie. has positioned itself as a strategic industrial unit with the capacity to develop, produce and assemble every component in a modular escapement - pallet levers, balance wheels, escape wheels and balance springs – in large runs or as a one-off. Its capacity for innovation in ferromagnetic and paramagnetic alloys for balance springs has proved decisive, given the complexity of formulating, shaping and integrating these materials into movements. In addition to its innovative double balance spring, H. Moser & Cie. has produced the world's smallest and largest balance springs, as well as every size in between, in conical, cylindrical and spherical form, and in alloys including niobium-titanium. Always ahead of the curve when it comes to escapements, modular in particular, the work of the R&D division is the hidden part of the iceberg… because the thing that first grabs you about a H. Moser & Cie. watch is its powerful design and gorgeous dial.
Success among collectors, and anyone with an eye for a beautifully crafted object, has resulted in impressive growth these past few years. So much so, in fact, that the brand's management is considering relocating to a space commensurate with this fabulous expansion. Says Edouard Meylan, "we're beginning to outgrow our facilities and would like to build a temple to the brand in Schaffhausen."
On Thursday October 31, 2024, he will welcome GMT Watch Safari participants and show them the latest limited edition: a GMT model, in a collection that doesn't yet include this function, with a unique dial, plus indices and hands not yet seen in this collection, produced as a 24-piece series for GMT's 24th anniversary. Later that evening, in Schaffhausen's picturesque old town, participants will enjoy dinner in his company: the ultimate immersive, exclusive experience! And with them from start to finish will be the founder of GMT Magazine, also the creator of the Watch Safari and author of these lines.
Information and registration at www.watch-safari.ch
