This New Chronograph Is a Masterclass in Modernized Vintage Watch Design

Modern reissues of vintage watches are nothing new. They’ve been all the rage in the industry for at least the past decade, and the appetite for them among the watch-buying public hasn’t really slowed.

In most cases, when a brand recreates a vintage watch, they try to be as faithful to the original as possible. For many collectors, this is exactly what they want: a new watch that looks just like a vintage watch but without the headaches that come with vintage ownership.

But once in a while, a brand will use the original vintage inspiration merely as a starting point while creating something truly new from its base. That’s what H. Moser & Cie. and Massena LAB have done with their new collab, the Moser & Cie. x Massena LAB Endeavour Chronograph Compax, and the end result is all the better for it.

H. Moser & Cie.

H. Moser & Cie. x Massena LAB Endeavour Chronograph Compax

Specs

Case Size	41mm
Movement	H. Moser & Cie. Cal. HMC 220 automatic chronograph
Water Resistance	30m

• $27,600 at Moser

The 1940s Gets a 2020s Makevoer

Moser is currently one of the hottest names in the independent haute horology space, seemingly bursting onto the scene in 2005 and especially over the past decade following the Meylan family’s acquisition of the brand in 2012.

But in reality, 2005 simply marked the relaunch of the brand after several decades of dormancy. Moser was first founded way back in 1828, and it has a surprising amount of history for a brand that’s often cited as being at the forefront of contemporary 21st-century watch design.

H. Moser & Cie.

It was in the annals of this exhaustive history where this new collab was born, as Massena LAB founder William Massena, who designed the new watch, took inspiration from the classic chronographs Moser produced in the 1940s. These watches look nothing like the striking and minimalist Moser pieces of today, and instead were largely indicative of their era with elegant, functional and sometimes busy designs.

As a result, the Moser x Massena LAB Endeavour Chronograph Compax has a lot more going on dial-wise than what we’re used to seeing from Moser.

Mimicking those 1940s watches, it has a traditional compax layout with symmetrical counters for the running seconds and 45 chronograph minutes at 3 and 9 o’clock, Arabic numeral indices, and a whole lot of scales: there’s a dual tachymeter scale running from 300 – 30 km/hour and a minute track with markings for every fifth-second.

H. Moser & Cie.

But this is still a modern Moser, so all of those details are printed on a “Funky Blue” fumé dial that’s very contemporary and is a signature of the brand’s current design language.

Another modern update is the watch’s lume treatment, as everything printed on the dial — from the 1940s-era Moser logo to the subdial outlines to every mark on every scale — is printed in green-glowing Super-LumiNova for an absolutely stunning low-light look.

Flip over the 41mm stainless steel case and you’re treated to a full view of the Moser Cal. HMC 220 movement. In this case, the 72-hour automatic has been fitted with a Dubois Dépraz chronograph module. Its escapement runs on a Straumann hairspring that’s highly precise and is manufactured by Moser itself (the brand is one of only a handful capable of making its own hairsprings).

H. Moser & Cie.

Pricing and Availability

Like most vintage watch reboots, Moser and Massena LAB’s creation features a vintage design updated with modern materials and a modern movement. But what sets this apart is the additional modern updates that have been incorporated into the design via the Funky Blue fumé dial and the crazy amount of lume.

It’s a juxtaposition that sounds strange on paper — crazy colors and lume on a classic 1940s dress chronograph — but it works really, really well here.

The bad news, of course, is that this watch is extremely limited and will surely be a hot ticket. Just 100 examples are being produced at $27,600 a pop and are available to purchase directly from both Moser and Massena LAB.

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