The H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Centre Seconds Vantablack

H. Moser & Cie, the independent watchmaker with a highly personal take on design and manufacturing, is well-known for its minimalistic approach, to the point where some of its watches don’t even carry the brand’s logo or markers to read the time… The so-called Concept approach is indeed all about “less is more.” In this respect, the brand found a perfect match with a material named Vantablack, a hyper-black coating that creates a visual black hole. Already seen in several limited or high-end editions, it now comes to a more classic and accessible model, in steel, with the new H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Centre Seconds Vantablack.

The use of Vantablack isn’t really new to H. Moser & Cie. The brand has indeed played with this material in the past, reinforcing the minimalistic effect of their watches to the max with what is known as the darkest-man-made material ever created. Made up of millions of carbon nanotubes which capture 99.965% of light photons, this coating (a rather difficult one to apply, by the way) eliminates almost all light reflections and thus creates a sensation of a void, like a black hole in the middle of the watch.

As said, there have been already multiple watches from Moser with such dials, often associated with a tourbillon or a moon phase. Or even to make space for a rather irreverent complication… The Vantablack effect now comes in a simpler, more streamlined watch with a stainless steel case and an overall sleek approach, the Endeavour Centre Seconds. Not per se a new watch, this is the brand’s classic, slightly elegant model with compact dimensions and a nicely shaped case profile. 40mm in diameter, it’s here presented in a mostly polished steel case, with brushed accents on the side.

The dial of this new Endeavour Centre Seconds Vantablack combines the hyper-dark material with hour markers. No logo can be seen on the dial but only small cutouts, revealing metal hour markers applied from underneath the dial. The hands are polished steel, with the exception of the seconds hand, in a discreet purple colour.

The latter is the sign that something special ticks inside the case. Powered by the in-house calibre HMC 200, this automatic movement with bi-directional pawl winding system is here equipped with a blue balance bridge and, underneath, a complex in-house double hairspring architecture. The movement is powerful too, with a comfortable 3-day power reserve, and elegantly finished.

The H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Centre Seconds Vantablack is launched as part of the permanent collection and worn on a black alligator strap. It is priced at CHF 25,000. For more details, please visit www.h-moser.com.