Moser & Cie.’s fascination with bold colours has not been satiated by the vibrant Concept Pop collection released earlier this year. If anything, they are doubling down on eye-catching hues with the launch of the H. Moser & Cie. Pioneer Spiced Aqua triptych consisting of the Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton, Pioneer Tourbillon and Pioneer Centre Seconds Spiced Aqua editions.
Off the bat, the name Spiced Aqua strikes me a particularly irreverent for an haute horology brand as it essentially means spicy water. At a surface level it’s a reference to the combination of orange and turquoise colours that heavily features across the three watches. A slightly more obtuse interpretation is that it refers to the spicy decision to take your £70k H. Moser into the water, as with 120m water resistance, H. Moser do market the Pioneer as their adventure timepiece. Interestingly, while Spiced Aqua is a funny sort of name, it’s also perfectly on brand for H. Moser as they are the brand that brought us the Perpetual Calendar for Dummies.
Getting into the specifics of the three watches, the Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Spiced Aqua features the signature skeletonised architecture of the Cylindrical Tourbillon model paired with a vivid orange dial at 12 o’clock with turquoise globolight hour markers. The Pioneer Tourbillon Spiced Aqua takes the same colours but does away with the skeleton aspect, as well as the hour markers, leaving you with just the rich colours of the Concept dial. Lastly the Pioneer Centre Seconds Spiced Aqua flips the script by featuring a turquoise dial with orange accents. It’s also the only model of the three that’s available in a choice of exposed steel or with a black DLC coating.
It’s an interestingly timed release because aesthetically they do feel simply like more intense versions of the coral Concept Pop models that have almost identical colours with the same no marker layout. I half wonder if it’s a response to the fact that importing coral can be difficult in some countries due to its protected status and having the Spiced Aqua on hand gives ADs an alternative collection to show to collectors who are interested in that model. That’s pure speculation as an equally salient point is that the coral may simply be the most popular version, so Moser want to expand on the concept with other models.
Regardless, it’s a bright, colourful series priced CHF 79,000 (approx. £71,600) for the Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Spiced Aqua, CHF 49,000 (approx. £44,400) for the Pioneer Tourbillon Spiced Aqua, CHF 16,000 (approx. £14,500) for the Pioneer Centre Seconds DLC Spiced Aqua and CHF 14,500 (approx. £13,100) for the Pioneer Centre Seconds Spiced Aqua.
Price and Specs:
40mm diameter x 12mm thickness, stainless steel, domed sapphire crystal, see-through caseback (Tourbillon)
42.8mm diameter x 12mm thickness, stainless steel, domed sapphire crystal, see-through caseback (Centre Seconds)
Orange fumé, turquoise Super-LumiNova® hands, turquoise Super-LumiNova® flange (Tourbillon)
Turquoise fumé, orange Super-LumiNova® hands, orange Super-LumiNova® flange (Centre Seconds)
H. Moser & Cie. calibre HMC 805, automatic with double hairspring (Tourbillon)
H. Moser & Cie. calibre HMC 201, automatic, 27 jewels (Centre Seconds)
72h (Tourbillon and Centre Seconds)
Hours, minutes, seconds (Centre Seconds)
White rubber strap (Centre Seconds)
CHF 49,000 (approx. £44,400) - Pioneer Tourbillon
CHF 16,000 (approx. £14,500) - Pioneer Centre Seconds DLC
CHF 14,500 (approx. £13,100) - Pioneer Centre Seconds
More details at H. Moser & Cie.
Love the colours and style but pricey for the average Joe Bloggs. However for those with the financial freedom then these are so much better looking than the regular brands
The first question that I have to ask, is – do people that can afford to splash the cash on a watch in that price bracket, actually buy such a brightly coloured “look at me” piece, unless of course you are a young thespian (sorry, that is an insult to true actors), so let’s change that to “popular screen personalities of the moment” – (let’s not forget the famous Andy Warhol quote relating to 15 minutes of fame), so, on another point made in the review, it would be interesting to see how a wearer of such a piece be greeted upon arrival at one of the countries that outlaw the decorative use of coral. Furthermore, could coral follow similar lines as ivory in the near future where any piece becomes banned and destroyed in certain countries. Interesting to see.