Just as the quartz oscillator and the wave of precise, inexpensive watches powered by their movements tore the traditional Swiss watch industry asunder in the 1960s, the Apple Watch and other “smart watch” innovations have done so again in the quarter 21st century, rendering mechanical watches–even more than they already were–an expression of individuality, status, fashion, or (I’m guilty here)…quaint antediluvian longings. Ironically, many who’ve made a handsome living, or vast fortune, due to their mastery in technological professions seem to particularly enjoy the soft ticking of the mechanical (!) watches snuggled into their watch rolls or winders. Why the apparent incongruity? Perhaps in a world of such ephemeral, fleeting and ever fluid product and service relevancy, the assurance of mainspring, balance wheel, and gear train–all serviceable for decades and beyond–provide a connection to something they do not and cannot offer: permanence and perpetuity.
Stranger things have happened, I suppose! In any event, the watch under discussion today is comical, beautiful, and ironic with its purposeful mimicry of the exact world opposing it. H. Moser & Cie.’s Swiss Alp Watch with the fantastically humorous official moniker of “Final Upgrade” to denote it being the last Swiss Alp timepiece to be offered by Moser, is both a fine piece of inventive mechanical watchmaking, and a conversation piece par excellence, as were the last iterations. This Swiss Alp is the most subtle, and yet most trollish, and because of that, maybe the most interesting of the family…at least to me. The black dial goes beyond any degree of darkness you’re used to, being finished with the void-like Vantablack® material, known to the world for being capable of absorbing 99.965% of all ambient light, and it’s paired with a black-PVD coated case sharing the familiar rounded rectangle form and wire type lugs popularized by the Apple Watch. And, prominently featured on the dial, what appears to be the familiar “system loading” indication, but is actually just a visual effect produced by a light colored disc rotating beneath the sectioned dial above it, will surely keep almost any onlooker from thinking they are looking at just that. But they would be wrong about this watch being that mass produced electronic object, and only you, the owner, know it.
Should you wish to enlighten anyone who asks you how much you like your “Apple Watch”, though, the Moser Swiss Alp Final Upgrade stands ready to reveal its tacit joke though the glass back. “This is not an Apple Watch, you technology addicted busybody. This is a mechanical watch…and a very fine one at that. Ha!”, you can almost hear it whisper, as the viewer appears confused and shuffles away to get lost in their iPhone once more. That HMC324 caliber, by the way, is manufactured in-house by H. Moser and features a rare form shape to match the case design, another subtle show of its traditional watchmaking credentials. The impressive 4-day autonomy is shown via an unobtrusive yet visually interesting Moser power reserve indicator that snuggles in cozily next to the balance wheel and its full bridge. Speaking of the balance wheel, and a thing about it which makes this mechanical movement even more traditional than many, is that it doesn’t even have a typical high frequency beat rate! Quite the contrary, this balance moves at the delightfully unhurried (and beautiful to hear ticking) clip of 18,000 vph in the manner of many a fine antique pocket watch; it features the exclusive execution of the double Straumann hairspring with Breguet overcoils on each: without getting too bogged down by technicalities, the mounting of these springs is in opposing directions and their oscillation patterns cancel out their combined tendencies, much like the tourbillon regulator was intended to do when Breguet introduced it in his exceptional pocket watches at the turn of the 19th century century.
Only 50 of these will be made, and I think this watch would be a real showpiece in a diverse, high-end collection. Beautifully crafted from interesting materials, supremely exclusive, thought provoking, and funny, you can definitely say that the H. Moser & Cie. Swiss Alp Final Upgrade is certain to get one’s wheels turning on a lot of levels. Not many watches can claim that in quite the same way as this; more than just a timepiece, the Final Upgrade is a wearable commentary on the times in which we live, and the objects which define it, no matter whether we’re going along full speed ahead, or…secretly wishing for a little less engineered obsolescence.