In a surprising collaboration, Swiss watch manufacturer H. Moser & Cie and Hong Kong-based classic menswear haberdasher The Armoury have joined forces to create the Total Eclipse, a timepiece based on the H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Small Seconds. With the former known for combining classically beautiful in-house movements with tongue-in-cheek designs (think fumé dials and Apple watch-inspired designs) and the latter having become renowned for their contemporary take on traditional tailoring, the resultant collaboration is equal parts elegant and timeless.
With a shared admiration for each other’s work, a partnership between H.Moser & Cie CEO, Edouard Meylan and The Armoury co-founder, Mark Cho, was a natural one. However, the latter had a key stipulation for the collaboration. “When Edouard and I first started talking about the idea of making a watch together, my main requirement was that it was small,” explained Cho in a press release. “I like watches that are discreet but reveal a deeper complexity if you pay them some attention.”
“To me, H. Moser & Cie.’s fumé dial and Vantablack dial are iconic and I wanted to work with one of them as a starting point for the design,” he added. “Quickly, I started to favour the Vantablack and I had the idea to add markings to the dial somehow. My design partner: Elliot Hammer, suggested that we imagine the design with the theme of a total solar eclipse. Thus, the Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse was born’.”
Subtle and refined, the simple dot indices on the watch required a special technique to produce, due to the fragile nature of the Vantablack surface. Crafted from delicate carbon nanotubes that can be destroyed by a mere touch, H. Moser & Cie actually created minute holes in the dial which reveal a steel or red gold plate beneath.
“Absolutely everything in this model links back to this quest for ultimate elegance, combining classicism with a contemporary feel,” said Meylan of the collaborative timepiece. “It’s 38mm diameter is perfectly balanced. We opted for the smallest and finest of our movements, the hand-wound HMC 327 calibre, with an offset small second at 6 o’clock, reminiscent of the pocket-watch style.”
Available in steel or red gold iterations, the H. Moser & Cie x The Armoury Total Eclipse watch is limited to 28 examples of each material. Available via both the H. Moser & Cie and The Armoury webstores, the Total Eclipse is worn on a black leather strap and accompanied by a pocket square from The Armoury.
Words by John Deckard
