One of the Year’s Most Stunning Sports Watches Comes from the Mind of an F1 Driver

I’m not sure there is any high-end watch brand that’s hotter right now than H. Moser & Cie.

The original incarnation of the formerly obscure company debuted in 1828, but it wasn’t until a few years after the Meylan family purchased the brand in 2012 that it really began to take off.

After first standing out from the crowd with satirical, conversation-starting watches like a mechanical Apple Watch dupe in 2016 and a watch with a case made of Swiss cheese the following year, Moser has parlayed its newfound viral fame to bring attention to its creative original designs and its next-level watchmaking, both of which rank among the best in the industry.

In more recent years, Moser has grown exponentially. In 2023, the brand entered Morgan Stanley’s list of the top 50 bestselling Swiss watch brands for the first time (at number 38, no less), and just last month, it was announced that the brand would move into the main hall of Watches and Wonders next year, rubbing elbows with much larger brands.

H. Moser & Cie.

Arguably, the most impactful move Moser has made concerning its recent explosion in popularity occurred last year when it became the watch sponsor for BWT Alpine F1 Team. On the track, Moser finds itself in the company of much larger and more famous brands like IWC, Tudor, Richard Mille and TAG Heuer, which has helped to further elevate its status.

When Moser became Alpine’s sponsor, the brand also signed the team’s top driver, Pierre Gasly, as its first-ever ambassador. Now, a year and a half later, the fruits of this partnership have been unveiled, as Moser has unveiled a new Streamliner Tourbillon conceived by Gasly himself. And it’s a beauty.

H. Moser & Cie.

Cooking with Gas(ly)

The H. Moser Streamliner Tourbillon Pierre Gasly features the Streamliner’s familiar 40mm case in 5N red gold and debuts a new dial color for the brand: Chocolate Fumé. The rich brown shade is given Moser’s trademark fumé treatment, making it appear light in the center and dark at the edges, and the Moser logo is applied in clear lacquer for branding that’s almost invisible.

The hands and applied indices are in red gold, and the hands also feature Globolight ceramic lume inserts for nighttime visibility. A cutout on the dial at 6:00 reveals the double-hairspring tourbillon of the in-house Calibre HMC 805 automatic movement, and a spacious sapphire crystal caseback shows the reverse side of the highly decorated and partially skeletonized movement.

H. Moser & Cie.

The watch is fitted to an integrated rubber strap in Chocolate Brown with a red gold deployant clasp, and if you’ve ever felt a Moser rubber strap, then you know they’re among the softest and supplest in the biz. Despite being a solid-gold tourbillon, the watch is water-resistant to a robust 120m, and the movement has a three-day power reserve.

Previously, Moser has created a number of Alpine-Edition watches, all of which have also been versions of the Streamliner, the brand’s integrated sports watch. Last year, we got two Streamliner Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Alpine Editions, one pink and one blue, and this year saw the dual release of the Streamliner Alpine Drivers Edition, a chronograph skeleton, and Mechanics Edition, the brand’s first connected watch.

H. Moser & Cie.

At the virtual press conference for this new release, Moser CEO and owner Edouard Meylan told me the brand made a deliberate choice in choosing the Streamliner for all of its F1 watches. He said part of Moser’s reason for going into Formula One was to “bring credibility to the sports segment” of the brand’s catalog, as Moser is still mainly known for its dressier pieces, and exclusively using the brand’s sportiest watch for its F1 tie-ins just makes sense.

However, the fact that Gasly’s watch is also a Streamliner is just coincidence. Moser doesn’t categorize the new collab as an F1 watch, and Gasly was given free rein to come up with whatever he wanted — he chose a Streamliner. In fact, he originally pitched a rose gold Streamliner Tourbillon with a chocolate-colored dial, and after going back and forth with Moser on roughly 100 different concepts, the two sides ultimately ended up with a watch that was nearly identical to Gasly’s original vision.

During the press conference, I asked Gasly why he opted for such an uncommon style. After all, it’s not like there are a ton of brown watches floating around.

“Basically, these are colors I wear in my daily life, and I really wanted the watch to be about my taste as an individual rather than anything related to my environment, motorsports, et cetera,” Gasly says.

“These are colors you’ll see in my closet and that I wear most days,” the Alpine driver continues. “I find [Chocolate Brown] elegant and not too flashy compared to some stronger colors, and at the same time, I know it’s not very usual in the watch industry. It doesn’t fit with the all-time classics, but this wasn’t the point. The main point is this was something I could see myself wearing.”

H. Moser & Cie.

In addition to the aforementioned “Sport-Chic Edition” of the watch on the rubber strap, which is limited to 100 pieces and priced at $98,500, there is also an even more elusive “Collector’s Edition” on a full 5N red gold integrated bracelet that is limited to just ten examples.

Ten is Gasly’s number on the track — and his favorite number off of it – and the Collector’s Edition features a ruby on the dial in place of the 10 index as a nod to this. It’s priced at $148,500, which includes a replica Moser x Alpine F1 driving helmet and the opportunity to join Gasly for a yet-to-be-determined activity next year.

As for Gasly, he has his own extra-special piéce unique that features a diamond at 10 instead of a ruby. That one, naturally, is not for sale.

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