My Grail Everyday Watch Just Blew My Mind with Its Most Impressive Version Yet

I’ve waxed poetic about Moser’s Pioneer before. The watch is my (semi-)attainable grail everyday watch thanks to its unsurpassed combination of beauty, sportiness, elegance, robustness, wearability and horological chops.

But at the end of the day, the Pioneer is still a Moser, which means every now and then, the Schaffhausen-based independent brand throws some wild complication onto the watch that takes it to an entirely new level of desirability.

We’ve seen Pioneers with skeletonized cylindrical tourbillons, perpetual calendars and retrograde seconds displays — all water-resistant to 120m and just as capable as the standard time-only versions, but a lot more impressive.

Now, Moser has crafted what could be its most impressive version of the Pioneer yet with a brand-new flying hours complication that’s almost too cool to believe.

H. Moser & Cie.

I believe I can fly

Moser has released a flying hours complication before. Back in 2018, the brand launched the Endeavour Flying Hours. The dress watch featured three windows surrounding a rotating minute disc, and the hours would gradually change from one to the next, with one hour fading out as another faded in.

This version of the complication was similar to the more common “wandering” or “satellite” hours complications seen on watches like the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Starwheel and, like, half of Urwerk’s collection. It’s a cool, innovative way to read the time, but with multiple hours visible at once, it definitely isn’t the easiest.

H. Moser & Cie.

Moser sought to fix that with its new Pioneer Flying Hours, and it’s safe to say the brand succeeded with flying colors — no pun intended. What Moser has effectively done is combine a wandering hours complication with a jump hour. Now, when the central rotating minute disc reaches 60, the next hour instantaneously jumps into view on the dial, with the old hour instantly disappearing at the same time.

Three hour windows are placed around the rotating skeletonized central disc, whose 120-degree minute track fits perfectly between two hour windows once it reaches 60 minutes . What’s more, the hours exclusively appear vertically, unlike on most other wandering hour watches, which makes the time exceedingly easy to read. It’s perhaps even easier to read than a traditional hour and minute hand, yet it’s far more dynamic and visually interesting.

H. Moser & Cie.

Moser achieved the new effect through the use of three separate fixed hour discs that each rotate on their own axis in orbit around the visible minutes disc. These hour discs are hidden underneath the dial, maintaining the complication’s magical allure. In typical Moser fashion, the dial features no logos or text to distract from the time.

The movement boasting this new complication is the in-house Cal. HMC 240 automatic, which features a 72-hour power reserve, 35 jewels, a Moser-made Straumann hairspring, anthracite-finished bridges and either a solid red gold or tungsten rotor, depending on which version you get.

The tungsten rotor can be found on the standard iteration of the Pioneer Flying Hours. It features a stainless steel case with a white fumé dial. The gold rotor is paired with a case featuring a mix of 5N red gold and black DLC titanium and a sparkling aventurine dial. This is the one for me.

H. Moser & Cie.

The pairing of aventurine with red gold looks spectacular, and I love the material mixing on the case — especially the “grilles” on the case sides being executed in black titanium and surrounded by a red gold outer case. It reminds me of the spectacular 5N rose gold and black DLC titanium case of the MING 20.01 Series 3 that I reviewed last year, which remains the best watch MING has ever made.

Both Flying Hour cases are 42.8mm Pioneer cases with the signature side “grille” cutouts that I am moderately obsessed with. They also both have screw-down crowns and have 120m of water resistance, like all Pioneers, along with sapphire crystals on both sides. The Pioneer boasts one of the softest rubber straps on the market, and here you’ll find a gray one on the steel version and black for the gold/titanium model.

H. Moser & Cie.

Pricing and availability

As usual, Moser killed it with this release. The new flying hours complication is as fun as it is unexpected, and the fact that it’s housed in a true “go anywhere, do anything” sports watch makes that much better.

The Pioneer Flying Hours White Fumé in steel is non-limited and priced at $41,200. The Pioneer Flying Hours in red gold and black titanium is limited to just 100 pieces and priced at $49,900. Again, if I had the money, I’d be all over the gold aventurine version — especially since it’s not that much more expensive than the steel model, all things considered, but it looks quite a bit nicer.

But who am I kidding? I’d happily take either one.

H. Moser & Cie.

H. Moser & Cie. Pioneer Flying Hours

• $49,900 at H. Moser & Cie.

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