![]() Benefiting from the expertise of its sister company Precision Engineering AG, H. ![]() has borrowed from MB&F the concept of three-dimensional movements, a strong element of the Geneva Maison’s identity, protected by a sapphire dome and featuring a one-minute flying tourbillon that rises above the main dial through a ventricular opening appearing at 12 o’clock. Speaking of being provocative, Moser makes these very elegant, classical-looking watches, but you’ve also stirred up plenty of controversy with some of your concept designs.H. We do that through transparency and honesty, but also by being provocative. I’m trying to make an emotional link with customers. We do that through transparency and honesty, but also by being provocative and making sure nobody is indifferent about Moser-whether that opinion is good or bad. So I’m trying to make an emotional link with the brand and customers. ![]() Even though the watches were costing a lot to produce, they were being sold rather cheap, and people were saying, “Oh, Moser is great value for money.” And for me that’s shocking, because value for money has nothing to do with luxury. It took time and investment, but it’s one thing that transformed the brand from bleeding money to becoming profitable.Īnother thing was brand identity. We reduced the time it took to assemble a perpetual calendar from 90 hours-that’s two weeks-to 30 hours. So we really worked on efficiency in production. When you develop products like these, if you have a pure engineering approach then you create your dream watch, which is great but also very dangerous because you’re not considering the cost of production and how much you can sell it for. And fumé dials, Moser was doing them in limited editions, and we thought, “Wow, this is so cool, nobody is doing that.” And now I think everybody is! A watch is there to give you the time and date, so it’s one of the most practical movements there is. ![]() I think it’s still one of the most amazing movements out there. Also I fell in love with our perpetual calendar movement. My predecessor Jürgen Lange was East German, and I think he brought a lot of that, and I wanted to keep that. And I studied engineering in Germany, my wife is German, and I have always been attracted to the philosophy of German engineers and designers like the Bauhaus. It’s probably the most Germanic brand in Switzerland. What made me fully fall in love with Moser was its approach to engineering. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Fortune spoke with Edouard about what it takes to run an independent watch brand, how to stand out in the marketplace, and how the company is navigating a global pandemic. The Meylan family had identified a distressed asset but one with clear potential, a talented team of watchmakers, and a genuine history now that asset is paying dividends. Patriarch Georges-Henri Meylan, who was CEO of Audemars Piguet for 21 years, entrusted the running of Moser to his then 35-year-old son Edouard Meylan, an engineer and Wharton MBA who was lured back to his ancestral industry. In 2012 the brand was acquired by the Meylan family, whose history in the watch industry goes back several generations. But the fame of the brand faded with the fortunes of the Imperial Court and barely survived the 20th century. Moser produced pocket watches for the Russian aristocracy at the same time Gustav Fabergé was dressing them in jewelry even Vladimir Lenin owned a Moser pocket watch. Moser & Cie., founded by Swiss watchmaker Heinrich Moser in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1828. Flying under the radar-if a company can do such a thing for 192 years-is H.
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