H. Moser & Cie. Perpetual One

When it comes to stealth complications, this H. Moser & Cie. Perpetual One is about as good as it gets. Lurking under an understated and classy exterior is a mean horological machine with a perpetual calendar and double barrel power to last all week!

H. Moser & Cie. Perpetual. Image via H. Moser & Cie.

Featuring Moser’s award-winning calibre HMC 341, the Perpetual One has some clever tricks lurking inside. Just about every high-end manufacturer offers a perpetual calendar, but most are finicky affairs, relying on push-button correctors to manually override the calendar should it be set incorrectly, and can be broken if set during “unsafe hours”. The Moser has a clever system that allows the date to be set both backwards and forwards and instantly “flashes” to the next date precisely.

This tiny central arrow indicates the month using the hour indices. Image via H. Moser & Cie.

And the calendar display is just as slick. Rather than a half dozen apertures like Jaeger-LeCoultre, the Moser Perpetual has a very conventional date window at 3:00 and a super-subtle central arrow to show the month using the 12 hour scale. This is literally it: The leap year indicator is visible only through the clear case back instead of cluttering up the dial.

The movement is lovely and this Maltese Cross indicates the leap year status. Image via H. Moser & Cie.

The only real miscue in terms of clean stealth is the unsightly “Up/Down” lettering on the power reserve indicator at 9:00. Surely the owner could grasp the meaning of that pretty little hand without any lettering or marking at all. And then it would look even more like a simple hour marker, giving a bit more stealth.

Inside the in-house calibre we find some more delights. There’s a Breguet overcoil on the Straumann hairspring and a Moser escapement made of gold. The escapement is modular: During servicing, it can be swapped out with a fresh replacement rather than adjusted in place.

H. Moser & Cie isn’t as well-known as many luxury brands, and perhaps that’s another positive aspect of this timepiece: Most casual observers won’t have any idea you’re wearing a US$60k watch!

This particular Perpetual One is for sale for just US$27,900, which is quite reasonable given its rarity and design

We found this one, 10 months old and still with original factory warranty, papers, and box, listed at a very reasonable $27,900 over on PuristSPro. Given the high price, we always recommend vetting both the seller and the watch before wiring the money, but don’t see any reason to doubt that this stealth watch is a genuine bargain! It’s just too bad the listing isn’t more detailed and includes just the single photo.