Timeline of perpetual calendars H. Moser & Cie.: 2013–2016.

The brand changed hands again in 2012, when MELB Holding founded by former Audemars Piguet CEO Georges-Henri Meylan became the new owner. By that stage, the aesthetic demands of the brand's clients were already known — primarily connoisseurs of haute horlogerie and collectors who shared a clear preference for models with bright, impactful fumé dials.

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The brand's new owners went with the flow without trying to give the brand's image another makeover. It's surprising that they managed to resist the temptation. It makes you inclined to believe that the decision to acquire H. Moser & Cie. was thought through in advance from a business point of view, and the new owners' personal preferences clearly took a backseat.

This was probably the best takeover scenario for the brand and its fan community. That's why if you look at the full range of perpetual calendar models manufactured under Meylan, you won't see watches that have the classic type of design with silver-tone dials which filled the brand's collection in 2005-2006.

In the years that followed from 2013 and up until now, you'd struggle to find more than a handful of references with monotone, non-gradient dials, and these would largely be models with stone or enamel dials.

That's the reason why it now seems to make perfect sense that one of the first premieres launched under the brand's new ownership was the Perpetual 1 (Endeavour Perpetual Calendar) with a blue fumé dial in white gold with a blue gradient sunburst dial, which was limited to 20 pieces. By the looks of it, the Perpetual 1 (Endeavour Perpetual Calendar) Midnight Blue Ref. 1341-0110 model in rose gold with a blue sunburst dial was introduced around the same time.

It was only in 2014 that the new owners began to restructure the brand's collections, which ushered in a selection that conformed to the conventional genres, which usually feature collections for classic watches, sports watches, vintage models, jewelry watches, complicated mechanical models etc.

In particular, all the earlier classic style elements from Mayu, Monard, Nomad and Perpetual 1 were combined in the Endeavour collection. And so the Perpetual 1 became the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar. The first novelties in this collection were two black designs, introduced in the same year of 2014.

One was the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Black Edition Ref. 1341-0500 with an imposing black DLC-coated titanium case and a black monotone dial with gold hands and applied indexes. The introduction of this regular collection model was followed by a limited edition (ten pieces): the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Black Golden Edition Ref. 1341-0501 in a black DLC-coated titanium case with a golden sunburst fumé dial.

It housed an exclusive version of caliber HMC 341 with bridges and a mainplate made of solid gold — an extremely rare option in the H. Moser & Cie. collection. As if that weren't enough, the movement was also equipped with the Straumann double hairspring. 

In 2015, the brand made a very important innovation. Developing the concept of their fumé dial, H. Moser & Cie. decided to launch watches with dials in even brighter, richer tones. The 2015 Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue Fumé Ref. 1341-0207 in white gold sported a fumé dial in a new shade of blue nicknamed Funky Blue.

To this day, it's still one of the most popular dial tones in the brand's line. We should note that Ref. 1341-0207 used the same dial configuration seen on the original Perpetual 1 from 2006. The brand abandoned this design on two Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept models introduced a year later in 2016.

The new design adheres to the same general logic: bright, impactful fumé dial tones accentuated by a Concept design that scraps all dial markings: indexes, signatures, and even the logo.

This is particularly striking on the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Funky Blue Fumé Ref. 1341-1200 (limited edition of 10 pieces), where three distinguishing features were combined in one: an impactful Funky Blue Fumé dial, the minimalistic Concept design, and the brand's first case in stainless steel.

It's also worth pointing out that in this specific case, the Concept design also means no small seconds or power reserve indication on the dial, while bringing back the HMC 341 perpetual calendar movement featuring the flash date indication in an aperture, central hand for the month, and leap-year indication on the caseback.

This is probably the most minimalistic mechanical perpetual calendar in the entire history of watchmaking. Straight after the model was launched, H. Moser & Cie. CEO Edouard Meylan highlighted the fact that this watch looks nothing like your average perpetual calendar.

The new watch was even more minimalistic than fans could have hoped for — and this is from a brand whose watches are already synonymous with a minimalistic, uncluttered and practical design.

The launch of this perpetual calendar was accompanied by another model with a Concept dial: the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Ref. 1341-0208 (ten-piece limited edition) in white gold with a gray fumé dial.

And another watch was launched that rarely resurfaces on the pre-owned market: the Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue Fumé Titanium DLC Ref. 1341-0505 (ten-piece limited edition) in a black DLC-coated titanium case with a Funky Blue dial. This watch is notable because it appears to be the last Endeavour Perpetual Calendar model with a dial in the original Perpetual 1 layout.

H. Moser & Cie. is an old brand which has been writing its history since 1828, so it's hardly surprising that they eventually decided to offer a watch with a vintage design. This happened in 2016, when one of the most original and rare watches in the modern history of H. Moser & Cie. was introduced: the Perpetual Calendar Heritage Limited Edition Ref. 8341-0400 (ten-piece limited edition), in rose gold.

Although from a functional point of view, it's identical to the regular perpetual H. Moser & Cie. calendar, the materials and finishing are vastly different here. First and foremost, we should mention that the watch is equipped with an exclusive version of the signature caliber HMC 341, where the bridges and mainplate are made of solid gold and decorated with a traditional frosted finish.

Apart from that, the movement is equipped with the signature double hairspring, while the balance is held between two diamond cap jewels. The dial is coated with white enamel, and the rose-gold case is decorated with a guilloché pattern filled with translucent blue cloisonné enamel. The case has a hinged caseback and dial cover.

The cover over the dial is encrusted with diamonds, engraved with a guilloché pattern, and filled with translucent blue enamel, like the pocket watch by H. Moser & Cie. from the 19th century, which served as the source of inspiration to create this watch. Edouard Meylan explained that he'd bought a small pocket watch from a collector, decorated in a style reminiscent of Fabergé.

Given that the history of the brand H. Moser & Cie has Russian roots, Meylan came up with the idea of launching a model to celebrate the 188th anniversary of the company founded in Russia in 1828 — a timepiece with an external appearance inspired by the design of pocket watches from that era.

The third famous launch in 2016 was a new perpetual calendar, created for the sporty Pioneer collection. Contrary to what you might expect from a sports watch, the case of the Pioneer Perpetual Calendar Ref. 3800-0900 was made of red gold and black DLC-coated titanium with a gradient deep gray Ardoise Fumé dial, and contrasting golden hands and indexes.

But what's probably more important is that this watch was given an updated HMC 800 movement. For all intents and purposes, this is a second-generation HMC 341, reworked by the brand, although visually almost indistinguishable from the HMC 341.

The main difference that you can see without taking the movement apart are the number of jewels: the HMC 800 has 32, while the HMC 341 had 28. Like the first-generation movement, the HMC 800 was equipped with an interchangeable escapement module, usually fitted with an original Straumann hairspring with stabilized Breguet overcoil.

Only rare models are given the double Straumann hairspring. From 2017, all perpetual calendars by H. Moser & Cie. were equipped with HMC 800 or modifications of it.

Previosly (part I)

Credits provided by: www.h-moser.com