SWISS MAD

H. Moser & Cie is still crazy after all these years, but even as it races around the track with Alpine, it is still all about people

- WORDS ASHOK SOMAN

What does a manufacture that makes watches out of cheese look like...or maybe that should be what could it possibly taste like, never mind how it smells! What if the same manufacture also made a watch out of plants, which were literally alive on the case so it was less a watch than the world's first and only wrist garden? We might also wonder about the smell of such a watch, but we digress... Of course, the benefit of making a watch case out of dairy and one that is alive (affectionately dubbed Moser Nature) is that you automatically know which watchmaker we are discussing...if the pictures and description did not spoil it.

The irony is that H. Moser & Cie's manufacture at Neuhausen am Rheinfall looks pretty much any other contemporary watch manufacturing facility, minus the bombast of some. In many ways, it is the not-perfect-but-just-right expression of a family-owned brand that is steadfast in its independence. H. Moser & Cie., under the quietly defiant stewardship of the Meylan family, has cultivated a reputation for being technically masterful, audaciously creative and, at its best, unexpectedly funny. It is a brand that honours tradition by tastefully (sometimes) breaking its rules, proving that true luxury is, above all, rare. Alright, that is a bit much, even if it is true. Allow us to back all this up, without the help of any one H. Moser & Cie watch...

FROM IMPERIAL RUSSIA WITH LOVE