Andrew Morgan

Andrew Morgan reviews the Streamliner Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon

When you think of a perpetual calendar, the visual that typically comes to mind is a dial crammed with information that’s relevant once — when setting — and then relatively unimportant until you forget to wind the watch and have to reset it. But of course, H. Moser & Cie. does things differently. A prime example of their unique approach is the Streamliner Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

27 September 2024

5min read

The watch everybody wants

You’ll know this Streamliner as the watch that everybody wants. Its streamed lines are some of the most elegant to ever be seen on a wrist, combining the grace of traditional watchmaking with the design-forward approach of 70s high horology. Throw in a pinch of 1920s retro-futuristic smoothing and you get a wristwatch for the ages.

It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before, and it takes more than a few looks to really take it all in. At first you’re like, ‘Yes, that’s an integrated watch,’ and then you realise that actually it has the world’s tiniest lugs and it’s really a cushion case. Then there’s the bracelet, which on first inspection appears to have a flat profile, but actually starts high and then dips down before rising up at the centre again. There are so many subtle compound curves in this thing that it was probably easier to design a space shuttle.

A second look

The Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon gets the limited run dial from the Streamliner Centre Seconds Smoked Salmon, again to be produced for one year only. As a concept watch, there are no markers, no logo, and as we’ll discover, even the perpetual calendar is so minimal it barely even registers.

You might remember the rise in popularity of salmon as a dial colour, typically exhibited as a light copper, having resurfaced after a brief stint in popularity in the 1920s. This makes it the perfect colour combination for the Streamliner, although simply replicating the colour isn’t very Moser. For their unique Smoked Salmon, Moser combined that light copper colour with its classic 200-step fumé finish to create an astonishing dial.

Pictures alone cannot do this dial justice. How it looks varies wildly with the light and the angle that light is coming from. So it never looks the same. Like with all the very best and most beautiful watches, reading this timepiece always takes two looks. Not because the time is hard to read, but because it’s easy to forget that’s what you were doing.

An exception to the norm

The perpetual calendar was first introduced into Moser’s collection in 2005, and like the Smoked Salmon dial, it doesn’t adhere to the norm. Where every other high-end watchmaker was adding more to their perpetual calendars, Moser figured out that all anyone really needed from their perpetual calendar was the date.

To keep the date accurate, changing at the right places on short months and especially at the end of February, taking into account the four year leap cycle, all that extra information can’t be done without. Here’s how Moser packaged it all away.

The date is large and prominent at four o’clock on the dial, and changes instantly at midnight, so there’s no lazy swap from one to the other over several hours. That’s the good bit. We need that bit. The crown can be adjusted both forwards and backwards without any costly trips to the service centre. The next thing that’s needed is the month. Given that there are twelve months in the year and twelve hours on the dial, it makes sense to get a twofer and get them doing double duty. So there’s a vestigial hand at the bottom of the stack that indicates the month.

Lastly what’s needed is the position in that four-year leap cycle, and that can be found on the back of the calibre HMC 812. There’s a hidden pusher at 10 o’clock, roughly where the power reserve display points, and that advances the leap disc forward.

Oh, and whilst you’re there, you might as well stop to admire the partially skeletonised base plate, big screwed chatons and the doubled-up striping complete with a dark grey finish. There’s no rotor weight clogging the view, and its absence keeps the 42.3mm case at an ideal height of just 11mm without the crystal. The tiny lugs make that case diameter very comfortable on almost every wrist.

This timepiece comes with a power reserve, indicated at nine o’clock, of 7 days thanks to the double barrel of the HMC 812.

Made to be worn, not worried over

Moser made this watch to wear, not to worry over, so it also comes with 120m of water resistance and is as wearable as any other sports watch you might consider. Okay, so the date isn’t going to be particularly handy on a dive, but then it’s quite a feat to craft a grand complication that you can take below the waves.

Complexity without clutter

It’s hard to think who this watch is made for, or rather it’s hard to think who this watch isn’t made for. It’s complex without being cluttered, high horology without being haughty, and eye-catching without being in-your-face. And really, it begs the question: why wear something boring when you could be wearing this instead?

Streamliner Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon

To be produced for one year only, the Streamliner Perpetual Calendar Concept Smoked Salmon combines H. Moser & Cie.’s singular steel bracelet watch with its most minimalistic rendition of the perpetual calendar with instantaneous date change function. Visually pure, its smoked salmon fumé concept dial with a vertically brushed griffé finish is devoid of any logo or indices.

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