Mens 1917 HY MOSER Vintage Military TRENCH WWI Watch

Henry Moser & Cie

UNIQUE AND RARE EXAMPLE OF TIMEPIECE
VERY BEAUTIFUL ANTIQUE WATCH CA 1917
VERY BEAUTIFUL MECHANICAL WORK

This ca 1917 gents WWI Military Officers watch. Indeed, it was made by the venerable Henry Moser & Company ("Hy Moser & Ce").

THE WATCHMAKER JOHANN HEINRICH MOSER

Johann Heinrich Moser was born and grew up in Schaffhausen in the traditions and experience of a watchmaking dynasty that had become established over the generations. Son and grandson of watchmakers he learned the traditional watchmaker’s craft from his father, Erhard Moser and from his grandfather Johannes Moser.

In 1824, he left Schaffhouse to set up in Locle where he perfected his knowledge in the presence of the greatest watchmakers of the time. Two years later, he tried to return and set up business in his home town, but the Municipal Council rejected his request to be given the honorary post of watchmaker to the town in favour of someone else.

Heinrich Moser & Co. came into being in 1828 and in 1829, Johann Heinrich Moser founded his watchmaking business in Locle to manufacture pocket watches.

As an ambitious and visionary watchmaker, Johann Heinrich Moser decided to set up in business in Russia. Tsarist Russia at the time was regarded as an excellent labour and sales market and as a sound trading base for watches.

After several employed positions as a watchmaker, he founded his own company in St. Petersburg at the end of 1828. This marked the hour of inception of the greatly successful brand, Hy Moser & Cie. Alongside precision watches and watches designed as pieces of jewellery, Johann Heinrich Moser also offered a range of simple watches.

As he built up his trading network, he came to realize that a successful wholesaler should also be a manufacturer. Johann Heinrich Moser accordingly established a watch factory in Le Locle in 1829, which produced watches exclusively for his businesses. This allowed him to guarantee the high quality of his products. Eventually, he was made an honorary citizen of Le Locle in acknowledgement of his services to the town in the Swiss Jura.

Johann Heinrich Moser’s constant quest for quality was crowned by success. In 1831, he opened a subsidiary in Moscow, and became supplier to the Tsars, the Royal Families, the Imperial Court and the Russian Army.

Within just a few years, he was selling watches to Persia, China, Japan and Turkestan. Johann Heinrich Moser also developed sales of his watches in Siberia and Kamchatka as well as New York and Paris, where his brother Georg Moser was working as a watchmaker. Only 15 years after starting his company, Johann Heinrich Moser was the undisputed market leader in the Russian watch trade. In 1845, the Johann Heinrich Moser companies in Russia employed around fifty people.

Having become a prosperous watchmaker, Johann Heinrich Moser decided to return and settle definitively in his home town of Schaffhouse at the end of 1848 where he had the Charlottenfels castle built. He became one of the key figures in the town, participating actively in its development.

COMPANY AND BRAND NAME “HY MOSER & Co”

The 1st internationally active company founded by Johann Heinrich Moser was the St. Petersburg trading company, Hy Moser & Co. From this name, he developed the company signature in Latin and in Cyrillic script, which was almost always accompanied by a medallion. Until about 1918, these symbols were the standard signature on all watches supplied by Heinrich Moser’s watch company. In 1829, Johann Heinrich Moser opened a watch factory in Locle, which also bore the name “Hy Moser & Co.”.

The Russian operation had to be abandoned in 1917 in the aftermath of the October Revolution.

In about 1920, Moscow founded the “Central watch repair workshop” on the ashes of the Moser watchmaking factories of old Tzarist Russia. For the seventy-year period of the “Soviet Union” Henry Moser watches would remain synonymous with work of a superior quality for the leaders of the eastern bloc. As proof of this, in 1966, the USSR presented one of its high-ranking military staff a Moser pocket watch in 18-carat gold, dating from before 1917 (this collector’s piece has now been bought back by Moser Schaffhausen AG).

The name of Henry Moser also died out in this branch of the family in 1923 with the death of Heinrich Moser’s only son, who had no male offspring.

In 2002, Dr. Jürgen Lange and the great-grandson of Johann Heinrich Moser, Roger Nicholas Balsiger, jointly with private investors, founded the watch company Moser Schaffhausen AG. Dr. Lange also registered the original brand H. Moser & Cie again internationally.It was a time of renaissance for the Moser Schaffhausen AG and the reintegration of the Henry Moser lineage.

Watches of "Henry Moser" were so popular and demanded that there were their fakes. Therefore, in trading price-lists of these firms, among the list of addresses of shops, types of watches and the prices for them, there were so-called "CAUTIONS". For example, in the Trading price-list of factory of Moser for March, 1906 it is written, that " for elimination of cases of abusing by some dealers by the name of our firm we consider necessary to recommend wishing to get watches of our factory to pay special attention on that - whether it is placed on offered watches per brands available on them and inscriptions in French before a surname "MOSER & Ce" letters "Hy" as only with such brands and inscriptions watches are really products sew factories". These cautions are useful and to modern collectors of watches.

Today, Roger Nicholas Balsiger, great grandson of Johann Heinrich Moser, heads the company’s administrative council as its honorary president.

In the autumn of 2005, for the 200th anniversary of its founder, the company reappeared on the international watchmaking scene.

TIME LINE

1730 - Johannes Moser, grandfather of Heinrich Moser, is born in Schaffhausen. After an apprenticeship as a watchmaker, he assumes the honorary position of town watchmaker. He later becomes a magistrate in the local court.

1760 - Erhard Moser, father of Heinrich Moser, is born in Schaffhausen. He succeeds his father in the position of town watchmaker, and he is a member of the Cantonal Council and Town Commissioner.

1805 - Johann Heinrich Moser is born on 12 December. He learns the traditional watchmaker’s craft from his father between 1820 and 1824.

1824 -Heinrich Moser continues his training in Le Locle in the master watchmakers’ workshops in the town. He rapidly gains respect as a skilled watchmaker, and he starts a small business to supply spare parts. After about eighteen months, Moser receives offers of work from Italy and Paris.

1826 - Moser works on his own account for the first time by building clocks into cases and pieces of furniture.

1827 - The prospects of good business draw Moser to St. Petersburg. After an adventurous journey, he starts work as a watchmaker in the local workshops.

1828 - Moser opens the trading company H. Moser & Co. in St. Petersburg. His watches are characterized by their high quality. Not a single watch is allowed to pass over the shop counter until it has been inspected personally by him or by one of his representatives. The business is very successful.

1829 - In order to maintain this claim to superior quality, Moser establishes a watch factory in Le Locle to produce watches exclusively for his businesses.

1848 - Moser returns to Schaffhausen as a prosperous merchant and watch manufacturer. He sees his new challenge as the transformation of the quiet town of Schaffhausen into a lively and attractive industrial location. At the same time, he builds the magnificent Charlottenfels country manor house for his family.

1851 - Moser completes the construction of a canal on the Rhine, which supplies the water to drive a turbine.

1853 - In a joint venture with other Schaffhausen personalities, Moser establishes Schweizerische Waggonfabrik bei Schaffhausen (Swiss Wagonworks at Schaffhausen) and Schweizerische Industriegesellschaft (SIG) Neuhausen (Swiss Industrial Company Neuhausen). Moser is a co-founder of the Schaffhausen-Winterthur railway line. He opens a workshop for the manufacture of watch cases in Schaffhausen.

1860 - Moser becomes a customer of Jaeger-LeCoultre. Over time, he sources up to 64 different calibres, including 24 complications.

1863 -Moser embarks on the construction of the largest Swiss dam on the Rhine, to supply neighbouring industrial companies with inexpensive energy via a power transmission system. This hydroelectric power station marks the start of the industrial age in Schaffhausen.

1868 - Moser supports Ariosto Jones in the foundation of the International Watch Company (IWC), by providing premises and energy to drive the machines.

1874 - Heinrich Moser dies on 23 October. His will names his second wife, Fanny Moser, as the heiress of all his business interests.

1877 - Fanny Moser sells the entire Russian trading operation as well as the watch factory in Le Locle to the respective general managers. The contracts of sale stipulate that all successor companies must continue to operate in perpetuity under the company names “H. Moser & Cie” or “Heinrich Moser & Co.”.

1917 - The Russian October Revolution completely eradicates the watch market in the country that is dominated by the Swiss watchmakers. The last of the Swiss Directors of the Moser company return to Switzerland totally expropriated in early 1918. The business in Le Locle attempts to compensate for the loss of the Russian markets through increased exports to other countries.

1920 - The State-owned “Central Watch Repair Workshop” in Moscow is formed from the remains of the Moser watch businesses.

1953 - Wristwatch production in Le Locle is expanded, and the proportion of pocket watches produced decreases steadily. Some of the watches also bear the name “Henry Moser”, in spite of this being in breach of the 1877 agreements.

1973 - H. Moser & Co. is mentioned as a manufacturer of precision lever escapement watches and special watches, predominantly in 18-carat gold and in cases set with precious stones. The quartz watch crisis that is widespread in the Swiss watch industry also affects the business in Le Locle.

1979 - The watch factory in Le Locle becomes part of the Dixi Mechanique Group and trades as “Hy Moser & Cie.”.

2002 - The original brand of the founder, H. Moser & Cie, is once more registered internationally by Dr. Jürgen Lange. The Moser Schaffhausen AG watch company is launched jointly with representatives of Heinrich Moser’s family as a successor company. The great-grandson of Heinrich Moser, Roger Nicholas Balsiger, is today Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors.

2005 - To mark the bicentenary of Heinrich Moser’s birth, the successor company Moser Schaffhausen AG, under the H. Moser & Cie brand, is once again launching a range of watches that are faithful to the legacy of the founding father on the international watch arena.

The dial features a crisp 60 minute outer track, original steel hands, Arabic numerals, a 24 Hour Military inner track with RED numbering and a recessed sub-seconds dial with 60 second outer chapter and “sweep” steel seconds hand. The new dial has been professionally updated, and now is in excellent condition.

The case is steel and is in as close to good condition as is possible for vintage watch of WWI-Era. The inside of the case lid is signed HY MOSER & CE.

Removing this lid reveals a beautiful nickel-finished 15 jewel movement that is signed HM & CO. within the firm's trademark "Coat of Arms".

This beautiful wristwatch has the original movement in an excellent status which was very well saved, considering age of this watch. Mechanism has been recently serviced to ensure it winds and sets smoothly while keeping great, accurate time.

It’s a really RARE caliber for Henry Moser of the mechanism. Below the balance wheel is the caliber number, stamped 16.47.

This is a “NAIL SET” watch so you don’t pull the crown out to set the time. Instead, you press the little button below the crown IN and then move the crown to set the hands, releasing the button once you’re finished. It’s easy, so don’t worry about getting the hang of it!

It comes complete with a new 16mm black Military genuine leather strap with matching chrome steel buckle for a most excellent look.

Diameter (with crown):        44.00 mm
Diameter (without crown):   40.00 mm
Watch crystal diameter:       37.00 mm
Thickness:                          12.50 mm

This very fine watch winds and sets very smoothly while keeping very good, accurate time.