H. Moser & Cie Redefines Design Purity With The Streamliner Perpetual Calendar

This minimalist of all perpetual calendars lives up to its collection name: Streamliner. The H. Moser & Cie Streamliner Perpetual Calendar doesn’t look like a conventional perpetual calendar, with day/date/month/leap year all displayed on the dial. Some brands, like Patek Philippe and Rolex, abbreviate or even spell out the day and date. Vintage IWC Da Vinci models included all four digits of the year. The Streamliner Perpetual Calendar sheds any such excess verbiage.

The date is the most prominent item on the dial, and it is displayed in a window at the conventional 4 o’clock position, yet unconventionally angled straight on rather than aligned with the index mark. This required the numerals to be positioned on at 26 degrees on the rotating disk beneath the window. The crown is also unconventionally positioned at 4 o’clock. Months are indicated by a tiny red and white hand on pointing to the corresponding numeral on the central dial – read months or hours, depending on which hand you’re looking at. The leap year indicator is removed from the front dial altogether and instead, positioned on the caseback. It’s there if you need it, but in the meantime, doesn’t break up the deliberate austerity of the dial. The date changes in a flash at midnight thanks to what Moser calls a “flash calendar” instantaneous date-change mechanism, and it can be adjusted forwards or backwards at any time of day. The staggered red and white outer minute track measures seconds.

The final finish also represents a contemporary take on high watchmaking. The hand wound HMC caliber 812 is decorated with double horizontal stripes and an anthracite grey PVD coating on the balance bridges, train wheels, barrel and escapement plate. The main plate is microblasted, with anthracite rhodium plating. The power reserve is an amazing 168 hours. The rounded curves of the Streamliner 42.3mm case are meant to evoke high-speed trains of the same name from the 1920s and ’30s. It is priced at $54,900.