COMPANY AND BRAND NAME
The first internationally active company founded by Heinrich Moser in 1828 was the St. Petersburg trading company, H. Moser & Co. From this name, he developed the company signature in Latin and Cyrillic script, which was almost always accompanied by a seal. In 1829, he opened a watch factory in Le Locle under the name «H. Moser & Cie» or also «H. Moser & Co.». These trade marks were used as the standard signature on all the watches supplied by Moser’s watch business until around 1918.
His watches were of the best quality, and Heinrich Moser personally paid painstaking attention to purchasing only from the best suppliers and producing at the highest level.
The range at times consisted of up to 70 different calibres. Moser sold to the Imperial Court, to various princes and to the armed forces. In Japan, China and Persia, but also in Paris and New York: The name H. Moser & Cie stood for quality and met the highest expectations throughout the world.
Heinrich Moser also included other watch companies among his customers. For example, the famous Fabergé table clocks were equipped almost without exception with movements produced by Moser; even at that time, incidentally, these clocks had two spring barrels arranged in series.
Following Heinrich Moser’s death, his second wife Fanny sold the two businesses with the proviso that they would continue to operate under the name «H. Moser & Cie» or «Heinrich Moser & Co.». In spite of this measure, it was eventually no longer possible to assure the uniformity of the company name. The style «Hy Moser & Cie» was evidently also used in Le Locle. By 1979, the watch factory had become a part of the Dixi Mechanique Group as «Hy Moser & Cie». Since then, the only trade in Moser watches has been in the antique market.
The Russian operation had already been expropriated without compensation in 1917 in the aftermath of the October Revolution. Around the year 1920, the stateowned «Central Watch Repair Workshop» was formed in Moscow from the remains of the Moser watch businesses, from which a watch production facility of its own would eventually emerge. Moser watches continued to be regarded as synonymous with work of the highest quality for some considerable time afterwards. In 1966, the government of what was the USSR presented one of its highranking military officers with an original Moser pocket watch in 18-carat gold, dating from the period before the expropriation and bearing an engraved dedication for his services to the implantation of communism. This watch is now back in the company museum.
Heinrich Moser’s only son had no surviving offspring, and with his death in 1923, the name of Moser also died out in this branch of the family.
Dr. Jürgen Lange and the great-grandson of Heinrich Moser, Roger Nicholas Balsiger, jointly with private investors, founded the Moser Schaffhausen AG watch company in 2002. Dr. Jürgen Lange also registered the original H. Moser & Cie brand again internationally.
The sites occupied by the company today are located, according to Heinrich Moser’s original plan, in Schaffhausen and Neuhausen in the immediate vicinity of the Rhine Falls. To this day, however, the extraordinary Moser watches are also produced in the Swiss Jura.
Moser watches of the new era combine horological passion with authentic tradition. Mechanical movements of the best quality, developed by the company and used exclusively in its watches, combine innovation with maximum customer benefit. Creative and horological traditions ensure that the new watches also have a high degree of brand recognition.
The story came full circle with the 200th anniversary of Heinrich Moser’s birth in 2005: The H. Moser & Cie brand has returned to Schaffhausen.
PRESENT-DAY COMPANY BUILDING IN NEUHAUSEN NEAR THE RHINE FALLS
