Antique 14K Gold \"Hy. Moser & Cie\" Pocket/Pendant Watch, Rare and Beautiful
![Antique 14K Gold \](img-large/g/BWAAAOSwe4ZZlhGg/s-l1600/Antique-14K-Gold-Hy-Moser-Cie-Pocket-Pendant-Watch.jpg "Antique 14K Gold \")
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Antique 14K Gold \"Hy. Moser & Cie\" Pocket/Pendant Watch, Rare and Beautiful:
$1595.00
This beautiful antique timepiece was crafted in 14K Gold, by renowned 19th century watchmaker, Hy. (Heinrich) Moser. The hue of the gold is a very pale pink color, and the dial is a bright white enamel finish, with Roman numeral markers. A sub-second dial is at the 6-location of the dial.The watch’s movement features all of its original parts, and was serviced by a certified watchmaker from a highly-reputable nationally-known watch company approximately two years ago. During the service, the movement\'s parts were cleaned and oiled, and the timekeeping was adjusted. Following testing, the watchmaker said it kept remarkably good time for the age of the timepiece. While the movement was being serviced, the case, and other gold-work, was lightly-polished to remove most of the surface scratches. The result is a beautiful high-polished luster, with only very minor surface imperfections. Under magnification, I can also see very small signs of wear around the edge of the crystal. This watch is a \"pin-setting\" style, which requires depressing the pin while turning the crown to set the time.
The store carried the recently-relaunched H. Moser watches, and so, you’ll see a couple of photos of this watch displayed next to the current, modern version of a Moser timepiece! It was very cool to see them next to each other. Note that this watch is slightly smaller in diameter, at approximately 32mm, than the modern watch, which is approximately 40mm.
The open-face watch features an opening crystal-frame, as well as a double-opening caseback. After opening the outer caseback, the polished inside portion of the outer caseback is revealed, and contains all of the manufacturer’s engravings. The second caseback covers the movement, and is also polished, with an engraved script-style inscription, which reads: “Alice Jaccard 1912”. I was intrigued by the presence of the name and date, and so I did some research to see if I could find any historical information on this person. The details of my findings follow further below, along with an article I found online regarding the history of the Moser company.
This is a very beautiful timepiece, created when the Moser watch brand was considered one of the finest brands in the world, and was a very popular timepiece for the affluent citizens of Europe, Asia, and Russia. You’ll read more about the Russian connection in the article below – it’s very interesting reading! You’ll also learn about the IWC connection. This watch is ready to go into your pocket or handbag. Or, put a chain on it, and it’s ready to be worn around the neck. Or, perhaps you\'ll just use it as a beautiful decorative timepiece, displayed with your other treasures. There is no original box for this timepiece, so it will be shipped in the black velvet box that is shown in the photos.
If you should find yourself near Schaffhausen, you can visit the Moser Family Museum . . . here is a link to their contact info. Partial History of this Watch
There are generally two reasons that explain why a watch would have a name engraved on it. The person whose name is engraved may have received the watch as a gift to commemorate an occasion. Or, the person whose name is engraved may have presented the watch to a loved one as a remembrance. This beautiful watch is engraved with the name, Alice Jaccard, and dated 1912. I have researched the name, and discovered who I believe may have been the original purchaser, or receiver, of the watch. The Jaccard surname originates from Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, which is only 26 miles from where the Hy. Moser & Cie watch factory was located in Le Locle. The Jaccard family genealogy website provides a listing of all traceable family members. There was more than one Alice Jaccard living during this time period. But, one in particular was born in a year that would make 1912 a significant date to commemorate with an engraving, so perhaps the watch was a gift to her. Alice Julia Jaccard was born in 1892, in the small village of La Gittaz, adjacent to Sainte-Croix. Her father, Eugene-Ulysse Jaccard, was born in 1862, and died in Switzerland in 1939. Alice’s mother was Julia-Lina Gonthier, and was born in 1859. She passed away in 1897, when Alice was only 5 years old. This particular Alice would have celebrated her 20th birthday in 1912 - an occasion which would have been suitable for the presentation of an engraved solid gold watch. There is, of course, no way to know for sure if this particular Alice Jaccard is in fact the original owner of this watch, but the proximity of her residence to the Moser factory, and the significance of the date gives some evidence to the possibility. It is well known that, although Moser watches were sold in various parts of Europe, Heinrich Moser made his fortune selling his watches to the affluent market in Tsar-era Russia. Although the Moser watch brand was resurrected a few years ago, the new company’s representative told me that most of the original archives have been lost, except for what has been placed in the Moser Museum. So, it appears that there is no way to trace individual sales, or even the specific locations of sales outlets within Russia, Switzerland, and the rest of Europe, although it is likely that there were indeed sales outlets in the Le Locle, Sainte- Croix, and the surrounding areas of Switzerland. There is no death record for this particular Alice Jaccard in the family archives, and I was not able to trace Alice through her marriage to Constant-Alexis Bettex. Thus, at this point, I have discovered no conclusive evidence of how this watch ended up in the United States, or that it did, in fact, belong to the Alice mentioned in my research . . . it remains only a possibility, and would require someone with better researching skills that I have to resolve the history definitively.
Moser Article Found Online
Moser watches are often overlooked by newcomer collectors who are not familiar with this obscure brand, but in fact, for the advanced enthusiast looking for exceptionally high quality early vintage watches, they are well worth considering. Good, investment grade H. Moser watches from the pre-war years are not easy to find and at any one time, but for a connoisseur wanting to add something just that bit different to their collection, they might be just what the doctor ordered.
It is noticeable that some of the collectors who have heard of H. Moser watches are aware that there is a link between Moser and the IWC Company, but in many instances, they aren’t quite sure what this actually constitutes. Heinrich Moser grew up in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen and learned his skills as a watchmaker there. Following a disagreement with the town’s council, he set up business in St. Petersburg in 1828 and catered to the lucrative upper class Russian market. It should be remembered that this was the era of the Tsars, long before communism, and firms like Moser and Faberge carved out a niche serving the ultra-wealthy aristocracy for whom price simply wasn’t an issue. Indeed, it is worth commenting that H.Moser supplied Faberge with almost all the clock and watch movements used in its spectacular creations, including all of the four eggs equipped with clock mechanisms that were produced for Tsar Nicholas II in the early 1900s.
While sales of H. Moser watches were predominantly to Russian buyers, manufacturing was at the company’s facility in Le Locle, back in Switzerland. Moser’s reputation for extreme quality grew and it became a significant player in the export markets of China, Japan and Persia.Heinrich Moser died in 1877, but the business continued to flourish under the direction of Paul Girard, to whom Moser’s wife sold it after her husband’s demise. The standard of the H. Moser watches produced at this time was exquisite and certainly the equal of that of any of the top tier Swiss houses serving the European and British market.
H. Moser’s cozy situation was upset dramatically in 1917 with the October revolution in Russia. The Tsar was violently deposed and the capitalist system ceased to exist, suddenly depriving H. Moser of the fabulously wealthy, high society customers that it specifically catered to.Remarkably, the company didn’t fail in 1917 and continued to operate until the 1970s, but it was never a major force in the European market, which is a shame. The quality of its watches remained second to none, but having concentrated on building up a very successful business in Russia and then losing this suddenly, one gets the feeling that commercially, it was always playing catch up with other houses like Rolex and Omega, which already had strong European distribution networks in place by the time Moser reappeared as a competitor.
The link between IWC and Moser came about due to a meeting in 1866 between F.A Jones, the founder of IWC, and Heinrich Moser. The latter had returned from Russia extremely wealthy and invested a portion of his money into the building of the first hydro-electric power plant in his home town of Schaffhausen. Jones was very impressed with Moser’s ideas and the two collaborated on the project of using hydro-electricity as the power source for the IWC factory. Indeed, IWC became the first watch factory in the world to have its power provided in this way. Later, Jones would purchase land for an enlarged IWC manufacturing facility from Moser’s company.
Due to recent events, H.Moser watches seem strong candidates for investment. After having laid dormant for some time, the H. Moser name has reappeared, with a range of superb new watches manufactured in Schaffhausen, birthplace of Heinrich Moser and, of course, home of IWC. These items are getting a great deal of publicity in the specialist media and it seems inevitable that the profile, and therefore values, of antique H.Moser watches will be raised sharply as a result.
Antique 14K Gold \"Hy. Moser & Cie\" Pocket/Pendant Watch, Rare and Beautiful:
$1595.00