Limited to 20 pieces, the Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Cosmic Rain combines a minute repeater and flying tourbillon with a shooting-star-inspired aventurine and mother-of-pearl subdial
H. Moser & Cie., the independent watchmaker known for pairing technical ambition with an irreverent streak, made more than a few enthusiasts’ wishes come true when it unveiled the Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton earlier this year. Fully openworked and mechanically uncompromising, the watch brought together two of haute horlogerie’s most demanding complications—a minute repeater and a flying tourbillon with a cylindrical hairspring—within an architecture designed to accentuate their complexity.
Now, as though doubling down on that dream, the maison has introduced a more celestial interpretation of the watch. Named the Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton Cosmic Rain, the new edition transforms its small time display into a night sky crossed by mother-of-pearl shooting stars, set against a shimmering aventurine backdrop. And while making a wish upon one may not bring the watch any closer to your wrist, it feels apt for a creation that looks like something drawn from an artistic imagination.
This new expression is most vivid in the domed subdial at 2 o’clock, the only substantial expanse of colour within an otherwise mechanical landscape. Fragments of aventurine glass in two shades of blue are applied by hand to create Moser’s familiar fumé effect, with a brighter centre gradually deepening towards the edge. The dial is then fired several times before thin strips of mother-of-pearl are cut, curved, and set into its engraved surface.
Their iridescent lines stretch across the blue field like meteors caught in motion. With no hour markers to interrupt the composition, the effect is pure, leaving only a pair of leaf-shaped hands to indicate the time. The result is a small and luminous counterpoint to the geometry and metallic transparency of the skeletonised calibre.
Beyond its artistry, Cosmic Rain retains the formidable mechanical construction of the original. Its minute repeater is arranged on the dial side, placing the mirror-polished hammers and curved gongs between approximately 9 and 11 o’clock. Achieving this display required far more than opening up an existing movement. The calibre had to be designed around the repeater, the tourbillon and the need for structural rigidity, with the gongs arranged on the same plane to avoid interfering with the regulating organ below.
At 6 o’clock, the one-minute flying tourbillon provides another focal point. It is fitted with a cylindrical hairspring produced by Moser’s sister company, Precision Engineering AG, and shaped entirely by hand. Unlike a conventional flat hairspring, its coils rise vertically around the balance staff, a configuration historically associated with marine chronometers and prized for its concentric breathing.
Housed in a 40mm titanium case which has been hollowed to form a resonant chamber for volume adn clarity, the timepiece is powered by the manually wound HMC 909 and offers a 90-hour power reserve.
