A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to chat with H. Moser & Cie CEO Edouard Meylan. We met on the fifth floor of an elegant hotel in the center of Milan, in a white suite inside which, on a large marble table, there were about twenty Moser watches… this must be Paradise. To welcome us, with his usual charismatic manner and his impeccable professionalism, it was Edouard Meylan.

For the occasion, we discussed the potential of independents, the exhibition sector and of course Moser’s past, present and future. Now, without further ado, I leave you to the full interview!

Our interview with Edouard Meylan

What is the right question to ask you?
I think the right question is what excites me? What keeps me going?
I was doing the team assessment the other day, one of the goals was to understand from the people what excited them to work for Moser. I had to ask myself the same thing. So the question that I think is the right one is: what makes me still happy to be working on this after 10 years. It takes one hour to go, one hour to come back. Travel the world. What’s funny about this job? You can get bored of so many things. Instead, I am happy to wake up and go to meet my colleagues and work on this or that project. I love having to think about how to increase production, meet customers, retailers. When you are a free and independent entrepreneur you can really choose what you want but you have to make sure your people are happy. These are the things that stimulate me.

What is your favourite watch among the ones we have on the table?
They asked me twice today and I answered: the Endeavor Perpetual Calendar fumé blue dial.

Which function do you like best and which is your best seller?
Il solo tempo è quello su cui facciamo più volumi, anche se lo fermiamo a fine anno. Ma tutti ci danno soddisfazioni. Il cronografo a me piace di più.

You launched six pieces in 2022, four of them where over the top, is this a strategy to put Moser on another level?
You can’t launch everything you imagine during the year. We want to build the different collections we have, so we divide the ideas that come to us over those already present. We always want to take Moser to another level, so every launch must have an extra step from a technical, design, or artisan point of view. 2022 is almost over but we have a lot of great things for 2023. Three launches that will be at this year’s level.

Is the Endeavor collection always on your plans?
The Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack and the Pioneer Cylindrical Tourbillon made people talk. We had limited production capacity and we made these choices. With 2000 movements available, we decided to make the most of them by making pieces of this level in order to then be able to invest in new machinery and improve the company structure. Luxury is something that must make you dream. The two tourbillons are the stars you go to admire, and you think about what’s possible. But then the entry level is what is most popular. However, it is nice to know that the brand has this type of productive and qualitative capacity. Thanks to the Pioneer Tourbillon, for example, people know we do spirals because they can see it clearly, and it gives us a conversation kickstart. Indeed here are two double hairspring. So we will continue with these four collections: Endeavor, Heritage, Pioneer and Streamliner.

So will the collections remain four or will you do something different?
Maybe something smaller on the Endeavor for the ladies. We will see…

Vantablack is part of your DNA, you are one of the first brands to have started using it and still today it is you who use it continuously. What does it mean for you?
We are trying to make it our own as much as possible and master it as best we can. Others will use it, for the moment we want to insist. We were also the first to use the fumé dial and AP recently made similar dials … “Moser style”! We are proud of this and that our ideas are the inspiration for other important brands.

You spent your early days at Moser creating powerful watches in terms of marketing that made people talk about you, like the letter to the head of the National Bank, the watch with a cheese case, and the Moser Nature Watch. What will you launch at the next Watches & Wonders?
Well, we also did the Seconde Seconde, the collab with MB&F, the Vantablack without indexes and the Tutorial this year. We will not be at Watches & Wonders. Too expensive for what we would like to do. We wondered if it was a problem for our partners, but in the end, we meet the retailers first. When they come to Watches & Wonders they already know what we have prepared. I can do this by traveling. We used to have to call the retailers, now they call us. But it could change… However, at the moment we don’t need to pay that much to do these fairs. Two million for four days for what we want is a bit too much. We wanted 250 square meters to be at the level we want to be, but we were told that we could only take the space of 400 square meters which costs a million. Then you need everything else and end spending two million.

There is a risk of losing independents in this way.
They don’t realize that the industry is an ecosystem. They call us parasites. They don’t understand that we bring creativity and fun. People come because they want to see things they can’t find in stores. There are big brand stores everywhere. If you come to the fair you want to see uncommon things. This is why we are excited to do particular things, because I know they have an audience.

The time for independents is hot, perhaps too hot. It is a good thing? Bad? What do you think?
The market will drop a little, it can’t keep on going like this. The opportunity we have as independent is that our productions are necessarily limited and the hype is very high. The great risk for brands that do not produce much but want to ride the wave by going from a few pieces (500 pcs) to many (5000) is high because they could crash if the wind were to change. We have to be careful of this, keep our feet on the ground. We do a lot of things in-house, we can’t go fast, we are very integrated. We produce spirals, bridges, main plates… If I want to grow I have to hire in every single department but we want to do it gradually, not following what the market says today. We can have many orders and a long waiting list but let’s not forget that a person can be on the waiting list in five different stores. So it sounds like five requests but it’s only one in reality. Nobody thought we would end up in this situation. Let’s enjoy it, but let’s not be too greedy. It could end badly.

Do you think the moment is linked to the world economy? Do people see the ups and downs of the stock market and look for a safe haven to store their money?
A lot of money has been created, rich people have gotten richer and they want to spend their money. They have been locked up for two years: let’s have fun, we don’t know what tomorrow will be like. However, this situation will not last forever. The reality of inflation, the cost of living, will also reach the richest. Flying somewhere or getting gas is very expensive today. Many companies are not achieving their goals, I am speaking outside of watchmaking, so people will have to lower their ambitions.

So do you think that watches are a bit like art?
They could, yes. There is a lot of speculation and manipulation in the market. In the stock market if you manipulate you go to jail. In the world of art, as is happening in watches, dealers buy each other’s goods to raise the price, same thing with auction houses. Nobody wants prices to fall: the auction house does not want, neither does the dealer, not even the buyer!

Less is moser keeps going?
Of course, it does and it will.

What about a beautiful transparent watch in the future?
You already have it on your wrist..! 🙂

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