H. Moser & Cie And The Armoury Introduce The Ultimate Haute Horlogerie

When two companies’ design and business philosophies align, it creates the perfect opportunity to collaborate and create something extraordinary. The Armoury was founded in Hong Kong in 2010 by Mark Cho and Alan See. It was born out of their passion for bringing timeless style, exquisite craftsmanship, and elegant tailoring to the modern man. With locations in Hong Kong and New York, The Armoury dresses the most discerning clientele. H. Moser & Cie., a 200-year-old fine watchmaker, is currently managed by Edouard Meylan, CEO, co-owner, and the 5th generation of his family in the watchmaking business. Both The Armoury and H. Moser & Cie. share similar visions and principles. They emphasize classic design, exceptional craftsmanship, personal customer service, and strong business values.

Mark and Edouard had first met in February 2020 while recording an episode of Blamo!, a podcast on fashion and culture. Following their discussion on design philosophies, men’s clothing, and timepiece engineering, Mark proposed a collaboration with H. Moser to create a timepiece exclusively for The Armoury. Despite the challenges of the pandemic over the last two years, the Endeavour Small Seconds Total Eclipse, an extraordinary timepiece, was born. I had the opportunity to sit down with these two innovative CEOs and chat about their work.

Chan: How did you get started in the business?

Meylan: I was born into the fifth generation of a family deeply involved in the watchmaking industry. My father was the Chief Executive of Audemars Piguet for many years. After he left AP, we started our own business and bought H. Moser & Cie. My father is the board president, I am the CEO, and I work with my brother closely to run this business.

Cho: I grew up in the UK and Hong Kong. After I graduated from university, I first went into the women’s apparel industry. Then I followed my father into the real estate business, but my heart has always been in menswear. I have been fascinated by tailored clothing since high school, when I was first allowed to switch from a school uniform to a suit of my own. Over the next 10 years, I tried to read everything I could about tailoring, speak to as many people as possible and also assisted at a tailor in Hong Kong named WW Chan. Eventually, I decided to pursue my passion, and thus in 2010, The Armoury was born.

One of the founding principles of The Armoury is appreciating craftsmanship, which means we work with artisans and we tell their stories. We started as a retailer, offering a selection of men’s clothing brands covering tailored clothing, footwear, accessories, and luggage. We offer ready-to-wear, made-to-measure, and bespoke clothing. One of the beautiful things about tailoring is that each region of the world has its style. Our bespoke tailoring offering includes Milanese, Neapolitan, Florentine, and Classic American. We do this using a roster of bespoke tailors, each with their regional specialty, visiting our shop to hold trunk shows on a regular basis.

As time went on, we started to create our own products, and now 90% of our collection is designed in-house and is exclusive to us.

Ultimately our goal is to help create personalized wardrobes for our clients. We help them find their style and design garments with that in mind.

Chan: Please describe your clients; are there any overlaps between the two companies?

Cho: The customers from both companies share very similar characteristics, such as their attention to detail and their desire to understand the product.

Meylan: I realized that Mark commands a strong following from his clients. It is about Mark’s style and vision and his special connection to them. It is an approach that is also very similar to H. Moser. We are a family-owned business, and the human dimension is essential. The big brands find it challenging to connect to their communities. Today we are the faces of our brands.

Cho: From a business strategy perspective, if you are a small brand, the best thing you can do is connect with your clients at a personal level. The fact that you, as the CEO, are available to have a conversation with them and offer them specific advice about what they are buying has a significant effect on their client experience. It’s something that the big brands can’t do.

Chan: Mark, how did you come up with the design concept of The Eclipse?

Cho: The idea came from the concept of the total solar eclipse, which is the only time you can look directly at the sun, while it is momentarily obscured by the moon, and see the fiery halo around it. To recreate that halo effect, we added a polished inner bezel that surrounds the dial and reflects light in a visually interesting way. The dial itself is coated with Vantablack, the darkest material known to man. It reflects almost no light due to its unique composition of vertically aligned carbon nanostructures. When light enters, it bounces around inside over and over again until it is dissipated as heat rather than reflecting back out of the tube as light. This technology was originally designed to be used as the internal coating of the barrel of space telescopes.

Chan: How many pieces of the Total Eclipse did you produce?

Meylan: We only made 56 pieces. All of them are in steel cases, 28 pieces have steel accents, and 28 have rose gold accents. Our factory has 70 artisans, and we produce 1,500 watches annually. Our retail prices start at $15,000 and rise according to the watch’s complexity. The most expensive watch we sold was $1.2 million. We are an integrated brand and believe in mastering our craft. We make the entire watch movement in-house.

Chan: Where can I buy one?

Meylan: Unfortunately, the Total Eclipse is completely sold out. We had a very successful launch and were sold out in a matter of hours.

Chan: Has the supply chain disruption affected your process?

Meylan: Current demand for watches is very high and has outpaced our capacity; in addition, supply chain issues have delayed our production. Some components now have an eight to twelve months lead-time compared to a four-month lead-time pre-pandemic. We also now have to pre-book some of our materials a year in advance.

Cho: For us, production delays are mostly related to cloth. We use mainly textiles from Italy, UK, and Japan. There are many reasons for this, such as factories not operating at full capacity, and fabric mills having delays receiving their raw materials. Overall, price increases are still manageable, only cashmere prices increased significantly.

Chan: What is the most challenging and the most rewarding part of this collaboration?

Meylan: The most rewarding part of the journey is learning the vision and philosophy of the other party. The Total Eclipse idea came from Mark and his team, and we respect how Mark has challenged and pushed the boundary. For example, with the eye of Mark, he chose to mix two textures of calf leather for the watch strap, which is an unusual design. His attention to this aspect of the watch strap encourages me to think differently about our products and processes. When it’s your brand and your baby, it’s very interesting to see how differently someone else might interpret its products.

Cho: The most challenging part of the collaboration was working on it remotely for two years. There are many things that we could only imagine, not handle in person. For instance, it’s especially hard to imagine how light and texture interact. The most rewarding part was getting to know Edouard and his team better, working closely with them and finally being able to turn our concept into reality. It was also a relief for me to see the watch be well received and sell out quickly!