Worn & Wound
H. Moser Gets a Little Whimsical with the Pioneer Retrograde Seconds “Midnight Blue”
As watch enthusiasts, we all have our weaknesses. Some feature or design quirk that makes very little sense in practical terms, but nonetheless appeals to us in ways we can barely even describe. Something that falls into this category for me is the “useless” complication. A complication that doesn’t really have much of a functional purpose at all, but is just sort of there was a watchmaking flex. There are all kinds of strange time telling displays that fall into this category, plus your deeply anachronistic complications like integrated barometers, scales that tell you the age of the moon, or perhaps even a secular perpetual calendar that no one alive today will be able to see in action. Then there are retrograde displays, which while not exactly “useless” certainly tend to be, well, maybe unnecessary is a better word. But the vaguely violent snapping back of a hand when it reaches the end of the display has a real pull. If that sort of mechanical violence is up your alley, Moser’s latest is a watch you should investigate. The Pioneer Retrograde Seconds in Midnight Blue takes your normal, everyday Pioneer and juices it significantly with a retrograde seconds display at the bottom of the dial that snaps back every thirty seconds. That makes for a dial with a lot of action, with a second hand moving twice as fast as it normally would, interrupted every thirty seconds with an action that, to witness it, you’d surely think would cause some manner of mechanical...
