H. Moser is a Swiss watch manufacturer with a deeply weird sense of humor.
Back in 2015, when the Apple Watch first came out, Moser released the "Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Funky Blue", a traditional, all-mechanical automatic watch — which it promoted with a cheeky video mocking the very idea of smartwatches, including various flexes of the ergonomics of old-school wristwatch. ("CLEAN INTERFACE", the video boasted: "No finger zoom to check the date"). It retailed for about $60,000 when released.
Moser has continued to produce timepieces that poke fun at the Apple Watch, including this new one: The "Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade". It has a Vantablack-coated watch face and a rotating mechanism that mimics the look of an Apple "loading" animation.
As they describe it on their web site:
The final edition of H. Moser & Cie.'s paradoxical, satirical and whimsical Swiss Alp Watch, a timepiece that mimics the look of a "smart watch" with the tried and tested ingenuity of a traditional, mechanical watch movement. The Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade is crafted in a DLC steel case and is paired with a Vantablack® dial. Instead of a seconds hand, a running indicator reminiscent of "loading" symbol continuously turns at 6 o'clock.
Technically speaking, the joke is impressive. It's not easy to replicate that digital animation with purely analog means, and it turns the whole watch into an intriguing illusion. From a distance it looks eerily like a regular computerized Apple Watch that just happens to sport a pared-down set of digitized watch hands. But if you look at the underside you see the busy mechanical watch guts churning away.
But, man, I can't imagine spending $30,800 on what is, as the Verge puts it, a "next-level" troll of Apple. Maybe there are folks out there with money to burn, at which this sort of thing is aimed?
