4n6 » 10 Haz 2011, 09:07
WATCHMAKER HEINRICH MOSER: Heinrich Moser grew up in Schaffhausen
in the traditions and experience of a watch making dynasty
that had become established over the generations. He learned
the traditional watchmaker’s craft from his father, Erhard
Moser, between 1820 and 1824. Subsequently broadened his
knowledge in the watch making town of Le Locle. His plan to
succeed his father for the position of town watchmaker, to
which the Moser family had a claim was thwarted by the Town
Council in Schaffhausen.As an ambitious and visionary
watchmaker, Heinrich Moser decided to set up business in
Russia. Tsarist Russia at the time was regarded as an
excellent labour and sales market and a sound trading base
for watches.
After several employed positions as a watchmaker, he founded
his own company in St. Petersburg at the end of 1828. This marked
the hour of inception of the greatly successful brand, Hy
Moser & Cie. Alongside precision watches and watches
designed as pieces of jewelry, Heinrich Moser offered a
range of simple watches. As he built up his trading
network, he came to realize that a successful wholesaler
should also be a manufacturer thus established a watch
factory in Le Locle in 1829, which produced watches
exclusively for his businesses. This allowed him to
guarantee the high quality of his products. Eventually, he
was made an honorary citizen of Le Locle in acknowledgement
of his services to the town in the Swiss Jura.
Heinrich Moser’s constant quest for quality was crowned by success.
He supplied the Imperial Court, various princes and the armed forces
in Russia. Within a few years, he was selling watches to Persia, China
and Japan, as well as New York and Paris where his
brother Georg Moser was working as a watchmaker. Only 15
years after starting his company, Heinrich Moser was the
undisputed market leader in the Russian watch trade. He
returned to his home town of Schaffhausen as a prosperous
watch manufacturer and merchant at the end of 1848.
The first internationally active company
founded by Heinrich Moser was the St. Petersburg trading as
Hy Moser & Co. From this name, he developed the company
signature in Latin and Cyrillic script, which was almost
always accompanied by a medallion. Until about 1918, these
symbols were the standard signature on all watches supplied
by Moser’s watch company. In 1829, Heinrich Moser opened a
watch factory in Le Locle, which also bore the name Hy Moser
& Co.
The Russian operation had to be abandoned
in 1917 in the aftermath of the October Revolution. In about
1920, the State-owned “Central Watch Repair Workshop” was
formed in Moscow from the remains of the Moser watch
businesses. Moser watches continued to be regarded as
synonymous with work of the highest quality for some
considerable time afterwards.
In 1966, the Government of the USSR
presented one of its high-ranking military officers with an
original Moser pocket watch in 18-carat gold, dating from
the period before the expropriation and bearing an engraved
dedication.
The name of Moser also died out in this branch of the family in 1923
with the death of Heinrich Moser’s only son, who had no male
offspring. Dr. Jürgen Lange and the great-grandson of
Heinrich Moser, Roger Nicholas Balsiger, jointly with
private investors, founded the watch company Moser
Schaffhausen AG in 2002. Dr. Lange also registered the
original brand H. Moser & Cie again internationally.
Watches of "Henry Moser" were so popular it
instigated huge production of replicas. Thus the factory of
Moser offered this disclaimer... "for elimination of cases
of abusing by some dealers by the name of our firm we
consider necessary to recommend wishing to get watches of
our factory to pay special attention to the inscriptions in
French before a surname "MOSER & Ce" letters "Hy" as
only with such brands and inscriptions watches are
authentic". These cautions are useful and to modern
collectors of watches.
* "http://www.cameranaked.com/IWC-VintageWatches.htm" internet WEB adresinden 10.06.2011 günü, saat 10:50'de yapılmış alıntıdır..