Can You Believe that H. Moser & Cie’s $1 Million Swiss watch is Made of Cheese?
It is actually true. H. Moser & Cie’s $1 million Swiss watch is made of cheese.
The luxury watchmaker H. Moser & Cie has created a timepiece worth of Guinness World of Records, a watch that is estimated to cost $1 million boasting a case made from actual Swiss cheese.
We can’t assure you this is not April’s Fools, or any joke of that kind. This is the real deal.
The motivation behind creating such a unique timepiece has a greater meaning than you think. The independent luxury watchmaker is protesting the rules regarding the label ‘Swiss-made’.
What is that have to do with the fact that they made a watch from cheese?
Well, we will get there in a seconds. The company basically argues that the rules are so loose, and the and the enforcement of them so lax, that it is possible to have so-called Swiss-made watches that are in fact largely produced elsewhere, notably in the Far East.
But the Moser watches are entirely made in Switzerland, so that shouldn’t stand against their principals. However, the straps of their watches are made in Italy, and so the company announced that this year will be removing the “Swiss-made” label from all of its watches, as a sign of protest.
The rules of the game have recently changed, when the Swiss government announced that 60 per cent of a watch’s value must come from Switzerland, up from 50 per cent previously following complaints from others in the industry.
But as this figure now includes research and development costs, it means that many companies outsource the vast majority of their production to cheaper countries, and critics like Moser CEO Edouard Meylan say that this renders the label meaningless.
“I could make tons more margin by making my watches abroad,” Meylan says. “But I am the fifth generation in my family to work in the Swiss watch industry and I believe in the value of our tradition and I think it needs to be protected.”
He then decided to raise the problem by making a watch emphasizing the importance of Switzerland, and what could be more appropriate than their cheese?
The watch’s strap is made of Swiss cowhide, while its case is made from a proprietary polymer mixed with Vacherin Mont d’Or médaille d’or, which is a cheese from Meylan’s home village.
The end material has been thoroughly tested for durability and, Meylan says, “does not sweat, is not greasy and does not smell”.
If you are planning on buying the watch, I have to tell you not to worry because the cheese has been pasteurized before it was used as material for the timepiece.
“The Swiss Mad Watch will be presented during the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) from January 16th to 20th, 2017. This is the perfect opportunity to admire this unique watch, whose price of 1,081,291, in Swiss Francs of course, references the signing of the Swiss Federal Charter on August 1st, 1291.” – says the company on their website
“All proceeds from the sale of this watch will be used to create a fund to support independent Swiss watchmaking suppliers currently suffering under the difficult economic situation and outsourcing to Asia. These are the very artisans who keep traditional Swiss watchmaking alive and who help it to continually evolve.”- says the company on their website
Join our campaign – #MakeSwissMadeGreatAgain – to bring back value to the Swiss Made label.
What do you think about this oddly-looking timepiece? I find it quite fascinating actually. Let me know in the comments below!
