About H. Moser & Cie


Company & Brand Name

The first internationally active company founded by Heinrich Moser was the St. Petersburg trading company, H. 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 “H. 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, from which a watch production facility of its own would eventually emerge. 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.


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.



The Watchmaker Heinrich Moser

Heinrich Moser grew up in Schaffhausen in the traditions and experience of a watchmaking dynasty that had become established over the generations. He learned the traditional watchmaker’s craft from his father, Erhard Moser, between 1820 and 1824, and subsequently broadened his knowledge in the watchmaking town of Le Locle. His plan to succeed his father in 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 in business in Russia. 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 just 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.