The interview: H. Moser & Cie. co-owner Bertrand Meylan on staying one step ahead and reinvention as a business strategy

Since the Meylan family’s acquisition in 2012, H. Moser & Cie. has been building an identity almost entirely apart from watchmaking convention. It’s a small, independent manufacture in Neuhausen am Rheinfall that has turned irreverence into a business model—and nowhere is that clearer than in its refusal to print its own name on the dial.

Bertrand Meylan, CEO of MELB Luxe’s Asia, Middle East and Americas subsidiaries, is co-owner of independents H. Moser & Cie. and Hautlence. He has spent over a decade turning that contrarian instinct into one of the industry’s most closely watched growth stories. We caught up with him at Watches & Wonders to talk about staying ahead of the pack, why anonymity became a signature and what still keeps him up at night in a business built on reinvention.

Bertrand Meylan (photo courtesy of H. Moser & Cie.). Top: H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic (photo by Kevin Khng).

Boulevard: How’s your week been so far? Looks like a very big crowd.

Bertrand Meylan: We were very lucky to have this place [in Watches & Wonders 2026] offered to our brand, and we accepted immediately, because when you have neighbours like Richard Mille, Vacheron Constantin and Longines, it’s perfect. It brings a lot of people in. The stand has been full since the first day.

Blvd: I’ll confess, your collection last year was very much one of my favourites. It was amazing, that combination of simplicity and technical challenge, particularly in terms of fragility. What’s the challenge this time around?

Meylan: It’s [having] the same idea. You need a lot of ideas, and you cannot make the same ones as others. You have to bring novelties or something unusual that people recognise as Moser and not another brand. That’s the most difficult thing. We don’t even write the name on the dial, but the anonymous watch is now linked to our name after a few years. We’ll continue with this. You can always see the name inside the movement.

H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Tourbillon Skeleton.

Blvd: A lot of brands might refresh a collection with a new stone or colourway and call it novelty. Moser tends to go further—a full evolution each time.

Meylan: I think that’s an obligation for a brand. You can keep some models and evolve them, but you also need something very new on top of that. That’s how you grow and attract other customers. A lot of collectors like novelties. We see people coming to us already with 10 different watches from our brand, so that’s a good sign.

You always have to stay one step ahead and bring something new—new materials, new designs, new mechanics. Everyone else is trying too, so it’s important to keep moving. To be innovative—that’s the key to success, I think.

Blvd: Why do you think people are drawn to collecting in the first place, and what is it about Moser specifically?

Meylan: We don’t really have the answer. Personally, I like antique cars, and I’m also a collector of watches. I collect old watches from the H. Moser & Cie name that existed in America around 1880.

It’s difficult to explain. But I think our collectors like the idea of no name on the dial, first of all, and unusual dials or materials nobody else would think of. Now we see a lot of brands using stone dials or things that before were not done this way. But I still believe the materials we use are special. Now we have ceramic, for example, but we always look for something different. That’s the most important thing in our business.

The Endeavour Minute Repeater Cylindrical Tourbillon Skeleton (left) and Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic (right).

Blvd: Do you have a personal favourite among your recent releases?

Meylan: I’m particularly proud of the Streamliner really tells what we are. I have two or three in different colours. If you look at the collection, you see simplicity and complication together. The design is simple, but you have the complication of the tourbillon. It’s nice.

You have to love the elegance. Some people don’t. I always say, if you buy a watch only to read the time, then we are not the right people for you. Our customers want something special, something different—creative, innovative, like a piece of art.

Blvd: What are you still learning in the space of watches and watchmaking?

Meylan: I think there’s still a lot of possibility for innovation, but we have to think carefully about what materials we can use. When I started working, it was only steel and gold. Now there are many other materials, and also a lot of possibilities in design.

Go further with the 2026 edition of Watches and Wonders.

Read next:

• How non-round case shapes came to define the world’s most iconic watches
• The case for complexity: These are the bold, new watches that dared to take risks in 2026