Is the Endeavour the Coolest Chronograph of 2024?

The watchmaker H. Moser & Cie, known for its avant-garde designs mixed with a reserved brand of Swiss minimalism, has teamed up with Massena LAB, the brainchild of über-collector and collaborator extraordinaire William Massena, on what just may take the cake as 2024’s coolest chronograph: the Endeavour.

To be fair, there are plenty of other great contenders for this title. Let’s not forget, for example, that the white-dial Omega Speedmaster Professional officially dropped this year, as did the Cartier Tortue Monopoussoir reissue in platinum and yellow gold, as did the mind-boggling Jaeger-LeCoultre Duometre Chronograph Moon. The competition is certainly fierce.

But for an everyday, high-end, stainless steel, might-have-to-sell-a-car-but-don’t-quite-have-to-mortgage-the-house sort of watch? The Endeavour is just the ticket. Sure, it’s got vintage inspiration in spades — just look at the 1940s-esque dial with its tachymeter scale, leaf hands, dual-register layout and cursive signature. But modern touches abound as well, making themselves known in the form of a striking blue fumé dial color (a signature of Moser’s) as well as a larger 41mm stainless steel case with multiple finishes, a sapphire crystal and a transparent sapphire caseback. (Not to mention the abundance of green-glowing Super-LumiNova, which adorns virtually every dial surface and causes the watch to gleam like crazy at night.)

William Massena’s Massena LAB is responsible for incredible collaborations across all price points, from sub-$1K field watches to pieces like this — which, at $27,600, is not for the faint of wallet. But H. Moser & Cie, the Swiss maison pairing with Massena on the Endeavour, isn’t exactly a first-watch-purchase type of brand. Rather, its wares are carefully considered, pioneering masterpieces that blend classic watchmaking techniques with odd case shapes, beautiful fumé dials and high complications. The Endeavour is an example of the two brands meeting somewhere in the middle — it’s exactly what a good collaboration should be.

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In addition to its good looks, the Endeavour also packs a significant horological punch via the HMC 220 automatic manufacture caliber movement from Moser, which has been outfitted with a Dubois Dépraz chronograph module. With bidirectional winding, 51 jewels, a frequency of 21,600 vph and a height of 8.4mm, it maintains a power reserve of three days and is finished with Moser striping.

Paired with a hand-stitched, brown kudu leather strap with white contrast stitching and a steel pin buckle engraved with the Moser logo, the Endeavour looks like the type of timepiece an MI6 agent might strap on when entering a time machine set for 1942 in order to blend in with the crowd, and still be able to read the time at night. It ain’t cheap, to be sure, but it’s a forever watch — and watches like these are worth the outlay.