A stealth bomber with Major Vic “Deak” Deakins (John Travolta) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater) takes of in the middle of night carrying two nuclear warheads. After the bomber evades US Air Force radar, Deakins goes rogue and steals the nuclear warheads. This is a 1996 flick ‘Broken Arrow’, a term coined by the American military when nuclear warheads goes missing or detonated. But can luxury timepieces also be ‘Stealth’? Over the years, watchmakers have come up with timepieces that are dark in aesthetics and H. Moser and Cie has taken this to a whole new level with its Vantablack dial watches that have super black coating. Probably darkest substance known to man, the carbon nanotubes absorb 99.99% of light. After releasing its all steel variant of the Streamliner, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer has unveiled its 40mm Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack (Ref 6804-0400) in red gold with a flying tourbillon marrying it with Vantablack coating on the dial.
So what is Vantablack? First introduced in 2019 with the Venturer Concept, this is a carbon material derived from the acronym Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Arrays; often considered as the blackest black and has been used in modern luxury SUV’s and on H Moser’s watches with clean dials, and no logo.
Previous versions of the Streamliner had an integrated bracelet in stainless steel, the new version gets a monochromatic look with a red gold case, bezel, an integrated bracelet, and crown with ‘M’ engraving. The watch gets hour and minute hands in Globolight®, the hour markers are secured from back of the dial, and the one-minute flying tourbillon rests at 6 o’clock.
Powering the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack is the brand’s in-house HMC 804 automatic bi-directional pawl winding system with 72 hours of power reserve. Turning the watch reveals the see-through sapphire crystal case-back with an 18K red gold oscillating weight and engraved H. Moser & Cie. logo along with four visible screws.
The watch is finished on an integrated bracelet with folding clasp in red gold with moser logo. H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Tourbillon Vantablack (Ref 6804-0400) gets a water resistance of 120m.
Images: Courtesy H. Moser & Cie
