The watchmaking odd couple and their passion (fruit) project

When watchmakers H Moser & Cie and Studio Underd0g announced they were collaborating, it was a union few in the industry predicted. The result was two different-but-similar passion fruit-themed wristwatches, each being made in 100 examples, which can only be bought as a pair for a combined SFr59,000 ($70,000).

This price tag is in line with other models by Moser, a near-200-year-old dial name revived during the early 2000s and run by Edouard Meylan, scion of a horological dynasty dating back five generations. But, considering that Studio Underd0g’s releases mostly sell for a few hundred, rather than thousands, Moser’s partnership with the British microbrand appeared unusual at first glance.

The unveiling of the collaboration during August’s Geneva Watch Days public event sparked cynicism among critics, who disapproved of the ostensibly inexpensive Studio Underd0g only being obtainable by buying the extremely expensive Moser.

For Meylan, the collaboration is based on a mutually mischievous approach to the watch game. “I have always liked the sense of humour behind the watches and the style of design,” he says.

Back in 2017, Meylan poked fun at what he viewed as the dilution of the criteria to earn the “Swiss Made” label by creating a watch with a case made from Swiss cheese, and the following year mocked six leading brands with a one-off pastiche piece that combined elements of each of their best-known models. Although this was due to have been shown at that year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, the ‘Swiss Icons’ watch was banned from appearing before the event opened.

“When I met Richard Benc [founder of Studio Underd0g], we ran into a brainstorming session without realising it — and I suddenly realised I was talking to someone who had effectively created a British Moser,” says Meylan. “We decided to choose the passion fruit colour as the basis for the dials, to reflect the fact that this is a passion project, and Richard sent me the first design three weeks later.”

While the Studio Underd0g’s brass dial is created with a spray-painting technique, the Moser uses an 18-carat gold disc decorated in multiple tones of “grand feu” enamel, with each one being fired in an oven a dozen times at more than 800C.

Based on its Endeavour model, the 42mm Moser also features the brand’s highly finished perpetual calendar movement, compared with the 38.5mm Studio Underd0g’s inexpensive Sellita chronograph mechanism.

Studio Underd0g was founded three years ago by Benc, then a 27-year-old product design and manufacture graduate of the University of Nottingham, who “had no clue that a watch industry existed” until 2015.

That is when he stumbled across a job in the London design studio of Chinese-owned Zeon, a UK importer of cheap licensed timepieces themed on cartoon characters such as Peppa Pig and the Minions. “It wasn’t the most glamorous introduction to the world of horology,” says Benc, who borrowed his father’s Victorinox watch to wear for the interview because he didn’t have one of his own.

During the pandemic lockdowns, Benc wanted to design “a serious watch that didn’t take itself too seriously”. He says: “There was no intention to bring it to market, it was just a project that I embarked on for myself — then I decided to give it a go for real.”

Choosing the name Studio Underd0g as a self-deprecating admission that his unknown brand probably didn’t stand a chance against established giants, Benc raised £90,000 in March 2021 and had three initial designs in production six months later: Watermel0n, Desert Sky and Go0fy Panda, all powered by inexpensive, Chinese-made Seagull movements beneath distinctive textured dials.

Studio Underd0g’s memorable brand name, low prices and vivid dial colours — together with an intriguing press release that defined the designs as “where Bauhaus meets Bugs Bunny” — attracted the attention of watch bloggers. And, despite one describing the brand as a “bonkers little project”, largely supported it as an antidote to the industry’s otherwise stuffy reputation.

Boosted by a Covid-induced spike in online watch sales, it took off so well that Benc soon had to instigate a policy of making new models available to buy online for just nine hours on the day of launch, after which the books are closed until the orders are fulfilled.

This August alone, a record 1,200 watches were dispatched from Studio Underd0g’s assembly base in Pangbourne, Berkshire, where the different models are put together using a combination of Asian-made components and mechanical movements by Seagull and, lately, Swiss manufacturer Sellita.

Studio Underd0g is now regarded with such affection by the collecting community that, at last year’s WatchPro Salon exhibition in London, a “pizza” dial design launched with watch website Time+Tide attracted interest from 800 possible buyers in a few hours.

Benc says the outwardly odd marriage between playful, pocket-friendly Studio Underd0g and high-end Moser was facilitated by Andrew Morgan, a YouTube watch reviewer with 235,000 followers.

“We had a 30-minute meeting [with Moser’s Meylan], during which my main goal was simply to ensure he would remember my name, but he pitched an idea he had come up with in 2016 about the possibility of making a watch with a brand from a very different price point.”

Benc says he “tried to play it cool” but was “doing somersaults in his head” at the prospect.

For those looking for a more conservative collaboration involving Moser, the high-end brand will also be releasing a trio of watches next week with Rolex-owned retailer Bucherer 1888. Comprising a Pioneer tourbillon, a Pioneer centre seconds, and an Endeavour Concept minute repeater, these watches feature smoked dials in an amber sand colour inspired by a set of sepia pictures of the Moser family displayed in their former home.