This brand made an ‘invisible’ watch with the material BMW used for the darkest car in the world
- Vantablack is a material that absorbs nearly 100 percent of the light
- H. Moser is one of the few watchmakers that use Vantablack for its watches
- One of their watches is almost literally invisible
Published on Oct 09, 2024 at 6:53 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Oct 10, 2024 at 5:50 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
H. Moser, a watch manufacturer, made an ‘invisible’ watch with a material known as Vantablack.
It’s the darkest material in the world, and it has also been used by automakers in the past.
It absorbs nearly 100 percent of the available light, creating a unique effect on the dial.
If you use it for the whole watch, it almost literally just disappears.
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Vantablack is a material, not paint
In the past, BMW created a unique concept painted with Vantablack, and it looks alien.
Like something out of a sci-fi movie.
This is because Vantablack, which technically qualifies as a material, not paint, absorbs around 99.965 percent of the visible light.
It was developed at the National Physical Laborary in the UK and it is honestly one of the most striking materials in the world.
Why H. Moser won’t use Vantablack for a production watch
H. Moser & Cie, an independent watchmaker with nearly 200 (!) years of history behind it, is one of the most prominent watchmakers to use Vantablack for its timepieces.
They use it for production models they sell, such as the model we’ve photographed at Milano Watch Week in October (below), but they once also used it for an entire watch case and dial.
A while back, they created a one-off prototype coated entirely with Vantablack, including the case and dial.
The watch becomes so dark it disappears against a black background, making it look like there are just a couple of watch hands floating in the air.
The catch is that Vantablack makes whatever it coats quite brittle.
H. Moser told us that creating a whole watch out of it would make it fall apart.
“We can do dials [with Vantablack], but not a whole watch. You couldn’t wear it. It would be too fragile,” told supercarblondie.com.
It’d look cool, though.