On the surface, jewelry brand Alex Moss New York and Swiss clockmaker L’Epée 1839 may seem opposites: Moss makes extravagant, iced-out pieces for celebrities like Drake while L’Epée 1839’s venerable works have graced the finest houses for more than 180 years.
One key word tells why the collaboration between Moss and L’Epée 1839 makes sense. “We both want perfection,” Arnaud Nicolas, CEO and artistic director of L’Epée 1839, says. “It’s our quest.” When the two companies came together to bling out L’Epée’s Grenade, it took months of painstaking labor to create their artistic showpiece, known as the EXO Grenade.
“This is the first brainchild of our worlds colliding,” Moss says. “Our companies have done collabs before, but we’re both careful about it. It needs to be organic and match our values. We also want to bring something new to the world. We’re not just going to stick our names together for the sake of a sale. It’s got to be super sick.”
Moss and Nicolas, who are promoting the collab together to media, agree: This clock from the jeweler to hip-hop’s elite and the luxury clockmaker is not only exclusive but enviable for any collector. Moss added 2,144 diamonds, weighing a total of 34.27 carats, to the Grenade.
Modeled after the historical MkII grenade, the L’Epée Grenade has sleek curving sides and an intricate inset clock. The standout element is the pin, which serves as the clock’s key and is covered with Alex Moss New York diamonds.
“I’ve got to put gloves on to pick it up, it’s so delicate,” Moss says. Each VVS colorless micro pavé diamond was hand-selected for the clock, he says, as he shows off a row of diamonds that were excluded because they were not top quality.
“It’s insane when you think about the number of hours it took,” Moss says. “The development of the entire clock from start to finish took more than two years. Our portion of the clock with the diamonds took 11 months.… We had to make sure when we were setting the stones that it was hand-done to the best of our ability. We didn’t compromise.”
Nicolas says: “We didn’t want it to be simple. We wanted to make it as beautiful as it could be. That’s what counts.”
The Alex Moss New York x L’Epée 1839 Grenade has an aluminum structure and discs with polished finishes; its movement is made of palladium-plated brass and stainless steel. The hours and minutes are displayed on black aluminum discs with engraved numbers. It weighs 622 grams (about 1.37 pounds) and has 255 horological components, Nicolas says.
The pin is used to set the time and wind the mainspring. The clock was designed to challenge users, while they’re winding it, to think about the hold that clocks have on our daily lives and how important it is to live in the moment rather than the past or future, says Nicolas.
Collectors should inquire with Moss or L’Epée 1839 to purchase one of these limited-edition pieces. There will be a second round to this collab, Nicolas says, so stay tuned for an update this fall.
“We want everyone to buy it, but only a few can buy it,” he says of the EXO Grenade’s availability.
Top: The EXO Grenade is a collaboration between Alex Moss New York and L’Epée 1839 that asks the user to contemplate time and its meaning. (Photos courtesy of Alex Moss New York).
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