Moser

Moser is a German manufacturer of professional hairstyling appliances, best known for its hair clippers and trimmers. Founded in 1946 by engineer Kuno Moser, the company is based in St. Georgen in the Black Forest and has, since 1996, been part of the American Wahl Clipper Corporation [1][9]. It trades today through the legal entity Wahl GmbH, which serves as Wahl's European headquarters. The brand remains active: while its standalone product microsite has not been updated since late 2022, trade press confirmed continued brand and product activity into 2024, when its professional ranges were brought under the Wahl Professional name [10].

Moser positions itself as an engineering-led maker of salon-grade tools, emphasising technical innovation and "Made in Germany" manufacturing. According to the company, around 90 percent of its output is exported, reaching more than 100 countries [4].

The firm was established as Kuno Moser GmbH in 1946 with roughly 20 employees, its founder an engineer of the same name. Its earliest work lay not in hair care but in precision manufacturing — the production of turned parts and micrometers in the post-war years [1].

Sources differ on the founding town. Moser's own history pages state the company was founded in St. Georgen, but these pages are internally inconsistent, and the German page's indexed title instead names Unterkirnach. The regional newspaper Schwarzwälder Bote, which covers the area, records the 1946 founding as having taken place in Unterkirnach [11]. The brand's documented relocation to St. Georgen around 2022 supports reading Unterkirnach as the original town and St. Georgen as the present headquarters. All sources agree on the founding year of 1946.

The business broadened quickly. It produced its first "Robot" electric shavers in 1949, and in 1957 launched the ermila brand, including a blow dryer with an integrated comb. Development and production of hair clippers began in 1959.

Moser's reputation was built on the clipper. In 1962 it brought the best-selling "Famos" to market, a model later repositioned as the Moser 1400. Two patents from the following decade shaped the professional range: the first attachment combs for hair clippers, patented in 1967, and the pivot motor for powerful cordless clippers, patented in 1970, the year professional clipper production began.

The company expanded its manufacturing base in 1993 with a second production facility, Moser KFT, in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary. Three years later, in 1996, it was acquired by the Wahl Clipper Corporation of the United States [9]. In 2002 the German company was renamed Wahl GmbH, and that year it launched the ChromStyle and ChroMini lines.

Later product development drew design recognition, with the Genio Pro and Chrom2Style both arriving in 2018, and the KUNO compact appliance, named in honour of the founder, launched in 2021. The same year the company marked its 75th anniversary with a commemorative ROOTS Collection.

Moser is owned by the Wahl Clipper Corporation, the family-founded American clipper maker headquartered in Sterling, Illinois, whose own origins trace to Leo J. Wahl's 1919 patent for an electromagnetic hair clipper [9]. Wahl acquired Moser Elektrogeräte GmbH in 1996 [9], and the German operation was renamed Wahl GmbH in 2002, functioning as Wahl's European headquarters. Alongside Moser, the German company manages the ermila and Wahl brands for professional hairdressing, as well as animal-clipper lines.

The company describes itself as a leading European manufacturer of hairstyling appliances, positioning its range as professional, salon-grade tools. Its stated aim, in its own words, is "to provide everybody with the optimum tool for perfect hairstyling," to be achieved through technical innovation and continuous product development. Moser frames "Made in Germany" quality and engineering as central to its identity, summarising its outlook as "Technology for hair." In 2020 it relaunched its brand image with a modernised logo and the tagline "My masterpiece."

Moser's catalogue centres on hair clippers and trimmers, alongside hair dryers, straighteners and curling tongs, blade sets, and attachment combs. Its longest-running product is the Moser 1400, the descendant of the 1962 "Famos." More recent professional models include the Genio Pro, the ChromStyle and Chrom2Style ranges, the T-Cut introduced in 2016, and the KUNO compact appliance.

Technically, the brand is associated with its patented pivot motor for cordless clippers and the Fading Blade introduced in 2019. Professional appliances and precision blade sets are, the company states, developed and manufactured in St. Georgen, with a second production site in Hungary.

Several Moser products have received design awards. The KUNO appliance won an iF Design Award in 2022, while the Genio Pro and Chrom2Style each took a Red Dot Design Award in 2018; the earlier Genio and Genio Plus received a Design Innovation Prize in 1999.

The Moser 1400 clipper has been cited as a long-running commercial success. According to the trade publication Estetica Export, it sold more than 50 million units over a ten-year period in key markets such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe [10].

Moser is active. Its standalone microsite, moserpro.com, carries a news feed whose most recent post dates to October 2022, but this reflects a maintenance gap rather than brand inactivity. Independent trade coverage in May 2024 reported a strategic consolidation under which several Moser professional lines — among them KUNO, ChromStyle, ChroMini, T-Cut, and Genio — were brought under the Wahl Professional brand, with new sales launches scheduled through 2024 [10]. The brand continues to export globally and remains part of the Wahl group.