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High end watches

Harry Winston Timepieces

THE DESTRUCTURED HOURS: HARRY WINSTON TIMEPIECES

Established in New York in 1932, Harry Winston slowly built a reputation as a prestigious jewelry-making maison that chose the perfect opportunity to reveal itself in the watchmaking sector.

By Vincent Daveau
Contributor

Harry Winston made its debut in the watchmaking sector with its precious stone-studded creations in 1989. However, it wasn’t until 1998 that the brand arrived in the universe of watchmaking – known for its traditionalism – in style. This was mostly thanks to the insight of Maximilian Büsser, the then-manager of the brand’s rare Timepieces division. In fact, he had the crazy but absolutely brilliant idea of calling upon independent watchmakers and famous designers to create the collection that set the tone for what would later become Haute Horlogerie.

Launched in 2000, the Opus collection was the result of Harry Winston’s incursion into the many avenues of watchmaking in order to find crazy combinations to display time in the most artistic way possible. All the products that were presented on the day of the launch were amazing and most of them greatly emphasized non-traditional time display.

The collection and its partnerships have often provided an opportunity to introduce the artists who collaborated in the creation of the watches.

Opus XIII 

The watch has granted the occasion to discover the work of Ludovic Ballouard, who incidentally has his own brand. The Opus XIII uses markers to extrapolate traditional displays in order to deconstruct them and thus show time differently. As a result, this watch and all other references with the same time display in this collection were somehow magical. The Opus XIII was a success. Note that two sources of energy were needed to make this watch work, which explains the fact that it contains two barrels. The first barrel maintains the oscillations of the balance. The second one drives the time display on the dial.

Technical details

  • 44.25-mm x 13.6-mm design white gold case with Harry Winston engravings.
  • Movement: 364 components and 242 rubies.
  • 35-hour power reserve of 35 hours and two independent barrels equipped with a pinion lever.
  • Display: eleven hands rotating at 180 degrees.
  • Minutes displayed through 59 segments rotating at 40 degrees and returning to base at the exact time
  • The “HW” logo is visible in the center of the dial once at noon and again at midnight.

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This article is a extract from our page dedicated to New Horology

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Harry Winston Opus 13 presented at Baselworld 2013