Harry Winston

foversta
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Baselworld 2011: my visit at the Harry Winston booth

With this post, I would like to present you an overall view of the 2011 collection and of course, I will come back to these watches with a dedicated post per novelty.


Without any doubt, 2011 is a very important year for the Harry Winston collection of Timepieces. I see two main reasons:

- We celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Opus Collection the year before so the Opus 11 is more than a new Opus: it is a the first Opus of a new generation. I don't tell you that we will see during the next 9 years 9 new Opus, one per year, but I really consider this Opus 11 as the first line of a new story. So it had to be breathtaking. And it is actually.

- I regretted several times in this forum that the Midnight case was available only with complicated (and very expensive) watches like the Midnight Repeater or the Midnight Tourbillon Chronograph. I thought that the case, thanks to its slender style, its elegancy had a great potential to be used with simpler and more affordable watches. With the new Midnight collection, Harry Winston has this new ambition.

Of course, people will speak more about the Opus 11 due to its innovative and daring concept but the Midnight collection is the keystone of the 2011 collection.

Let's enter the booth!









I) Opus 11

The Opus 11 is a project developed by Denis Giguet. Like with the Sequential One, the main complication is the hour display. But the system is different: the Sequential One uses 4 groups of 5 rotating prims to display the hours, the Opus 11 uses 24 placards which revolve and rotate. This is an impressive ballet... we regret to be able to see it only once per hour! How can we describe the feeling brought by this display? When it operates, it is like a a mechanical construction which quickly comes apart... and which rebuilds itself in a fast movement. I will post a video soon and you will understand how it works. Denis Giguet is currently working to reduce the speed of the "transformation" in order that it becomes even more enjoyable (from 1 second to 3).

The Opus 11 looks very original but it is in fact an hommage to the Excenter watches which were (and still are) the hallmark of Harry Winston: the hour display is located on the left, the minutes on the right.

111 Opus 11 will be available (100 as seen on the pictures + 11 with gem setting) and of course, the challenge for Denis Giguet and Harry Winston is to produce them all: we all know that things become much more difficult when you have to produce a specific number of the same watches with the same behaviour. I feel very confident about this thanks to Denis' experience with the Sequential One and the clever construction of the Opus 11. As I said before, I will come back to the Opus 11 with a comprehensive post.

























II) Midnight collection

The Midnight collection is a proof of a new ambition  for Harry Winston. With this collection, Harry Winston wishes to offer elegant and timeless watches to attract customers who were a bit reluctant to the daring style of some timepieces of the existing collection. Of course, the other will of the brand is to preserve the exclusivity of its collection: the watches are more simple, more slender but they keep the same quality of finishings. The key asset of this collection is of course its case.

The Midnight case, whatever is it size (from 32mm to 42mm), is a true beauty: it becomes more discrete than the Ocean one but it is still a Harry Winston case: we find again the typical elements around the crown even if they were designed to be coherent with the Midnight case. They are not anymore crown protectors (that would have been out of context!) but on the other hand, they bring an original and subtle touch to the overall design of the watch.

The dials are also superb even when it is totally plain (Midnight Automatic). The Midnight Big Date dial is much more complex with different layers: we recognize here the Harry Winston touch!

The two Men watches (Midnight Automatic - Midnight Big Date) have the same case diameter: 42mm. Both are available with two cases (PG or WG) and with two dials (black or silver for the Big Date and Grey or Champagne for the Automatic).

The Midnight Automatic is powered by the GP 3300 caliber. The caliber is a bit too small for the case but hopefully the designers managed to hide this point dial side: in fact thanks to the use of large applied indexes, the date window seems to be at the right place on the dial.

Midnight Automatic WG:












Midnight Automatic PG:









We can do the same remark with the Midnight Big Date even if it is not at all a key issue here: the watch has an excentered dial to enhance the big date display. Movement is composed by a Frédéric Piguet Base + the Big Date module.

The word which comes to my mind when I stare at its dial is: circles. The watch makes me think at circles in water, look at the guillochage, the subdials shape, I really find the result elegant and very "Harry Winston" at the same time. Obviously, the Big Date has more character than the automatic. Maybe my only regret is that I would have prefered a big date disks color less bright than the white which is used: the contrast with the other dial elements is a bit to high especially with the black dial.

You will see a little surprise on the dial: the discrete presence of a diamond. Even located on the dial, it is almost not visible. I like this idea, you can wear a precious stone and you are the only person who knows it.

Midnight Big Date PG:



























Midnight Big Date WG:









The two Ladies watches share the same dial and case quality. They are both powered by quartz movement: maybe an addition of an automatic movement would be a nice idea for the future. I found the names a bit strange: the Large is... large in the context of a Ladies watch but I don't find this name very appealing. The Midsize looks very small... 7mm of difference are huge.  I understand that Harry Winston didn't have the will to call it "Small" but in that case, I would have prefered to use other names.

Anyway, the Midnight Large is a beautiful watch: I love the two hands on the dial, the purety of the dial... this is a very seductive watch for our Ladies! As you understood it, the Midnight Midsize is dedicated to smaller wrists and it loses a bit the charming side of the Large.

In a few words, the Midnight collection is a very coherent one and Harry Winston entered the right way this new world. My heart goes to the Big Date which best combines the elegancy of this new collection and the originality of previous Timepieces. The Automatic is smoother I would say.

Midnight Large and Midnight Midsize:





















III) Z6 Black

I have to tell you that I'm not a great fan of black watches: but the combo between the black color with the design of the Z6 works great!

The watch features the Zalium case with DLC coating. Thanks to the black color, the hammers located dial side become more visible.

I'm sure that this Z6 Black will be very successfull, it is at the end quite different from the "classic" version of the Z6.

















IV) Rosebud

I couldn't forget this Rosebud because it is the meeting point of two worlds if not three at Harry Winston (horology, music and jewellery): the jewelcase is in fact a beautiful musicbox created in partnership with Reuge. Rosebud is not a jewel, is not watch, is not a brooch, is not a pendant, Rosebud is everything at the same time: wear your Rosebud as you wish to wear it!

















From a classic offer (Midnight collection) to an UFO watch (Opus 11), Harry Winston managed to propose a broad and clever 2011 collection: it symbolizes the ambition of Harry Winston on this field.

I would like to thank a lot the whole Harry Winston team and Denis Giguet for the warm welcome at the booth, it was a true pleasure to visit it!

Fx

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