Harry Winston

But there are more surprises in store for the eye. When you look back at the hour disk, you begin to wonder how it works. Nothing could be simpler, even though the mechanism, operating by differential, is based on the highest level of complication. The principle applied was that of an alternating display. Instead of the hands turning to indicate hours, minutes and power reserve, the disk turns, by gently pushing the crown. Press once on the crown-protector and the disk turns to bring the hour numeral opposite the wheel indicator (in the form of a triangle) positioned at 10 o'clock (on the disk). Press a second time and the disk rotates again to align the minutes numeral with the indicator. Press again and the power reserve is displayed.

In a watch with a power reserve of 60 hours, the movement's operation gradually starts to decline, at 40 hours, until it comes to rest for want of energy to drive it. The Opus 7 movement experiences no such decline, which could undermine its precision; it simply stops after 60 hours.

What really makes Opus 7 an exceptional timepiece is the painstaking attention paid by Andreas Strehler and the Harry Winston team to the details of its finish. The main bridge, a single piece free of welds, is rhodium-plated white gold. The plate just below – black – provides a breathtaking contrast. While the larger wheel is blue, the smaller one is rhodium-plated white gold and, between the two wheels, is the disk, which is black with blue rhodium-plated numerals. Finally, the attentive viewer will not fail to observe that the color of the blue stitching on the alligator-skin strap is identical to that of the movement's main wheel.

Inspired by the Ocean's round case, the white gold case of the Opus 7 has been recrafted to espouse the movement's "simplicity" and disappear behind its beauty. Still, even with its reworked design, the case is easily identifiable as a Harry Winston design: its lines are more direct, with tauter bezel edges than the traditional Ocean case and integrated horns (which are mobile on the Ocean models). The hinge pins, so emblematic of Harry Winston cases, have been redesigned to appear flush with the case's side. The result is a more compact and more discreet appearance, which, with its larger 45 mm diameter, is also more masculine. The Opus 7 case is like a frame that accentuates a work of art. The fact that there is virtually no space between the movement and the crystal, unlike in traditional watches, is further proof of this art. In addition to being stunning, the Opus 7 has an almost tactile element: you feel you could almost touch the movement. 

In early 2006, Harry Winston selected Andreas Strehler, a young independent watchmaker from Winterthur, as the ideal partner for the creation of Opus 7.

Andreas had already designed two watches under his own name – the Zwei and a perpetual calendar – which, at first glance, summed up his philosophy: "It's complicated to be simple". Indeed, while simple in appearance, his watches housed a treasure of complications. So be it! If this complicated movement was exceptional by virtue of its simplicity, why not show it? It took just two weeks to settle the concept. The basic idea was to combine this visible movement with a second dial to display the hours and minutes, in an eight-shaped case. But Andreas Strehler was not a man to use unessential parts and this configuration required a second movement that would reduce one of the two to a mere "technical pretext".

So it was that Hamdi Chatti (President of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces) regularly met with Andreas Strehler, over a period of several months, to develop this unique project. The final form of the future Opus was rapidly conceived: a movement with visible gear train and alternating display were to be combined. Alternating? Hours, minutes and power reserve were to be displayed in succession by simply pressing down on the crown. To complicate things, or simplify them, depending on your point of view, Andreas Strehler integrated this function into the winding crown, thereby eliminating the need for one or even two pushbuttons. Offset against the movement, the hour-minute dial would require a differential; returns are out of the question because, according to the philosophy of Andreas Strehler, each part must be used for its designated function.

When genius, passion and hard work (several thousand hours) combine to give rise to a timepiece the likes of which has never before been seen in the prestige watchmaking sector.