Harry Winston

foversta
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The Ocean Chronograph: the charm of the retrograde hands.

The Ocean Chronograph is more than a simple chronograph. Its key feature is the layout of the dial and the triple retrograde system used for the chronograph functions. Thanks to the organization of this dial, all the informations are clearly displayed without any hands crossing.





The excentered time display is located on the top of the dial, the minutes of the chronograph are located on the right side, the hours of the chronograph on the left side and the seconds on the botton. The shuriken (the small second display) can be found in the seconds sector and it indicates very efficiently that the watch is working. Finishings are excellent thanks to the contrast between the satin finished subdial of the time display and the grained texture of the dial.You will notice that the parts used for the scales give volume and depth to the dial. Complex and perfectly done, this dial is without any doubt what I prefer in this watch.





At first glance, we know that it is a Harry Winston watch thanks to its very charasteristic case. Look at the parts on the right side around the crown: again, they have the same shape than the arch of the entrance of the NY Boutique. Thay also bring another plus to the case design: they favour the perfect integration of the pushers in the case. These pushers seem to be very discreet and it is a true pleasure to operate them. Thanks to this integration, the right side of the case is as elegant as the left side.





The different layers of the dial:





The shuriken:





The movement HW2831 which powers this Ocean Chronograph has a Frédéric Piguet 1185 base and uses a Harry Winston module for the specific chronograph display. It has a 3hz frequency, 49 jewels and a power reserve of 40 hours. The movement is nicely decorated with cotes de Genève and perlage and a golden rotor with the « HW » logo. Of course, we easily recognize the Frédéric Piguet base.








The case, which nicely combines brushed and polished finishes has a diameter of 44mm. Hopefully, thanks to the shape of the lugs, the watch can be worn with comfort despite its weight. But it is not suitable for small wrists especially with the shape of the rubber strap.

The watch is available in PG or WG versions. You will notice that the dial decorations are different between these versions with the presence of wavelets in the minutes and hours sectors on the PG version dial. The Ocean Chronograph is sold with an alligator strap or with rubber strap. The rubber strap wears the shuriken symbol.

My fav version is the WG one. I really like the contrast between the dial color and the case. I'm less convinced by the wavelets of the PG version.





Even if the base of the movement is very well-known and not exclusive, this Ocean Chronograph seduced me thanks to its very balanced dial and the perfect integration of the pushers. These two « details » give a lot of charm to the watch. Harry Winston managed to create a watch which blends with success originality and elegancy. Moreover, the trouble of some retrograde systems is that they don't really improve the readability of the functions: it is not the case here thanks to the perfect organization of the dial. 

Please note that in June 2010 a new dial will be available using Carbon fibber  in continuity of the arches.

I would like to add that I will do later a comparison between this Ocean Chronograph with another Chronograph which shares some similarities (same movement base, retrograde system): the Gerald Genta Octo Chronograph. It will be interesting to see that even if they have the same objectives, these two watches are very different and the solutions found by the watchmakers almost opposite.





Thanks a lot to the staff of Kronometry Paris for the warm welcome.


Fr.Xavier

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