Wearables

Harry Winston Opus XIII turns watchmaking inside out

Harry Winston Opus XIII turns watchmaking inside out
The Harry Winston Opus XIII features 59 minute hands, 11 hour hands and a concealed "HW"
The Harry Winston Opus XIII features 59 minute hands, 11 hour hands and a concealed "HW"
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Harry Winston Opus XIII
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Harry Winston Opus XIII
The internals of the Opus XIII
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The internals of the Opus XIII
A clear crystal backing provides a look inside
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A clear crystal backing provides a look inside
Harry Winston Opus XIII
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Harry Winston Opus XIII
The Harry Winston Opus XIII features 59 minute hands, 11 hour hands and a concealed "HW"
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The Harry Winston Opus XIII features 59 minute hands, 11 hour hands and a concealed "HW"
The Opus XIII uses unique movement to display time
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The Opus XIII uses unique movement to display time
An 18K white gold case and alligator leather band
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An 18K white gold case and alligator leather band
At noon and midnight, a shutter reveals the HW logo in the center of the watch
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At noon and midnight, a shutter reveals the HW logo in the center of the watch
View gallery - 8 images

The average watch uses a simple formula of rotating inner hour and minute hands pointing at fixed numerical designations. The Harry Winston Opus XIII, the result of a collaboration with renowned watchmaker Ludovic Ballouard, turns that simple formula on its ear, using an outer ring of 59 moving minutes and 11 moving hours.

Each of the 59 hands rotate 40 degrees to go from the "off" to the "on" position, displaying the minutes in the hour. Once a new hour is reached, the 59 hands retreat in unison. The faceted dome in the watch center conceals 11 hour hands that rotate 180 degrees, pointing to the appropriate hour designation.

Every hour, an outer hour ring moves forward, simultaneously rotating the new hour out and pulling the old hour back beneath the faceted dome in the center. No hour hand is visible at noon or midnight; instead, an "HW" logo becomes visible in the very center of the watch.

A clear crystal backing provides a look inside
A clear crystal backing provides a look inside

The Geneva-made Opus XIII is a manual-winding watch with a 35-hour power reserve. It contains 364 components and 242 jewels. For instance, each pivoting minute hand is held in place by a steel shaft, which in turn is held in place by two ruby bearings. The watch casing is 18K white gold and the band is black alligator leather.

The back of the case houses a sapphire-crystal window that provides a peek at the intricate inner workings of the watch. The watch is water-resistant to 98 feet (30 m) – not that it looks like the best choice for timing your swim.

Only 130 examples of the limited edition watch will be built. Harry Winston doesn't list a price, but we'll take a guess that it'll cost a few extra figures over the Swatch you can find at Macy's (Swatch actually acquired Harry Winston earlier this year).

You can get closer to the Opus XIII's unique take on time display in the video below.

Source: Harry Winston via Gizmodo

View gallery - 8 images
4 comments
4 comments
Slowburn
A man bracelet for men who are unwilling to admit to wearing jewelry as jewelry.
The Skud
Another complicated watch for people with more money than they really need to spend - typically it looks unable to be read at a glance! This sort of thing should be confined to the pocket watch market, for people who are not doing anything else (like car driving?) and can spare the percentage of life to read them.
Daishi
I actually kind of like the concept of one hand watches because you can tell the time within about 5 minutes at a glance without looking at 2 separate hands.
Look at this watch as an example: http://i.imgur.com/22RCY8u.jpg
The time on it looks pretty close to 7:07. Assuming your eye sight is good you don't really need a minute hand. That seems to hurt my brain less than reading 2 hands because mentally I don't have to re purpose the dial and count around it again.
Bob Flint
Hey my 40 year old Orient has 27 jewels, could use a good cleaning, as it looses a few minutes over a day, and it's self winding.
Might as well have called it "opulence" Jewelry that also shows time.