March 19, 2024
An Introdyction Of Harry Winston Opus 14 Watch

Since 1932,  Harry Winston  transforms diamonds into art and revolutionize modern jewelry and timepiece design, based on its founder’s incredible legacy.

An Introdyction Of Harry Winston Opus 14 Watch

The Harry Winston Opus series dates back to 2001, when then-CEO of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces, and since, founder and CEO of MB&F Maximilian Büsser and Francois-Paul Journe created the Opus  With that, a wonderful venture into the very depths of the independent watchmaking universe began – and it continued in what turned into the Opus series of watches, where Harry Winston continued to work together with some of the greatest independent watchmakers of our time. Some 13 iterations later, in 2013, the project was believed by many to have come to its end when Swatch Group purchased Harry Winston.

The concern of watch enthusiasts was valid in the sense that what made the Opus series so special was that it provided the opportunity to some of the genius master watchmakers of our time to create bold, new mechanical pieces that either offered a totally new way of telling time – like the Opus XIII (hands-on here) –or made for a new expression of a watchmaker’s trademark complication, like the Opus 5. Losing out on such a unique initiative would have been a real shame. Even if the utmost majority of the Opus line’s admirers could not possibly acquire a piece from the series, it allowed them to better appreciate the works of some of today’s finest watchmakers and designers – and so they were rightfully concerned about never seeing this initiative continue.

Harry Winston has worked with Franck Orny and Johnny Girardin of Télôs SA, two master watchmakers and designers who began with a clean slate when they started the design and development process of the Harry Winston Opus 14. The resulting timepiece is a more-than-bold 54.7 millimeters wide and 21.9 millimeters thick – not entirely unusual for the Opus line of super complicated watches which tend to require a lot of space to house the massive and often unusually shaped calibers.

The round, asymmetrical case, therefore, contains the HW4601 movement that comprises a whopping 1,066 individual parts and 124 jewels, offers 68 hours of power reserve for the movement, and up to 5 hours of “back and forth disk movements.”

Beyond the sheer complexity of the piece, what is rather impressive is the fluid and smooth motion of the animation: it really does capture some of the charm and mechanical workings of those ancient record changer machines. The theme is an interesting and unexpected choice – even more surprising than the whopping dimensions of the white gold case – and yet, we are more than happy to see the Opus line continues along the “expect the unexpected” route. For a line of incredible watches that many considered to have come to an end, it is fantastic to see the Opus line live on; we only hope to see even more in the coming years. Price for the Harry Winston Opus 14 .