I know it, and you know it, but hey, let’s tell each other again!
Nothing says LUXURY like spending the income of a small country on a wristwatch!
But not ANY wristwatch, oh no! A Harry Winston Opus V with "satellite hour" display wristwatch! To wit:
…Harry Winston’s Opus V watch is the first watch with a "satellite hour" display, consisting of three small blocks with four numbers each that are arranged like satellites on a three-dimensional rotating system, showing the time as they spin around.
The watch is also the first to have a service indicator that tells the wearer when it needs maintenance (every 5 Years)
The watch also has an elegant power reserve indicator and day/night indicator and gull-wing styled crown protector.It is readily clear then that the Opus V did not come from spontaneous generation, but is the result of long hours of reflection on time, its functions, and its display.
By replacing the satellites by cubes, F‚lix Baumgartner and Martin Frei succeeded in giving a true spatial dimension to their watch. From four satellites, they went to three cubes whose four faces carry the different hour numbers. But the basic principle, involving the Maltese cross and ball bearings, posed new challenges.
For example, not only do the cubes revolve in an orbital fashion, but they also rotate on themselves, revealing thus a new hour number. In addition, when the cube arrives at zero on the minute scale, it drags the large minute hand along the scale (before, the satellite, itself, indicated the hours by its own trajectory). One of the most difficult problems was to make the minute hand return instantaneously once it reached 60 so that it could accompany the new cube, thus the new hour. The solution is a spring, a spring that is very delicate to make (a wire with a thickness of 0.05 mm), which provides minimal but constant force.One of the most remarkable aspects of this entire process is that Urwerk produces its watches completely in-house, in collaboration with a case manufacturer that provides its five-axis CNC machines for use by the brand, thus giving almost total autonomy. "We are of the new generation," insists Baumgartner, "and we work with all of today’s existing possibilities. We are anchored in traditional timekeeping, of course, but also in modernity.
This is also why we are a little different. Martin Frei, our designer, does not come from the world of watches, and so he doesn’t have the weight of timekeeping tradition on his shoulders. His approach is therefore more serene, freer. Moreover, I believe that watchmaking still makes sense on condition that it reinterprets the indication of time in a new manner. In five years, we are going to come out with new ideas in this domain. I have ideas notably on constant force, and I hope to be able one day to develop a movement whose principles will be entirely new." …MORE….
The auction ends in 4 days from this posting, so you had better hurry up! Time is (ooooo, dare I say it?) ticking! 🙂
And if that’s too extravagent for your blood, consider:
Enjoy,
Barbara Ling
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