Rare diamonds, rare movements

MANILA, Philippines - When Harry Winston passed away in 1978 and his son Ronald took over, the company decided to make a bold gamble by entering the world of horology. As a relatively new player in the industry, which was populated by Swiss watchmakers who had been around for decades, the company was not daunted. As Harry once said, “If a man thinks big, he will be big.”

Each year, Harry Winston partners with the industry’s leading innovators to develop limited-edition timepieces. For instance, The Harry Winston Ocean Collection introduced a combination of two sophisticated complications in a single timepiece: the Harry Winston Ocean Tourbillon Jumping Hour. The combination of a tourbillon rotating once every 60 seconds and a minute hand rotating once per hour is a mechanical meditation on the nature of time itself with the action of the jumping hour complication lending its own special tempo.

Watch connoisseurs look forward to the Harry Winston presentations at BaselWorld, Switzerland, the world’s most preeminent watch exhibition, to witness new innovations in the field of horology. One such example is their invention of Zalium, an aerospace-type zirconium exclusive to Harry Winston in watchmaking. This lightweight, hypoallergenic alloy is harder than titanium, highly corrosion-resistant, extremely inflammable and very difficult to craft.

Zalium coats the Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph, which features a 44-mm diameter and a 40-hour power reserve that allow the seconds hand, minute counter and hour counter to “fly back” 43,200 times, each time with near-instantaneous speed and perfect precision. The timepiece is available in 18k rose or white gold versions that feature four distinct dial finishes: diamond point, guilloché, matte, and satin brushed surfaces.

Launched in 2004, Harry Winston Project Z was developed as a limited-edition series bridging high technological innovation and fine watch making tradition. Project Z6 introduces a new complication to Harry Winston’s timepiece offering – a hand-wound, 24- hour alarm clock movement developed specially for Project Z6 and exclusive to Harry Winston Timepieces. Also crafted with Zalium, the Project Z6 is a limited edition of 300 pieces: 250 with anthracite dial available at authorized dealers and 50 with silver dial exclusive to Harry Winston salons.