The Ocean Dual Time and the Premier Excenter Timezone are not the only watches from Harry Winston with a second timezone display. I presented you the Ocean Dual Time last week, highlighting its differences with the Excenter Timezone.

This time, I won't need to explain these differences: the Avenue Squared has strictly the same complication (and so the same caliber) than the Ocean Dual Time.

The Avenue Squared is an original watch which combines the two timezones display of the Ocean Dual Time with a beautiful rectangular case. Rectangular ??? But the watch name is Avenue Squared !

In a pure mathematical point of view, the case shape is rectangular because the width is different from the length and visually, the watch seems to be a bit more rectangular than it is actually. But when I say that the width and length are different, it is a very very shy gap ! So we are not far from a square watch.

For me, the Avenue Squared is a true homage from Harry Winston to New-York City.

Is it due to the complication ? New-York City population has roots from any place in the world. So a dual time watch is required if you are a true New-Yorker to keep in touch with your relatives ! And New-York City is the city which never sleeps... the two night&days indicators on the dial are an excellent reminder of this fact !



Is it due to the shape of the case ? Maybe ! This almost square case makes me think about Bryant Park shape,  about the Brooklyn Bridge or about the groundfloor of Harry Winston boutique !



The Brooklyn Bridge and the New-York Boutique of Harry Winston share the use of arches in their architectural styles.





Source: Wikipedia (David Shankbone)

Is it due to its size ? Maybe yes ! New-York City is a big city, the Avenue Squared is a large watch (43,4 x 44,7mm) whose shape enhances the feeling of size.

Let's have a look at this Avenue Squared now.





The case is strong, powerful and elegant at the same time. This time, there isn't any crown protector in order to lighten the design of the watch. Let's have a look back to the Brooklyn Bridge picture: we can see that the left and right sides of the case are a bit like the sides of the pillars of the bridge. Moreover, two parts, at the top and at the bottom, inspired by the arch of the NY boutique entrance, cut the horizontal lines of the case. In the Premier collection, the 3 arch-shaped parts have the same role of bringing a more subtle style effect to the overall design.

The second timezone pusher is still located on the left side but it is more prominent here than with the Ocean case.





Obviously, the dial has the same layout than the Ocean Dual Time one. But, in order to preserve the coherence of the watch, we don't find here the same feeling of depth. Of course, it is still a multi-layers dial and its finishings are flawless. But the same Ocean 3d effects would have required to increase the height of the watch and its slenderness would have disappeared. Don't forget that with a non-round watch, the feeling of thickness is not the same. A rectangular or square watch need to be quite thin to be wearable.





You will notice that with the Avenue Squared, the vertical big date and both night&day indicators are much more discreet than with the Ocean Dual Time.





As I said before, the Avenue Squared is powered by the movement MVT-HW1001-07 which is  a GP3396 base combined with the first module entirely developed and assembled by Harry Winston. The power reserve is 45 hours and caliber frequency is 4hz. Here, the caliber is not visible due to the solid caseback.

We operate the watch the same way we use the Ocean Dual Time: the watch is easy to handle even if the presence of the two sub-dials (main time on the right, second timezone on the left) can be a bit confusing.

Despite of its size, the watch, thanks to the absence of lugs, its slenderness, is, at the end, maybe more suitable to smaller wrists than the Ocean Dual Time. It is a very comfortable watch to wear even if you don't forget that you have it on your wrist.









I really like this Avenue Squared. For me, it is an excellent alternative to the Ocean Dual Time for people who find it too casual or too powerful in its design. The Avenue Squared is maybe less appealing at first glance but it is more subtle at the end. Its slenderness, its elegancy seduced me. Harry Winston managed to create a large and balanced watch at the same time.









If you are interested in a Dual Time watch from Harry Winston, I would highly advice to test both Ocean Dual Time and Avenue Squared. Even if they share the same complication, they are totally different watches.

The Avenue Squared is available with a WG or PG case, with a white or black dial.

Fr.Xavier
This message has been edited by foversta on 2010-07-04 02:38:48