Harry Winston

The Opus 7: a beauty-fly watch !

 

I would like to present you a not very well known Opus: the Opus 7. When I say "not very well known", it is because when you ask people about what are the emblematic Opus in their point of view, the Opus 7 is not named very often. It is a pity, the Opus 7 is definitely worth a better consideration from our part.

We all know that the concept of the Opus collection is to propose innovative high-end watches through a close partnership between Harry Winston and a talentous young watchmaker. For the watchmaker, being chosen by Harry Winston is at the same time a recognition and of course a challenge. There is a big pressure on his shoulders: he knows that, even if his Opus is created from scratch, that his creation will be compared, analysed, judged in light of the previous Opus. An Opus watch doesn't have to be "only" a great watch: it has to bring its own contribution to the watchmaking history.

When Andreas Strehler was chosen by Harry Winston and Hamdi Chatti in 2006 to develop the Opus 7, he perfectly knew that the expectations were very high: even if he was a young watchmaker, his résumé was yet well-filled.

After his apprenticeship, Andreas Strehler started to work at Renaud&Papi in where he could collaborate with watchmakers like Giulio Papi of course, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey. Then, he decided to work for his own account what gave him the opportunity to develop various movements with a very large range of complications. Without any doubt, at that time, his most famous work was for Moser which was demanding of several exclusive movements for the re-birth of the brand from a 3 hands with small seconds one to a QP one.

Robert Greubel, Andreas Strehler and Frédéric Garinaud at the Opus 10th Anniversary event:



When I did the review of the Opus 5, I explained that the partnership with Harry Winston helped Felix Baumgartner a lot: he could express some ideas he would highlight later with the Urwerk 201. I have the same feeling here with the Opus 7: this watch was also a sort of lab for the future Andreas Strehler's own creation: the Papillon (butterfly in french). It is the reason why like the Opus 5/Urwerk 201, the Opus 7 and the Papillon share a lot of common points.

The Opus 6, from Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey was a watch with a dial mainly dedicated to a double tourbillon, time display being clearly separated from the other parts of the dial. With the Opus 7, it is a 180-degree turn. All the dial parts are mixed together... it is the mechanism by itself which tells the time.

What were the main ideas enhanced by Andreas Strehler when he started to create the Opus 7? We can sum them  up as follows:

- to devise not a watch but a mechanism which would be attractive by itself
- to create it from zero
- to make this mechanism extremely visible, not hidden behind a dial
- to define a new design, new elements, new concepts and a new time display

As you can hear it in the Opus 7 movie I posted in the 10 Opus movies thread, Andreas Strehler explained that if one word could describe the Opus 7, it would be "Butterfly". We will see why.





The Opus 7 was released in 2007 in a limited edition of 50 watches. The Opus 7 is a watch for which it is not possible to tell the complete time on a picture. The time display is based upon the alternating display system by pushing the crown. Three data are displayed: the hours, the minutes and the power reserve. So on a picture, you will only read the hours or the minutes or the power reserve but not the three ones at the same time.





These data can be read at 12 o'clock and are indicated by a arrow which points at numerals on a disk. Two types of numerals are used: grey Superluminova Arabic ones (between 1 and 12) used by the hours display and blue Superluminova Arabic ones (between 05 and 60) used by the minutes and the power reserve displays.To know which type of data is displayed, look at the color and the letter on the arrow. If it's a grey H arrow, you shall look at the grey figures to read the hours. If it's a blue M arrow, you read the minutes on the disk.  If it's a blue R arrow, you read the power reserve. You jump from one data to another one by using the pusher (or better said: trigger) on the crown. This crown is of course also used to wind the movement.

The display trigger:





Now let's have an overview of the Opus. The first details we notice are the the specific pusher and the beautiful butterflyshaped bridge. This bridge is huge and delicate: we are not in front of a decorated  movement. Movement is the decoration. In fact, we totally forget the time display and we always come back to this bridge. When the Opus 7 was released, the Art Nouveau inspiration was underlined. I took two pictures of Art Nouveau buildings of Barcelona (Casa Fajol or Casa de la Papallona built in 1912 y Cases Ramos built in 1906) and we can clearly see this kind of inspiration when we look at the bridge:

Casa Fajol:



Cases Ramos:




In a classic movement, we have three wheels between the barrel and the escapement: the minutes wheel, the intermediate wheel and the seconds wheel which is the smallest. In order to get a neat design, to reduce the friction and the energy consuming, Andreas Strehler removed the smallest wheel. Of course, it is not so easy to take this decision and this leads to complicated changes in a movement structure: the two remaining wheels turn more slowly to compensate for the lack of the third one The huge blue central wheel (its diameter is bigger than the half part of the dial diameter!) is not plain but instead has 3 arches what reduces a lot its weight without downgrading its hardness. So, the whole layout of the movement was redesigned to get this impressive visual result. The energy consuming reduction allowed Andreas Strehler to optimize the power reserve and to raise the period of stability of the accuracy of the watch. With the Opus 7, these two different concepts are equal to 60 hours. Once the watch reachs the 60th hour of working, it stops and doesn't enter the end of power reserve turbulence.

Due to the bridges tangle on the dial, to preserve the harmony of the watch and its readability, Andreas Strehler used only 3 main colors for the time display and for the movement: black, blue and grey, a combo of colors we meet in the Harry Winston Zalium collection. As I said before, the hours wheel is blue. The main bridge, the butterfly-shaped one, is made of rhodium-plate white gold. The plate below is black and enhances the main bridge and the wheels. We experience a strange and unique feeling with this watch: the watch seems to be complex and simple, baroque and sober at the same time.

When we turn over the watch, we enter a new world: if the movement dial side uses large wheels and bridges, on the back, the movement brings a different originality. In fact, you discover parts you have never seen before in other watches. It is obviously due to the alternating time display system and to the Strehler's will to put dial side some wheels. The heart shaped part in the middle moves when you operate the pusher to change the display. Finishings are flawless but it is not the main point which attracts our eyes. Again, it is the originality of this lay-out which makes the Opus 7 so special. The handwind movement has a low frequency (2,5 hz) and a huge diameter (37,6mm) which is logical due to the hours wheel size!









The large main bridge and hour wheel, the movement diameter need to be housed in a big rhodiulm-plated white gold case (with a diameter of 45mm and a height of 14,9mm). I really like the work done on this case. It is a sort of Ocean case which would have been softened to be more coherent with the movement lay-out dial side. Let's take an example: the usual arch-shaped parts by the crown have been transformed into thin lines. So, the Harry Winston style of case is still easily recognizable even if it is less complex than the Ocean one: we get here a more direct and straight style.

The watch on the wrist has a strong presence and we understand why Andreas Strehler decided to put a trigger rather than to keep a pusher to operate the display menu: it is much more convenient when you wear the watch to use it than to press a classic pusher. Because due to the alternating display, you will use it... a lot. In fact, you decide to choose the flow of time you prefer. Are you focussed on the minutes? Choose the M arrow! You prefer to only know the hours? Choose the H arrow. The small trouble is the integration of the power reserve display in the system. We understood before why it is so important. But if you are on the minutes display mode, you need to press the trigger twice  to come back to the hours display. If I was a proud owner of this watch, I would choose to keep the hours display to only need to press once to get the minutes. Once read, I would immediately come back to the hours display by pressing twice the trigger  to put the watch in the right position to quickly tell the time. You have to be careful about two things:

- first of all, please note that of course the blue figures on the disk don't tell the right minutes when you are in the hours display. It is obvious to tell it but we have a sort of reflex which makes us also read the blue figures.
- be sure to be in the minutes display and not in the power reserve one when you wish to read the minutes.

The precision of time displayed (which is different from the precision of mechanism) is, I would say, the same that with a single-hand watch: the minutes scale is written with a 5 minutes step.

Frankly speaking, this watch really needs a certain time to appreciate it and to get used with it. An alternating display leads to an unusual relationship between the owner and his watch. The Opus 7 is not an easy watch to understand and maybe it is the reason why the collectors have prefered watches with more accessible original time display. I really think that the Opus 7 doesn't have to be considered as a pure watch. As Andreas Strehler explained it, the Opus 7 is more a mechanism which tells the time. With the Opus 7, Harry Winston and Andreas Strehler propose us an unique mechanism design and a choice between two speeds of flow of time... it is almost a philosophical watch because it forces us to think about our current way of life: shall we really need the minutes display? Why do we live now in our society to within a second? A butterfly is a beautiful insect which symbolizes methamorphosis... so maybe the Opus 7 brings the message to his owner that he needs to change his behaviour, to take his time and to live with an other rhythm. Some butterflies have a very short life so like them, maybe we must try to appreciate more each moment we spend on Earth...





I would like to thank a lot the staff of the Montres Prestige boutique in Geneva.

Fr.Xavier

This message has been edited by foversta on 2011-01-09 10:48:32 This message has been edited by foversta on 2011-01-15 14:20:44