Harry Winston

Jack Forster
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I do understand your point, I'm just not sure I agree with the conclusion. . .

. . . well, more specifically, I'm not sure that I'm willing to dismiss the watch's technical and design merits to a significant extent on the basis of a perceived lack of emotional comittment on the part of its designer and on the part of HWRT- for one thing I'm not, having watched the announcement unfold from the sidelines , in a position to evaluate the extent to which HWRT did or did not do a good job of crafting a sense of emotional connection with the process of the creation of Opus 8.  Your critique also presupposes an idealized concept of what, at its best, the Opus series represents and while it's true they are ideally aspirational objects in every possible sense of the word, the reality is that they have been very much a mixed bag, with some dramatic successes (which by the way were reviled by many, quite vitriolically, at first) but also some relatively uninteresting pieces and one very conspicuous no show (so far.)

I don't think I agree that Opus 8 is a lapse per se from the high ideals uniformly upheld by the Opus series of watches in general; my personal perception is that the Opus watches represent experiments- in mechanics and aesthetics- and are better viewed from that perspective, rather than from the perspective that a certain uniform level of unimpeachably high success that's achieved universal approbation exists throughout all the Opus watches, which, you have to admit, is manifestly not the case.

There isn't a single watch in the Opus lineup that's been a universal crowd pleaser, and I don't believe that it's in the tradition of the Opus series to try to achieve mass appeal.  As an experiment I find Opus 8 rather initially intriguing than off putting (though obviously we have some mixed reactions in general here ) .

I can appreciate that your expectations in that regard haven't been met, and you, Bernard, and others who feel a lapse in connectedness to the process of creation of the Opus 8 are of course entirely within your rights to find that good and sufficient cause to dismiss the watch but honestly, I think it ought to be given a chance to at least allow itself to be seen, operated, and in general sink in a bit before throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. 

Cheers,

Jack