Two Monochrome Editions by Harry Winston

A few months ago, we at Monochrome received a call that blew our socks off. The guys and gals from Harry Winston had some great news they wanted to share with us. In preparation for this year’s Baselworld, they were looking to do something special besides the annual Opus timepiece. The final suggestion was to debut two watches, one of them being an elegant dress watch and the other a more expressive timepiece.

That’s how we would have liked to have started this story, but sadly that is not the reality. However we do feel quite privileged to have a Harry Winston watch bearing our online magazine’s name. And the best part is, there is not just one, but two of them out there! Meet the Harry Winston Midnight Monochrome Automatic and Ocean Dual Time Monochrome.

The Midnight Monochrome is the dress watch, with a rather stunning looking grey dial. The dial is made to look very much like a piece of slate, and closely resembles this stone, which gives it a smooth, yet still kind of rough appearance.

The slate-like dial is encased in an 18 carat white gold case, measuring 42 mm in diameter and just 9 mm in height. These dimensions would fit perfectly and elegantly with any shirt, complementing a finely cut suit. A nice detail is that the dial features applied hour markers and the Harry Winston logo, and the ensemble is completed with dart-shaped hands.

The movement powering the watch is Girard-Perregaux’s caliber GP3300. A brilliant movement that GP uses for many of their timepieces, like the 41 mm version GP1966 and the new Chrono Hawk and Sea Hawk – evenMB&F powers some of their Horological Machines with GP calibers! It features twin barrels, which together deliver 45 hours of power reserve. When fully wound, a slipping spring prevents the main springs from overwinding. The movement is made up of 191 components, of which 27 jewels, and beats at the familiar rate of 28,800 vph.

The Harry Winston Midnight Monochrome Automatic displays hours, minutes and the date, which is located at the 6 o’clock position. Sapphire crystals are used on both sides. The watch comes on a hand-sewn black alligator leather strap with an 18 carat white gold ardillon buckle.

The subtlety of the Midnight Monochrome Automatic is balanced out with a second timepiece that Harry Winston introduced at Baselworld 2013: the Ocean Dual Time Monochrome.

This more radical looking timepiece features two sub-dials for home time and local time, with matching day-night indicators – one for each time zone obviously, which is unusual but not unique. One brand that pops into mind is A. Lange & Söhne, who did their version of a dual day-night indicator with the Lange 1 Time Zone. The dual day-night indicator on the Harry Winston Ocean Dual Time  Monochrome is displayed on two separate disks featuring the sun (day) and stars (night) for each time zone (home, and local). On the dial, the large date is displayed horizontally by two fully visible date disks.

The case has a very smooth, brushed finish, in a gun-metal shade of grey. It is a Harry Winston exclusive alloy, called Zalium, milled into a 44 mm case. Zalium is an alloy comprised of zirconium and aluminium, making it very light and also highly resistant to corrosion. The black disks and sub-dials, combined with the numerals, indexes and hands (coated in Superluminova) make for an easily readable timepiece. A secondary baseplate on the dial side of the watch is hand brushed and finished. In addition to the hours, minutes, second time zone, double day-night indicator and a horizontal date indicator, there is also a small “shuriken” on the dial. This little star spins around, indicating whether the watch has power or not; so it actually functions as a second hand.

The Ocean Dual Time Monochrome is also powered by a GP3300 movement. This time aided by a Harry Winston exclusive module known as the AGH2841. Together the entire movement is the HW1001, comprised of 272 components and 35 jewels (instead of the usual 27 jewels). Power reserve and beat rate are the same as the Midnight Monochrome. The automatic movement features a blackened rotor, visible through the sapphire crystal in the case back. The entire movement is placed off-center in the case.

This watch comes on a rubber strap with diamond-point finish and a Zalium folding buckle. The Ocean Dual Time Monochrome by Harry Winston comes in a limited run of 250 pieces. For more info, please visit the Harry Winston website or your nearest retailer or Harry Winston Salon (yep, that sounds different than a flagship store or boutique).