The Harry Winston presents Opus Eleven as part of the luxurious Opus Series, which launched back in 2001. Every year a new watch is added to the collection in collaboration with the independent watchmakers. The concept was dreamed up by then man-in-charge Max Busser. The tradition has been so successful, that it continues in even fuller force.
This year the Opus man is watch maker Denis Giguet of MCT, who created the amazing Sequential One. Giguet lends his talents to the Opus game and wins with the Opus Eleven. This timepiece consists of three round cakes that make up the case as they asymmetrically stack on each other. The main circle is the hour’s domain, flanked by two pavilions. One shows the minutes on a jumping disk for the tens and a running disk for the units. The other, slightly lower, displays the regular beat of a big titanium balance-wheel.
Every 60 minutes, the numeral of the hour, assembled in the center of the circle, explodes into chaos before instantly reassembling as the new hour. It then remains still until the next disintegration. Instead of a hand, 24 placards revolve and rotate on a complicated system of gears mounted on an epicycloidal gear-train. Four satellites mounted on a rotating platform, each with three pairs of placards, provide a vertical transmission through a train of eight intermediate wheels, three elliptical gears, a triangular wheel, and six conical pinions.
The Opus Eleven will be available as a limited edition of 111 pieces (100 in gold, and 11 in gold and diamonds). Price is in the $250,000 range ($230,000 in white gold, and $289,000 in white gold with diamonds) and pieces should be available at the end of 2011.