Harry Winston

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Harry Winston Opus 10th anniversary: a celebration of a milestone

Last Thursday, Harry Winston organized an event in its Manufacture to celebate the 10th year of the Opus Collection. This event gave to Harry Winston the ability to remind us the influence of this collection on the whole industry and on the other collections of the brand (for example: the Opus 1 influenced the Excenter collection). There is a before and an after Opus.





How can we describe an Opus watch ? It is a creative and innovative watch which is the result of a partnership between a major brand and a young watchmaker. An Opus watch can't be designed if there is no daring attitude, if there is no ambition to go beyond the already existing principles. An Opus watch has to define a new frontier. It is the reason why that sometimes, the watchmaker can go too far: 7 years were required to deliver the Opus 3 and the Opus 7 is still, 3 years later, a very complicated watch to be understood by the collectors. But it is what we expect from a watchmaker involved in an Opus watch: he has to be as free as possible to create an exciting and fascinating watch.

There is no mixed emotions with an Opus watch: you love it or you hate it. If one day, you have the feeling  that it is a not so bad watch, the objective would be missed.

This partnership is obviously a win-win situation: for the watchmaker of course. The Opus watch he creates brings him a gain of fame in the watch world. For Harry Winston also: the Opus collection gives to Harry Winston the ability to release a very specific watch (which is every year expected: one of the main questions you have when you go to the Basel fair is to know what the new Opus watch looks like) and to reinforce its position and its credibility amongst the key players of the high-end segment.

The Opus collection had a strong influence on our perception of the independent horology world: if there is a increasing interest for this horology, if some names are familiar to us,of course, the Opus collection has played a big role in this context.

Even if the Opus 11 and 12 are currently under development, we don't have the mere idea of what would be the guiding principle of these future watches, what would be the time display, what would be the complications. If we browse the 10 Opus watches,  the only common  point is the creativity. Let's have a look at the last two: there is no transition between  the 9th and the 10th ones, you can't find more oppositive watches.

Of course, the question that may arise is the future of the collection. We know that the Opus 11 and 12 will be unveiled but after? Is it not too risky to keep this concept alive? After all, and we have the example with "Histoire de Tourbillon", there are also superlative Harry Winston watches outside the Opus collection.

At this stage, there is no plan to stop the Opus collection. But maybe the rhythm of one Opus watch per year will change. The idea is to keep the following principle: the watch has to bring something new, something exciting, something that lead people to say: "Wow"!

I was really impressed by the event organization: first of all, the watchmakers were present, a way for them to show the role of the Opus collection in their carreers. They could share between them their experience and the way the lived the collaboration with Harry Winston: each watch has its own adventure. The 10 Opus watches were also gathered so we almost saw them all. I say "almost" because, as you may know, François-Paul Journe did 3 Opus 1 and only one was displayed.

Around 200 guests were invited (clients, journalists, AD...) to attend the event and the party which took place at the Manufacture.

The choice of the Manufacture as the place for the event is not so innocent. The guests had the ability to visit the Manufacture before the cocktail and the dinner. Harry Winston invested a lot in its facilities, its machines, its people to develop a strong and credible high-end watches pole.

The dinner took place after the cocktail on the roof-terrasse. It was regulated by Mr de Narp's speech, by the animations (which themes were the cunjonction of two talents) and by movies of the watchmakers explaining their ideas and their ambition when they created their Opus watches. At the end of the dinner, the 10 watchmakers walked onto the stage with their Opus watches.





I have never seen such gathering of talents: François-Paul Journe, Antoine Preziuso, Vianney Halter, Christophe Claret, Felix Baumgartner, Robert Greubel & Stephen Forsey, Andreas Strehler, Frédéric Garinaud, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, Eric Giroud and Jean-François Mojon, all on the same stage, a sort of dream team of the watches world!

The event ended at the lounge which was set up in front of the main entrance of the Manufacture, a last opporunity for all the guests to discuss about their visions of the future of the industry.

The Opus collection, when it has started 10 years before, has defined what would be the keys to success in a very competitive world: a brand has to be creative, innovative and surprising. And it is more crucial in a crisis context. Even if the event was a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Opus collection, it was also for all the attendees a good way to understand the Harry Winston ambition for the future: it is a stong ambition and they have given to themselves for several years the means to succeed.

I propose you now to browse the pictures of the event. Due to large number of pictures, I create one post per topic.

I would like to thank a lot the whole Harry Winston team for the perfect organization, without any slack period, for their warm welcome: I had the opportunity to discuss with some attendees the day after, all were delighted by the event and impressed by its organization.

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