At first glance, one might reasonably ask “How do you read the time on this watch?” Small, silver, triangular hands (yes, there’s more than one) peek out from under the multi-faceted dome in the center of the dial to point out the hours. The minutes are indicated via tiny pivoting markers around the edge of the dial. Each five-minute marker has a red tip.
As a new minute begins, its marker pivots so it points toward the center of the dial. Once each hour, as the 59th minute ends, the minutes markers retract with a motion that resembles a stadium full of people doing the wave. There is no hour or minutes marker at 12, so there are 11 hour hands and 59 minutes markers. Each minutes marker pivots on its own shaft, which is jeweled at each end. That’s 118 jewels right there.
At 12 noon and again at midnight, a disk at the center of the dial slides out of the way to reveal Harry Winston’s logo, which remains visible for one hour. The shutter slides on ruby ball bearings so tiny that the container holding them must be opened in a static-free environment to prevent them from flying away. Though they are high-precision components, they are so small that if dropped during assembly, the watchmakers do not look for them.
The watchmaker behind the Opus XIII is Ludovic Ballouard, and his specialty is working with springs and controlling energy. Before becoming a watchmaker, he was a technician working on airplane control panels. As a watchmaker, before launching his own brand, he worked with F.P. Journe, helping develop the Grande Sonnerie.
The Opus XIII display is powered by twin barrels. One drives the escapement. The other powers the minutes display. An outer ring jumps forward once each minute, released then locked by a rocking lever with two pallet stones. Each minutes marker is held in position by a small spring, and all 59 of these springs are part of a single metal piece. A peg on the advancing ring slides between the spring and minutes marker, rotating the marker 40 de- grees, causing it to reveal itself at the edge of the dial. At the end of the 59th minute, a second outer ring rotates, returning the minutes markers to their original positions with the aforementioned wave-like motion.
The hours mechanism incorporates an outer ring that jumps forward every 60 minutes, simultaneously turning the expiring hour’s triangle 180 degrees to hide it beneath the faceted dome, and pivoting the next hour marker so it appears on the dial. Though the movement is quite complex, it is a slender 4.95 mm high.
A total of 130 pieces will be produced without diamonds, priced at $298,000. An additional 20 pieces will be produced, 10 with baguette diamonds and 10 with brilliant-cut diamonds. The diamond versions can be customized; their prices will depend on what features are requested.
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