Harry Winston Opus 11
An opus is an artistic composition, a work of art, a masterpiece. In 2001, the Harry Winston watch brand set out to create its own collection of masterpieces, opuses, and collaborated with the best master horologists and independent watchmakers in the world to create one masterpiece every year and add it to the Harry Winston Opus collection.
The collaboration has flourished for over a decade with the watch brand working with the likes of Francois Paul Journe for Opus 1, Antoine Prezuiso for Opus 2, Vianney Halter for Opus 3, Christophe Claret for Opus 4, Felix Baumgartner for Opus 5, Greubel Forsey for Opus 6, Andreas Strehler for Opus 7, Frederic Garinaud & CSH for Opus 8, Jean Marc Wiederrecht & Eric Giroud for Opus 9, and lastly with Jean-Francois Mojon for Opus X, which was released in 2010.
Harry Winston Opus 11
For its Harry Winston Opus 11, the watch brand partnered with Denis Giguet who is no stranger to the master craft of watch making as founder of the Manufacture de Contemporaine du Temps or MCT, a privately owned watch brand that creates about 50 exclusive and exquisite time pieces in a year. Giguet is also no stranger to the Harry Winston Opus collection, having previously worked behind the scenes as head of production for Opuses 1 to 6.
Harry Winston Opus 11 details
The Harry Winston Opus 11 was officially introduced at the Baselworld fair in early 2011 to rave reviews. It is a watch like none other, with a daring technological innovation and complication on its time display and dial. The watch itself consists of three circular dials, with the main dial flanked on the right by two external sub-dials.
The Harry Winston Opus 11 main dial, at first glance, looks filled with a jumble of broken bits and pieces. More like a jigsaw puzzle than a watch dial. Upon closer inspection, however, the dial reveals a system of four rotating gears on a central circular platform that is also rotating. These gears are all designed to rotate while the
seconds are ticking and then at every hour on the hour, the beauty of the movement comes to fore when four placards (out of the 24) unite to form the Hindu-Arabic numeral for the hour.
Harry Winston Opus 11 movement detail
The movement may sound confusing but it is beautiful in action as you can see on this video here.
Of course this is a watch that does not only track hourly time. The uppermost sub-dial on the right tracks the minutes using two discs with a smaller inner disc displaying the tens unit from 0 to 6 through retrograde movement and the larger outer running disc at the bottom displaying the ones unit from 0 to 9. The bottom sub-dial simply houses the titanium balance wheel or tourbillon for the wearer’s enjoyment.
The complicated mechanical movements of the Harry Winston Opus 11 watch are made possible through the use of 155 jewels and a total of 566 separate components.
The Harry Winston Opus 11 masterpiece is in limited release of only 111 pieces, with 100 pieces in white gold casing and the remaining eleven in diamond-encrusted casing.
Visit the Harry Winston watch brand’s product page to view more information about the Opus 11: http://www.harrywinston.com/store/timepieces/opus/products/opus11.
FORTIS B42 OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH ALARM TITANIUM CHRONOMETER C.O.S.C. 660.27.11 K
Fortis watch brand has been highly regarded by the military and civil aviation air crews for its inherent values of unmatched accuracy and performance inhibited in its watches. The venture into Cosmonaut series by the Fortis watch brand took the brand to the wrists of the astronauts and finally it achieved its motto “Created on earth, tested in space”. The watch brand has taken into account all the requirements of the spaceship crew including the possible light weight that can be attained.
- FORTIS B42 OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH ALARM
Fortis watch brand recently introduced the world’s first and only mechanical alarm watch, the B-42 OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH ALARM TITAN. This watch incorporates the intrinsic properties of its predecessors that has proven their trustworthiness in space and certified by the Federal Space Agency. The watch offers along with time keeping the chronograph functions, date, alarm, centre-stop-second, small second, 30-minute and 12 hour counters.
The watch comes in three-part case made from brushed titanium with 42 mm diameter and 15 mm thickness. The crystal of the watch is sapphire crystal coated with anti-reflective coating on both sides. The watch has a unidirectional black colored bezel featuring 60 minutes-scale with 120 divisions. On the right side of the watch case the two chronograph pushers are positioned at 2 and 4 o’clock with crown in the middle. The crown and the pushers are protected with caoutchouc rubber covering. The watch back is protected by screw-down titanium case back. The crown of the watch is engraved with the FORTIS logo while the case back is engraved with the Russian Space Agency and the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center Star City national emblems. The watch case offers water resistance up to depth of 200 meter i.e. 20 ATM pressure.
The watch houses a black matt dial with a projected alarm scale. The dial is numbered in Arabic numerals and offers the hour indices & watch hands in white Superluminova coating for better night legibility. The dial also has a Superluminova capsule positioned at 12 o’clock and a laminated orange colored center-stop-second hand. The dial houses a 60 seconds, 30 minute and 12 hour counters positioned at 12 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock respectively. The date function is displayed at 3 o’clock position along with alarm ON/OFF indicator. Two triangles positioned at 3 o’clock on the dial points out the rotating direction of the crown for immediate time adjustment.
FORTIS B42 OFFICIAL COSMONAUTS CHRONOGRAPH ALARM STRAP
The watch is powered by the in house movement, FORTIS Chronograph Alarm Calibre F 2001-5 automatic movement. The movement has 30mm diameter and 7.9 mm height. It features 35 jewels and vibrates at 28,800 semi-vibrations per hour. It is equipped with 2 barrels for automatic winding and Incabloc shock absorber against blows. The Calibre F 2001-5 is a fine timing device which is COSC certified chronometer movement. This movement has been enhanced over years with the cooperation of aerospace specialists, thus a unique movement has been developed that not only indicates date and time but can also be used as an alarm watch and stopwatch.
The watch comes with a black leather strap padded with contrast stitching and fitted to the case or a stainless steel bracelet. The watch comes in limited edition of 300 pieces only.
Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000
The young Italian watch brand Anonimo offers a wide variety of high quality Swiss watches in almost every category. The watch Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 is a great diving watch offering high rate of water resistance as its name suggests Millemetri meaning 1000 meters in Italian language.
Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000
The Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 watch is encased in AISI316 stainless steel case that has been carved out from a steel block and machined from inside instead of the traditional stamped out process. This procedure eliminates the extra stress in the metal and makes it perfect for deep diving. The case has been satinated and sand-blasted granting it with the shiny looks. The case has a diameter of 42 mm and height of 14.80 mm.
The Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 watch weighs about 147 grams with the strap. The watch offers a lug size of 22 mm and has screw that facilitates the strap changing. The crystal of the watch is 4 mm thick sapphire crystal in dome shape. The watch has a screwed lock back case engraved with the watch number, model name and number, the water resistant rating, the Anonimo brand logo along with the engravings of ”opera meccana” indicating the watch lineup. The Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 watch offers water resistance up to 100 ATM pressure i.e. up to water depth of 1000 meters.
Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 orange dial
The Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 watch comes with a screw locked crown at 4 o’clock for quick time adjustment and manual helium expulsion valve crown at 2 o’clock to escape helium from the case in high pressure compartments.
The watch comes with various dial color variations in white, black, silver, blue, light green and orange. The dial of the watch is numbered with Arabic numerals at basic points. The dial houses baton shaped watch hands made from an alloy with beryllium and have a golden color. The date is displayed on the dial in a date window positioned between 3 o’clock and 4 o’clock. The dial offers hour markers, hour and minute hands along with a dot on second hand in luminous coating for legibility in dark.
Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 dial detail
The Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 watch is driven by an automatic winding ANONIMO F1 01.1 movement based on ETA 2824-2. The movement features colimaçon finishing on bridge and the rotor. The movement offers four adjustment points and drives the functions of hour, minutes, seconds and date. The watch offers a power reserve of about 44 hours.
The watch comes with hand finished calfskin strap with grey stitching and it has been processed by the patented Kodiak process. In the Kodiak process the calf skin is immersed in sea and fresh water for 24 hours to make is resistant to water. The strap features a steel buckle engraved with Anonimo in reverse.
Anonimo has introduced the following three versions of Anonimo Millemetri MOD 2000 :
• Deep Blue
This version offers a crown for scuba diving functions and an automatic helium escape valve.
• TRILOGEO
This version offers special commemorative engraved case back.
• 10 ANNI
This version is offered with a case treated with passivation process and Ox-Pro blackening treatment to make it corrosion resistant.
Luminox Deep Dive Automatic 1500
Every watch brand has tried to master itself in one or more areas of the watch making. Some of them have mastered the art to such a great extent that their brand name has become synonymous to it. Luminox watch brand is one such brand that has mastered the art of watch illumination that got it the name Luminox (Lumi meaning light and Nox meaning night in Latin language). The watch brand incorporates Swiss self-powered illumination system that makes the watch more legible in dark also called tritium tubes technology. The watch brand was established in 1989 and since then, it has been committed to proved high-tech luminescence and legibility in its high-performance watches.
Luminox Deep Dive Automatic 1500 blue dial markers
The Luminox DEEP DIVE Automatic 1500 watch is one of the high-impact professional watches that have been introduced by Luminox. It is a certified diving watch made according to the highest specifications and high standards of ISO 6425 for Diving watches.
The watch main features include:
• Water resistant up to 1500 feet
• Automatic helium release valve
• Luminox Bezel Locking System (BLS)
• Luminox Light Technology (LTT)
The 1500 feet water resistant or 500 meters is an extraordinary achievement which makes the Luminox Deep Diver Automatic 1500 watch a distinctive timepiece among all the diver watches. The casing of the watch is tough and rough with a sapphire crystal and case back that are double in thickness than the 200 meters dicer watches, providing a strong construction to endure the immense 50 bar pressure.
Luminox Deep Dive Automatic 1500 orange dial markers
The automatic helium release valve is more than a blessing for a watch in the pressurized environments in the diving bells, deep sea exploration vessels and more. These pressurized environments are made from helium rich-air mixture that poses the risk of entrance of helium molecules in to the watch. This can damage the watch if frequent decompression stops are not made long enough for the release of the helium from the watch. The Luminox DEEP DIVE Automatic 1500 watch has many watches with an automatic helium release valve releases the excess pressure using the one way valve.
The Luminox DEEP DIVE Automatic 1500 watch feature the innovate Bezel Locking System built for the purpose to prevent accidental rotation of the bezel. The correctness of the bezel is very crucial regarding the diving time. This BLS system is more robust than the unidirectional bezel that may be moved when knock down against something.
The Luminox watch brand illumination system is called the Luminox Light Technology (LLT) based in the MB Microtech technology. This technology is capable of providing clear night legibility even in complete darkness for about 25 years. This technology is so effective that, Luminox was approached by the U.S. Navy SEAL Procurement officers and the U.S. Air Force pilots flying the F-117 Nighthawk™ Stealth Jets for illuminated watches for their night missions.
The Luminox DEEP DIVE Automatic 1500 watch is encased in a 45 mm reinforced steel case incorporated with custom gaskets. The glass of the watch is an extra thick sapphire crystal with 3 mm thickness. The 3 mm case back is also thicker than the usual size and is screwedback. The watch case offer water resistance up to a depth of 500 meter i.e. 1500 feet and 50 ATM. The watch has an innovative patented Bezel Locking System (BLS) that also protects the screw-in crown of the watch mimicking Panerai with their trademark crown protection system.
The dial of the Luminox DEEP DIVE Automatic 1500 watch is black in color exhibiting hour markers, watch hands and bezel numbers with the LLT blue luminescent underwater system. The contrast colored minute hand is much wider in size and is incorporated with double LLT tubes. The dial shows the date at the date display window at 3 o’clock.
The watch features an automatic Swiss ETA movement and comes with a black polyurethane strap with wet suit extension.
Price of the Luminox- DEEP DIVE Automatic 1500 is of about 1,200 EUR making it not as affordable as Luminox quartz watches. In case you are looking for an automatic diver watch with trititum tubes on the more affordable section (costing less than 350 EUR) you may try to have a look at the Prometheus Jellyfish also reviewed by Watches Brandz.
To learn more about Luminox watches visit their portal at http://www.luminox.com .
