Here is another interesting piece made for the Only Watch charity auction. It is model from the Midnight collection of Harry Winston.
Rather contemporary in design, this unique piece preserves the highest watchmaking values, incorporating into the movement some of the rarest, most complex and delicate complications. Beautiful tourbillon cage, positioned at 6 o’clock, captures the eye at a first glance. The seconds hand is attached to its cage, allowing it to act as a subsidiary seconds dial. As a final touch, there are two beautiful blued screws, which nicely stand out against the silvered surface of the tourbillon. Blue screws are one of the distinctive details of fine Swiss watch movements. This vibrant royal color is achieved by heating a screw on a flame while the straw color begins to come into view, and continue until there is a nice deep purple.
Ruthenium broad snailed dial optically separates the sunburst finished sub-counters. The pattern on the dial visually transforms the still solid surface into a dynamic vortex, where slightly overlapping circles stand out one against the other, giving the illusion of three-dimensionality. The larger counter indicates local time while the smaller one, at 9 o’clock serves as a GMT display with a day and night indication. The aperture at 11 o’clock indicates the cities representing the second timezone.
The watch is made in precious platinum and sculptured in 45-millimeters wide case. Topped with nicely polished bezel, it bears the three characteristic arches of the Harry Winston’s New York Salon. Mechanical bidirectional automatic movement beats from the inside, endowing the watch with 110–hours of power reserve and 30 meters of water resistance.
If you’re interested for this piece, the biannual Only Watch 2011 Charity Auction starts on September 22, 2011. The auction is held in Monaco, at Hotel Hermitage. Since the last edition in September 2009, € 2,5 million have been donated to 18 scientific partners for research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
