Harry Winston Retrograde: Unrivaled Luxury

Almost all of Harry Winston's rare timepieces feature architectural dial designs, including the new 2021 "Project Z15," which incorporates a regulator display. However, in recent years, Harry Winston has moved away from the simple overlapping of geometric motifs and seems to be attempting to create a new architectural aesthetic by conceptually connecting a variety of motifs with various meanings.

The "Project Z" series features a complex mechanism in a Zalium case.

　Harry Winston's "Project Z" has been a series since 2004. Zalium, a highly resistant zirconium-based material, is a special material that is lightweight and highly corrosion-resistant. The key concept of Project Z is to use it for sports watch cases. Harry Winston began full-scale watchmaking in 1989, and its first model incorporated a retrograde perpetual calendar. For a company renowned as a high jeweler, releasing such a complex mechanism in its first model was itself a groundbreaking event at the time. Since then, the retrograde display has become recognized as a technical icon of Harry Winston.

　The same can be said for previous Project Z models, with the first, the "Project Z1," released in 2004, featuring a chronograph with a triple retrograde counter hand. Since then, seven of the 14 models (Z7 is the missing model) have adopted a retrograde display, up to the "Project Z15" released in 2021. In particular, since the "Project Z10" first released in 2016, which was developed under the leadership of the Swatch Group, five of the six models have incorporated some sort of retrograde display. This is a fairly high batting average.

　Project Z, with its Zalium case, also serves as a platform for the introduction of new complex movements. Project Z15 incorporates a new innovation: Harry Winston's first regulator display. While the offset subdial has already become a major icon of the brand's timepieces, this time it is limited to displaying the hours. The long, centrally positioned minute hand significantly improves readability down to the minute. The original purpose of a regulator clock is to improve readability by displaying the hours, minutes, and seconds independently. Furthermore, since watchmakers in the pocket watch era used the regulator as a reference clock for adjustments, the regulator itself has become a metaphor for high precision. The Z15 features a 30-second retrograde second display.

　A motif favored by Project Z in recent years, and by Harry Winston timepieces in general, is the trapezoid motif. In the Z15, it is incorporated into the indicator of the retrograde second hand, serving as a key visual for the architectural dial design. However, this is not a trapezoid, but rather a semi-hexagon. The emerald-cut diamond is a motif that symbolizes the company as a jeweler. The trapezoid easily evokes part of the octagon that makes up an emerald cut.

　The model, which was relaunched in 21 as the "HW Ocean Retrograde Second Automatic 42mm" in the 18K Gold case, following the customary practice of the previous "Project Z14," is characterized by its stepped bezel and crown guard, the only one of the previous Project Z models. While it incorporates the magnificent iron gate that adorns the facade of the New York flagship store as a common icon, it is also interesting to note that some of its angular form is reminiscent of an emerald cut.

　The architectural beauty that is a major attraction of Harry Winston timepieces seems to have evolved beyond the mere overlap of architectural or geometric motifs to become even more complex. Retrograde movements, offset dials, and cleverly hidden semi-hexagonal shapes. These seemingly chaotic elements all work together to emphasize their unique beauty.