HARRY WINSTON, JEAN-MARC WIEDERRECHT & ERIC GIROUD. A VERY FINE, RARE AND UNUSUAL 18K WHITE GOLD, DIAMOND AND RUBY-SET LIMITED EDITION OVERSIZED SQUARE AUTOMATIC WRISTWATCH WITH BELT TIME INDICATORS

Opus 9 is unique in many ways. It marked the first time that Harry Winston has partnered with two independent innovative forces in haute horlogerie. Both long-time designers for Harry Winston, watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, and designer, Eric Giroud, have contributed to some of Harry Winton's most remarkable timepieces. Opus 9 is also the first timepiece of the Opus series to use diamonds, not merely as a decorative element, but as the main purpose of telling time. "We set out to create pure linear time," Jean-Marc Wiederrecht explained. "We very quickly ruled out complications and chose to work on an existing movement. The challenge was to incorporate and highlight the diamonds as functional elements of the watch."

Instead of a traditional watch hand and cyclical dial, time is reduced to its most fundamental expression to show the hours and minutes by two parallel chains of 33 baguette-cut diamonds, punctuated with three mandarin garnets to indicate the exact time. The main technical challenge came from the added weight of the diamonds when engineering these chains. Each diamond and garnet had to be cut to watchmaking precision to fit in the links, in fact, 50 of the diamonds Wiederrecht received from Harry Winton had to be sent back.

The white gold case designed by Eric Giroud is at once stark and sculptural. Its minimalist design was to emphasize the functional beauty and the brilliance of the diamonds while supporting the movement which was totally concealed in the case. The idea for the Opus 9 came to Giroud while he was on vacation by the sea. His starting point was purity as he wanted to incorporate light and transparency into the case, inspired by the way the sunlight hit the water. The present watch is number 2 of a limited edition of 9 examples made only.