The House of Harry Winston has launched a new sporty-chic white gold Ocean timepiece that captures the aquatic spirit of the collection.

Navigating between high mechanical and high jewellery, the 20-piece limited-edition Ocean Biretrograde Diamond Waves Automatic 36mm is designed for sporty activities and glamorous events.

A shimmering mother-of-pearl dial set with a refreshing splash of blue sapphires and white diamonds simulates the constant motion of waves and references Harry Winston’s ongoing love affair with dynamic gemstone settings.

The Ocean collection is Harry Winston’s take on the luxury sports watch, a paragon of versatility combining 100-m water resistance, contemporary design, fascinating mechanical complications and lavish gemstones. Having embarked on its maiden voyage in 1998, the Ocean collection returns to its origins and pays homage to the ocean waters that inspired its name.

WAVES OF GEMSTONES

The iridescence of the natural mother-of-pearl dial refracts light waves, mimicking the shimmering reflections of sunlight on water. Swathed across the dial, 33 bright blue baguette-cut sapphires and 51 sparkling baguette-cut diamonds recreate the gentle rising and falling motions of a wave. Not only do these streams of sapphires and diamonds add a gentle and relaxing rhythm to the dial, but they allude directly to Harry Winston’s passion for the most extraordinary gemstones. The importance of the colour blue at the House of Harry Winston originated with the acquisition of the rare 45.52-carat Hope Diamond by Winston in 1949.

RETROGRADE MOTION

The two retrograde displays in the lower half of the dial provide an animated mechanical spectacle as the hands, corresponding to the retrograde seconds on the left and the days of the week on the right, advance in opposite directions. The retrograde seconds hand traces the arc from zero to thirty, then jumps back in a counter-clockwise motion to zero; the hand corresponding to the days of the week advances every 24 hours and performs its sweeping jump on Sunday at midnight. Buoyed by a small blue sapphire current, a round aperture at 6 o’clock framed with baguette diamonds indicates the date.

At 12 o’clock, further underscoring the association with ocean waters, the hours and minutes are arranged in a drop-shaped counter demarcated by diamonds on the sides and an undulating stream of blue sapphires below. Three-dimensional indexes mark out the counter, while the signature Harry Winston emerald-cut diamond at noon leaves no doubt about the provenance of this fabulous timepiece.

SUMPTUOUS OCEAN CASE

The asymmetrical case of the Ocean Biretrograde family is crafted in luxurious 18K white gold and set with 72 baguette-cut diamonds. Employing the same setting technique as for the dial – a channel setting – the scintillating diamonds are placed in a recessed channel creating a uniform surface with barely a trace of the underlying metal. Measuring 36mm in diameter with a slim height of 9.7mm, one of the most distinctive features of the case is the prominent diamond-set structure surrounding the crown – a reference to the arched stone entrance of Harry Winston’s Fifth Avenue Flagship Salon.

RESILIENT SWISS MOVEMENT

Designed for everyday wear, the practicality of a mechanical automatic movement is unbeatable as it harnesses the natural motions of your wrist to power the movement. On the reverse side, a transparent sapphire crystal reveals the fine Swiss automatic movement with circular Côtes de Genève, rhodium-plating, and circular graining.

The 18-karat white gold rotor is skeletonised to provide a better view of the movement that delivers a comfortable 65-hour power reserve.

The Ocean Biretrograde Diamond Waves comes on a shiny white alligator leather strap with an 18-karat white gold ardillon buckle set with 24 baguette-cut diamonds.