Opus 5 – “Time Ship”

One more masterpiece. One more watchmaker of genius. This time Maximilian Busser, the ÑÅÎ of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces, asked his ambassadors to knock at the door of Felix Baumgartner, one of the most famous Swiss watchmakers. He consented to a proposal of creating the brilliant fifth Opus together with Harry Winston's team. Opus 5 is “the fifth timepiece among the first ones”. In 2005, this effective collaboration resulted in the presentation of the next men's wrist watch by Harry Winston, that had not been seen before in the Opus collection. This watch amazes the public by its originality, uniqueness and high quality. It appeared, that vigilant Maximilian Busser had not made a mistake, when looking for the Swiss craftsman.  Felix Baumgartner was born in Switzerland, in Schaffhausen, in 1975.  Felix Baumgartner followed in his forefathers' footsteps, the four generations of  Baumgartner's family had devoted themselves to the watchmaking. Baumgartner is considered “the King of Simple Complicity” thanks to his unusual watches with the huge number of hands and indicators. At the first sight it is rather difficult to determine the time with the help of  Baumgartner's watches. By launching his own company, known as Urwerk,  Felix Baumgartner was aiming to prove the fact, that the precise Swiss watch is not just the timepiece, that features “flashy” tourbillons, minute repeaters and other frills, but it is also an unusual, individual approach to the traditional and habitual things. Felix Baumgartner and his team from Urwerk company was inspired by one simple, but brilliant idea. The matter was, that Pope Alekzander VII (1655 – 1667), suffering from the insomnia, ordered his watchmakers to make a “noiseless” watch, that could show the time even in the night. So, the famous “night-light” watches appeared, these watches had through indexes and disks instead of hands. There was an oil lamp behind the disk, that made it possible to read the time even in the dark. Felix Baumgartner and the team from Urwerk has transformed the Pope's table clock into a wrist watch. Soon,  Urwerk watch company has gained the wild success all over the world. So, the new Opus, released in 2005, embodies the philosophies of two famous watch companies: the satellite indication by Urwerk and the retrograde minute hand, and the design of lugs, familiar to everyone, by Harry Winston. The inimitable Opus 5 have two unique features. The first one is the satellite system of  hour indication, that consists of three blocks with the numerals on their sides. So, there are twelve numerals on three blocks, showing hours. The current hour is shown by the numeral, located on the block in the root of the minute hand pointer. The minutes are shown by the retrograde hand, moving over 120-degree counter. The two indicators are placed between the minute counter and hour indicator . The upper one show the power reserve, with the help of the hand, moving from “+” to “-”. The watch movement is manual wound with the power reserve of 122 hours. One more interesting indicator, corresponding to the unusual style of Opus 5, is located under the power reserve indicator. It is the day/night indicator. The second characteristic of this Swiss watch is its service indicator, placed on the watch back, graduated from 0 to 5. This indicator lets the owner of the rare watch know, when it is time to take the timepiece in for maintenance. The details of Opus 5 movement are produced from the solid material, and the central part of the system is treated with the special sandblast method to prevent the light dispersion and to make the time reading an easy process. It's also worth paying attention to the original winding crown, hidden under the cover. It can be opened, like a door of a racing car. Opus 5 wrist watch was released in the limited edition of 100 items. Some of the models are made of rose gold, the other – of 950 platinum. The watch case is rather massive, 50 mm in diameter, and the off-centered construction of the watch  visually draws a veil over the high thickness of the satellite system of this masterpiece. The watch is water resistant to 30 meters. The watch comes with the black crocodile leather strap. The creator of Opus 5 believes, that people will see in this watch the grandiose step forward, made by the modern watchmakers. “I think, that such a watch has never been created yet.” - says  Baumgartner. He also adds, “I can call this watch a strange time ship, moving forward with all sails set”.