Harry Winston

FORUMS: Horological Meandering 
Audemars Piguet  | Blancpain  | Breguet  | Chopard  | Gerald Genta  | Girard Perregaux  | Glashütte Original  | Jaeger-LeCoultre  | Jaquet Droz  | F.P. Journe  | A.Lange & Söhne  | Officine Panerai  | Omega  | Richard Mille  | Patek Philippe  | Rolex  | Daniel Roth  | Ulysse Nardin  | Vacheron Constantin  | Harry Winston  | AHCI and independent haute horlogerie  | TimeOut  | Collectors Market  | Help Desk  |  Mobile/PDA

Not logged in | Login | Create Account | Help | Forum Search

Harry Winston  |  List All |  Top Level | Most Recent : (posts) *| FAV tick

I understand your point but I think the notion of a "history" for. . .
Apr 12, 2008,07:05 AM - (view entire thread)
Avatar
By: Jack Forster (registered) [Elite User] |  PM
Posts: 4378
. . . the Opus series is a bit misleading.

Both you and Dr. MTF (man, you physicians are a hard bunch to please wink ) have said that you feel that Opus 8 (MTF, forgive me if my paraphrase inaccurately captures your perspectives) is a lapse from the aesthetic and presentation standards of previous models in the Opus line and is a departure from the haute de gamme values which the Opus line is supposed to represent.

Now, with respect to your most recent post, Dr. Cheong, what seems to really rub you the wrong way about Opus 8 is not that it's technically undistinguished (we all seem to be in agreement that in terms of a clever implementation of a time display, purely from a technical perspective, it's quite remarkable- and BTW to pull it off in so short a period of time is nothing short of incredible, JIMVHO) but simply that it looks too much like what you have come to reflexively view as a cheap watch.

This case shape and type of time display is firmly embedded in your mind as a low end, low rent, low aspiration formal language which is unsuitable for the Opus line.

I see it a bit differently.  The use of this case shape and the reframing of this type of display as an haute de gamme timepiece with a highly sophisticated mechanism for implementing it strikes me as an extremely clever move aesthetically and is precisely the sort of formal appropriation that has been the stock in trade of high art for decades- frankly, IMVHO it's long overdue in watchmaking, and in haute de gamme watchmaking especially, which at its worst produces heavy handed, humorless pieces with very little wit.  And incidentally, it's worth remembering that at their very inception, the types of watches that Opus 8 is quoting in its design weren't cheap products designed for the democratic masses- quartz LCD/LED watches were the very last word in cutting edge horological cool and they weren't in many cases, and especially initially, inexpensive either.

I mean, it's no more logical, if you really look at the history of LED/LCD watches, to dismiss them en masse as "cheap" and therefore Opus 8 as cheap looking, than it would be to dismiss, say, Opus 7 for being "cheap" just because Ingersoll made round pin-pallet watches.

Cheers,

J.

Respond to this post | 


PuristSPro.com Home Page - Visit PURISTSPRO V2