| Not logged in | Login | Create Account | Help | | Forum Search |
Harry Winston |
List All |
Top Level | Most Recent : (posts) *| FAV
Thank you Mr Garinaud. | |
| Apr 19, 2008,22:37 PM - (view entire thread) | |
Your work with the watch is indeed unusual and to me..imaginative, and clever.
I criticised Opus 8 not for your work, but that it was marketed by the Harry Winston's new management as an "Opus".
In fact, at the price of over half a million sf, and also with respect to to previous Opus creatons..the legends of Opus holds great responsibility.
It is with the legends, the footsteps of the forefathers of the Opus 1 to 7, that the positioning of Opus 8 does NOT measure up..in my opinion.
Your watch, this Opus 8 deserves to BE an Opus 8 and deserves even more praise ...in fact, I came to Basel to buy Opus 8..as a customer. Knowing full well the price would be about there.
But what I felt instead..was the "Panerai 2008" syndrome...that is not your fault. What is the "Panerai 2008" syndrome? Make the watch expensive and hard to get and those "fools" will buy it and desire it more. This is NOTHING to do with the watchmakers like yourself, who work hard at making cultural and artistic contributions to our world of business and mercenary attitudes.
But it is the fault, IMHO again, of management at the highest level....in this year..probably not Hamdi. Management which may focus the company to go for quartz, and to go for economical overheads with higher margins and higher prices..bringing disrepute to watchmaking as a culture, but creating the Birkin Bag environment.
I do like the watch as Opus 8...but for an honest impact and contribution to society...Harry winston's Rare Timepiece executives could have said.."look..we have had 7 years of legendary watches, and 7 good years...lets make ourselves the classs leaders, and make...50 Opus 8 (or less) and price it at cost...no profits...and sell them to show the world what we are about...the Nth degree..the absolute."...and probably we won't be seeing a 500k tag on this watch.
These are personal opinion, and I again..may be totaly off track..totally.
To me..the movement is imaginative, but like a music box pin roller..adaptation to a disc format. essentially, I see it as 2 discs, for hours and mins respectively.
The owner needs to press the slide to raise the discs to press the "digits" on the "dial" up...
Clever. Imaginative. I would not buy it, because it approaches the finest line between toy and machine of art....that fine line for Opus8..it crossed it. As such, the executives working at hWRT did not see how clever your watch was and that it should have been marketed as a mischevious and playful thing...with fun...with retro looking fun and humor...not with grandiose seriousness and Holy Grail overtones...that was projected by the price.
At the end of the day..it was the price that stung.
This message has been edited by bernard cheong on 2008-04-19 22:38:41
