2013/05/22

HARRY WINSTON the Ocean Dual Time Monochrome

The Harry Winston Ocean Dual Time Monochrome is both a highly functional timepiece and a poetic expression of the nature of time itself and its effect on the physical world.

One of the greatest mysteries in science is the so-called "arrow of time" –that is, why we sense time as flowing irresistibly into the future, but never into the past. As a physicist would say, we never see a broken glass fly up off the floor and re-assemble itself. And yet, perplexingly, the laws of physics are symmetrical with respect to time –that is, you can run them backwards in time as well as forwards; nothing forbids it.

No one is more aware of the inexorable forward flow of time than today's time travelers –those who, thanks to international high speed travel, suddenly find themselves in the future or the past.

The Harry Winston Ocean Dual Time Monochrome shows the time in two different time zones: home time and local time, wherever a traveler may be. Unusually, each dial has its own day/night indicator (in virtually all dual time zone watches this is either absent, or present for only home time). The large date display is also unusual in presenting the date, in two digits, in a vertical rather than the ordinary horizontal orientation.

The poetic vision of Harry Winston is present most vividly, however, in the dial, which depicts the effects of time's passage in a "pre-aged" frame for the dual time and date indications. The dial is coated with a special layer of oxidized platinum which is then hand-brushed to create a patina that shows not only the effect of time's arrow –the inevitable movement of the future into the past –but also shows the ability of the human hand to express it. Each dial is thus a unique work of art.

And yet at the same time, the Ocean Dual Time Monochrome defies time: the case is made of Harry Winston's unique, proprietary alloy, ZaliumTM, composed of aluminum and zirconium. Light, highly resistant to corrosion, and with a particular gun-mental sheen unlike any other alloy, it is a sophisticated counterpoint to the pre-aged, hand-finished patina of the dial.

This startling juxtaposition of age and timelessness in the Harry Winston Ocean Dual Time Monochrome is one of modern horology's most visceral expressions of the experience of time's passage –and of the experience of the true time travelers of the modern age: those who find themselves, as they travel, in a new world and a new time.

 

 

 

 

 

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