By Meor Amri Meor Ayob
The output of Harry Winston is always breathtaking. This is one of the few brands that I look forward to marvel when new watch launches are announced and shown to the general public. After being taken over by the Swatch Group a few years ago, there were concerns that the brand and its designers would not remain independent artistically. The latest offering, the Avenue Dual Time Automatic confirmed that this fear is unfounded. The brand continues to show the “out-of-the-box” thinking to watchmaking that has excited watch aficionados all these years.
The Avenue Dual Time Automatic is a dual time zone watch encased in a rectangular casing which is water-rated to 30 meters. With the dimensions of 53.8 mm long and 35.8 mm, it does appear to be a large watch. However, the use of a curving caseback and sloping lugs coupled with a thickness of just 10.7 mm make this watch exceptionally comfortable to wear. It can also be worn by people with smaller wrist sizes that would otherwise not even consider this watch due to the stated dimensions.
This watch is available in two versions, rose Sedna gold, reference AVEATZ37RR001, and Zalium, reference AVEATZ37ZZ001. The Zalium case is matched to a main dial in smoked sapphire crystal and a black upper dial with white gold applied markers, while the Sedna gold case is matched to a main dial in white smoked sapphire crystal and a silvered upper dial with pink gold applied markers.
What most unique and intriguing about the watch is what you get on the dial. The dial is divided into two halves. On the right is the main time zone or Home Time and on the left is the second time zone or Local Time.
The Home Time section is skeletonized with analogue hour and minute hands, a day and night indicator, and a date window. There is no seconds indicator. On this side of the watch casing, the rather steampunk-like crown is located at the 5 o’clock position.
The Local Time section has a retrograde display marking the hours, and a small circular window showing the same time digitally. This style of measuring local time is something that I personally prefer. Although purists insist the two-hand hour and minute display should be for the local time, and the hour-only display should be for home time, I prefer it the way Harry Winston set it up in this watch. To me, the two-hand hour and minute display should be for home time as this time is more important to me compared to the local time where I am located for just a short space of time.
The watch is powered by the HW3502 movement. This movement is based on Blancpain’s calibre 1150. It has a silicon balance spring for good anti-magnetic properties. The movement runs at 28,800 vph and is made out of 281 parts. The movement can be seen via the display caseback and it is finely finished with Côtes de Genève, circular graining and chamfered bridges.
From my point of view, this watch is a very practical travelling watch. Not too garish but has enough visual cues to indicate its sophistication and overall coolness. The investment to have it on your wrist; 22,000 Swiss francs for the Zalium version and 38,000 Swiss francs for the rose Sedna gold version.
Apart from reinforcing Harry Winston watchmaking capabilities, the watch also demonstrates the synergistic benefit of being part of the Swatch Group. The ability of using Sedna gold, an Omega rose gold alloy and Blancpain’s movement opens up a lot of possibilities. I can’t wait to see what Harry Winston has in store next.
For more info, please visit harrywinston.com
MEOR AMRI MEOR AYOB – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Meor Amri is a passionate watch collector from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Having bitten by the horology bug in 2010, he has written extensively about the watch scene and has assembled a large collection of watches (excessively!!!) on his own free time. His blogs on the same subject are: Eastern Watch & Western Watch Read his articles here
