Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is excited to announce The Geneva Sessions, Spring 2024, online auction, taking place from 12:00 PM CET, Tuesday, March 5, to 2:00 PM CET, Tuesday, March 12. Featuring more than 80 different high-end luxury wristwatches, the sale covers everything from A. Lange & Söhne and F.P. Journe to Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe. It even includes the Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 3 that is featured in this story.
– By Logan Baker
The name Harry Winston doesn’t appear too often on these pages, but when the world-famous New York-based jeweler does come up in horological circles, it’s almost exclusively focused on the Opus series of wristwatches.
The Opus collection was the brainchild of one Mr. Max Büsser, who had the wonderful idea of calling up various independent watchmakers to collaborate on a timepiece under the Harry Winston banner. It was a win-win scenario: The watchmakers would be paid for their time and share equal billing on each watch, while Harry Winston gained immediate horological credibility through working with experts in the field.
The Opus series, to date, includes 14 different limited-edition wristwatches released annually between 2001 and 2015. These were blockbuster creations that placed a massive emphasis on independent watchmakers and collaborative spirit, two parts of high-end watchmaking that were not nearly as omnipresent as they are today. F.P. Journe (Opus 1), Vianney Halter (Opus 3), Urwerk (Opus 5), Greubel Forsey (Opus 6), and Andreas Strehler (Opus 7) were just a few of the watchmakers that saw their names called during the Opus’ red-hot run.
Büsser left Harry Winston in 2005 to start his own company, MB&F. He only worked on the first five Opus models before he resigned and was replaced by industry veteran Hamdi Chatti.
Chatti continued to develop the Opus series but also began work on creating a second big project for his watchmaking division, one that would focus solely on evolving one of the most recognizable elements of high-end Swiss watchmaking: the tourbillon.
Chatti’s project would eventually earn the name “Histoire de Tourbillon” when it debuted in 2009. To create the new series, Harry Winston called upon Complitime, a special projects workshop owned by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey (of Greubel Forsey), to create something completely exceptional. Unfortunately, Chatti didn’t have the opportunity to guide the Histoire de Tourbillon after the first model was released. He left Harry Winston at the end of 2009, replaced by Frederic de Narp, former CEO of Cartier North America.
Narp would continue to develop both the Opus and Histoire de Tourbillon lines with annual updates until he left the firm in 2013, immediately following Harry Winston’s acquisition of the Swatch Group. The Opus series concluded the following year, but the Histoire de Tourbillon collection continued to chug along under new ownership until the Histoire de Tourbillon 10 was released in 2019. There have been zero updates of potential future additions to either the Opus or Histoire de Tourbillon collections since then.
The Histoire de Tourbillon is not as well-known among collectors today as the Opus collection, which is unfortunate. The watches in this series are every bit as compelling as those produced under the Opus banner. They pushed mechanical watchmaking to the limit in complexity, finishing, and price.
Here is your Phillips collectors’ guide to Harry Winston’s decade of work dedicated to the Histoire de Tourbillon collection.
2009: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 1
The first Histoire de Tourbillon set the stage perfectly. Only 20 examples made, with just one release each year. It's a successful strategy that eventually spawned nine subsequent models, all focusing singularly on the tourbillon.
Partnering with Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey's CompliTime workshop, Harry Winston presented this magnificent timepiece in a combination of 18 karat white gold and its proprietary Zalium alloy.
Mysteriously suspended at 12 o'clock are two fast-rotating inclined tourbillons, each taking only 36 seconds per revolution and angled so that they are never found in a single plane, ensuring that the effects of gravity are always countered. There is a control panel on the other side, allowing for precision time setting, while the manual-wind movement offers up 48 hours of running autonomy.
With the successful release of the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 1, Harry Winston joined a select group of watchmakers and brands to combine several regulating systems in a single watch. The system developed by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey tilted both of the tourbillons on their axes at 25 degrees in order to mirror the natural tilt of the earth, all while providing the regulating organ with more space to help naturally adjust any small isochronic flaws that might develop out of the free-sprung balances.
2011: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 2
Harry Winston's second Histoire de Tourbillon, released in 2010, featured a bi-axial flying tourbillon movement that was, once again, designed and developed by the team at Greubel Forsey.
The 48.5mm white gold case, believe it or not, contains eight separate sapphire crystals. The compartmentalized case design serves to isolate each of the functions – tourbillon with running seconds at nine o'clock, hours with day/night indicator at two o'clock, and passing minutes at six o'clock. The offset subdials create an interesting multi-layered effect, with the day/night indicators differentiated by color: orange for day, blue for night.
The tourbillon here is supported only from the side of the case, which creates a floating effect with no visible point of contact. The bi-axial tourbillon gains precision through a pair of concentric cages that support multidimensional rotations. An outer titanium cage completes a rotation every 120 seconds, while the inner cage (carrying the balance, spring and escapement) completes one revolution every 40 seconds. The Histoire de Tourbillon No. 2 was offered as a 20-piece limited edition in 18k white gold.
2012: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 3
Housed in a an impressive 18K white gold and zalium case, the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 3 from 2011 is powered by caliber HW1020 with a 50-hour power reserve. Designed by Greubel Forsey's Complitime, the hours and minutes are displayed on a pair of revolving discs; however, the main focus is the tourbillon – all three of them.
There is a double axis tourbillon at nine o’clock, that features one cage that rotates every 40 seconds and another every 120 seconds. A second tourbillon at six o’clock then makes a single revolution every 36 seconds. The double-axis tourbillon and six o'clock tourbillon are connected to each other through a differential. A power reserve indicator is positioned on the lower right-hand side of the dial, with blue sapphires and yellow citrine that reveal the state of the watch's running autonomy.
Harry Winston created the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 3 as a 20-piece limited edition cased in 18k white gold and Zalium. The example pictured above is available to bid on now via the Phillips Geneva Sessions, Spring 2024, Online Auction (lot 31). It's in excellent overall condition and comes complete with its full set of accessories; it's number 11 out of the 20-piece run. The current estimate is set between CHF 80,000 and 120,000.
2013: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 4
The Harry Winston Histoire De Tourbillon No. 4 features a unique triple-case tourbillon in an attempt to counteract the effects of gravity from all angles – the original goal of the mechanism, as envisioned by Abraham-Louis Breguet.
It accomplishes that through the use of three concentric cages, each of which sits at a different angle in relation to its external cage, and each of which rotates at a different speed. The outermost cage completes a revolution once every 300 seconds (or, five minutes), the middle cage rotates once every 75 seconds, while the central cage revolves once every 45 seconds.
As part of it's push for accuracy, the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 4 incorporates titanium plates and bridges to support the lightweight (1.57 grams) tourbillon construction. The 345-component movement also requires over 160 hours for construction and regulation, which is one reason why on 20 of these amazing watches will be made. Once again, Harry Winston only produced 20 examples of the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 4, this time in 18k white gold with a Zalium caseband.
2014: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 5
The end goal of the Histoire de Tourbillon series was to prove, once again, that the tourbillon mechanism is at the top of the mountain top when it comes to complicated watchmaking. That, even when placed in a wristwatch, the right type of tourbillon can help maintain or improve precision timekeeping.
The fifth watch in the Histoire de Tourbillon series opted to open itself up with a semi-skeletonized dial design, in order to share the internal workings of the ultra-complex movement inside.
A tri-axial tourbillon dominate all perspective of the watch, taking up almost half of the entire real estate of the dial. When it comes to timekeeping, you can monitor the hours in the two o'clock sub-dial, the passing minutes in the five o'clock sub-dial, and a power reserve display near the 11 o'clock position.
The Histoire de Tourbillon was the first in the series to come in an 18k pink gold case. However, it was still limited to a production run of only 20 watches.
2015: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 6
The orbs to the left of the case of 2015's Histoire de Tourbillon No. 6 are part of a tri-axial tourbillon, which means three different cages working together as one.
The interior cage that contains the balance wheel spins every 45 seconds. It's inside an intermediate cage, which rotates every 75 seconds on its own vertical axis. This pair is housed inside a third, spherical cage that then revolves every 300 seconds.
To the right at 1 o’clock is a carousel mechanism, a close relative of the classic tourbillon. The primary difference between the two is that a carousel mechanism rotates with the help of a secondary gear, while a tourbillon is completely independent. The Histoire de Tourbillon carousel rotates every 30 seconds. Directly below it, the second time-zone time display can be independently adjusted via the closest crown.
One interesting tidbit here is that the second time-zone display can actually change its functionality by pressing the two o’clock pusher, which will reset the secondary hour and minutes hands to zero, thus allowing it to operate as a 12-hour chronograph in a pinch. Harry Winston stuck with 18k white gold this time around. And, of course, a 20-piece production run.
2016: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 7
The 2016 release, Histoire de Tourbillon No. 7, features a dueling pair of bi-axial tourbillons positioned in close proximity to one another inside the large exposed area on the left side of the dial.
The right side houses the hour and minute hands within its pyramid-like sub-dial featuring sloping hour markers. The left features then obviously contains the two tourbillon cages, which rotate on different axes. Using a spherical differential to optimize their concurrent operation, the two tourbillons improve rate stability through their multiple positions relative to gravity
Three different versions of the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 7 were released. The above pictured example in 18k white gold has a bright red anodized aluminum strip around the tourbillon arena. An almost-identical variation has a black aluminum strip instead. Both those examples were produced in 10-piece production runs. But Harry Winston then decided to buck convention by creating a third batch of five pieces cased in platinum (its first use in the Histoire de Tourbillon series) with a blue anodized aluminum strip running around the exposed dial architecture.
Designed by Greubel Forsey once again, the movement inside the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 7 has plates and bridges made of satin-finished and stippled titanium. With 507 components, the movement has fewer parts than its predecessors but still manages to accommodate and support its impressive set of dual biaxial tourbillons.
2017: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 8
The Histoire de Tourbillon No. 8 evolves the look and feel of the previous model, featuring another set of dueling bi-axial tourbillons, connected via a spherical differential, with a refined aesthetic utilizing truncated aluminum cones to indicate the passing hours and minutes rather than the more conventional time display found on the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 7.
Similar to the prior year's introduction, the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 8 came in two 10-piece options, both cased in 18k white gold, with either black or red-treated accents on the visible mainplate.
2018: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 9
The Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 9 incorporates a 20.5mm-diameter tri-axial tourbillon construction, with the balance wheel cage rotating once every 45 seconds, the second cage revolves every 75 seconds, and the largest cage requires 300 seconds to complete a full rotation.
Time is indicated on the watch using a retrograde 60-minute counter and a retrograde jumping hour display, both positioned on the upper half of the dial architecture. The dial itself is segregated into three parts: an extra-large open window rhat houses the impressively large tri-axial tourbillon, followed by the two opposing retrograde indications. A power reserve display sneaks itself in on the left side of the watch, as well.
Similar to the seventh and eighth models in the series, the Histoire de Tourbillon No. 9 comes in two aesthetic options. The 18k pink gold version comes with a predominantly black colour present over the dial and movement, and the 18k white gold case comes paired with more of a grey tone instead of black.
2019: Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon No. 10
Harry Winston’s decade of tourbillons finally came to an end in 2019 – and they knew they had to conclude the Histoire de Tourbillon collection with a bang.
The Histoire de Tourbillon No. 10 concludes the series by setting a record – it was the very first wristwatch to include four complete tourbillons, each containing their own balance wheel and hairspring. Each of the cages rotates at the same speed, completing a single rotation in exactly 36 seconds.
Three differentials have been applied to the movement. One averages the combined energy output of the pair of tourbillons on the left side of the dial, another averages the pair of tourbillons on the opposing right side of the dial. Finally, an extra-large differential is able to average out the input of the two smaller differentials.
The Histoire de Tourbillon No. 10 was produced in a 20-pieces 18k white gold run, a 20-piece 18k pink gold batch, and a final unique example cased in Harry Winston's proprietary platinum alloy, known as Winstonium.
It's approaching five years now since we last heard from Harry Winston about the Histoire de Tourbillon series, and it's unlikely anything new or unexpected will come out in the near future. But the Histoire de Tourbillon series was utterly successful in its most important goal, of advancing the discussion around the benefits of a proper, optimized tourbillon inside a wristwatch.
You can view the complete catalog for the Phillips Watches Geneva Sessions, Spring 2024, Online Auction, right here.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade reporting on every aspect of the watch business. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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