Hasta La Ideas

Timepieces have traditionally been about conveying the time while hiding the sophisticated operations occurring behind the scenes to keep that time. But for their Opus 12 watch, manufacturer Harry Winston and master watchmaker Emmanuel Bouchet created something very different: A watch that celebrates mechanical motion, and even provides a little visual treat every hour on the hour.

While it initially seems complicated, it’s easier to tell the time on this watch than I thought it’d be. I’ll explain using the photo directly above. The blue tines are the hands, with the slightly shorter one being the hour hand. Together the hands give you the rough time, which here looks to be 10:10. But the little dial in the center contains finer gradations of five minutes, so it is actually 10:12, going on 10:13.

What’s wicked is what happens every time the watch goes from x:59 to y:00. Check it out:

If you still don’t get what’s going on, this video review of the watch may shed some light:

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