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I presented several weeks ago the Midnight Chronograph which is the second timepiece of the Midnight collection. The first watch was the Midnight Minute Repeater which was unveiled in 2009. I had the opportunity to see this watch during my visit of the Harry Winston booth at the Salon Belles Montres in Paris and I would like to come back to it more deeply.
How can I discribe the Midnight collection ? In my point of view, the Midnight collection is a high horology line which offers high-end complications in a very sober if not bare context: the design of the Midnight watches is pure to highlight the main complication they feature. It is obvious here with the Midnight Tourbillon. Everything was thought to enhance the key elements of the watch: the two hammers which play on request. The idea was to create a watch which would be also a joy for our eyes and not only for our ears when it strikes.
The Harry Winston touch can be found in the 3 discrete elements on the bezel by the crown: the Midnight case is a sort of more elegant version of the Ocean case with shorter lugs and a slender style (diameter is 42mm vs 44mm for the Ocean case). By the way, I would like to see this new case in a context of a more affordable watch, for example, a 3 hands watch. It would be nice...
The dial of the Midnight Minute Repeater is very neat and simple: like a nod to the Excenter collection, the time display is off-centered to the right side of the dial. The circle on the left has two purposes: to highlight the two hammers and to show a discrete diamond between them. You will notice that the references to Harry Winston are displayed three times on the dial. It seems to be too much but hopefully, they are perfectly integrated into the dial design. First reference is the classic Harry Winston logo at 12 o'clock. Second reference is the hammer-shaped applied part on the left side of the dial: it makes the dial less flat and evokes the main feature of the watch. Last reference and it is without any doubt the most original one, is the H and W letters engraved on both sides of the hammer. So when the hammers play, the letters move... a nice way to get an interactive logo!
Of course, the movement was adapted to isolate the hammers dial side and to make them visible through a specific window. The base of this movement is a Renaud&Papi handwind caliber. When we turn over the watch, we discover a very original movement architecture: it seems to float inside the case due to the gap between the main plate and the case. In another context, this would be a bit surprising if not disapointing. Here, it is totally logical due to the will to separate the hammers and the chimes from the main plate.
The Midnight Minute Repeater works like any other classic Minute Repeater: you launch the striking with the slide-lever at 8 o'clock. It was very difficult for me to judge the quality (purety and volume) of the sound because I was in a noisy place. But I had the feeling that it was quite loud. I shot this small video to make you see how the hammers play when they strike.
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