Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph 44mm

OCEACT44ZZ004
Technical specifications

Functions

  • Hours
  • Minutes
  • Power Reserve
  • Chronograph

Movement

  • Self Winding/Automatic
  • Manufactured
  • Swiss Made

Case

  • Round
  • Zalium
  • DLC
  • 12.50mm
  • 44.00mm

Glass

  • Sapphire

Water resistance

  • 10.00atm / 100.00m / 330.00ft

Buckle

  • Deployment Buckle
  • Zalium

Strap

  • Rubber

Year

  • 2012

Official description

The creation of a chronograph is one of the most challenging that can be undertaken by a watchmaking house. The chronograph was, in fact, the last of the classic modern complications to be created –even those two most highly regarded of complications, the tourbillon and the minute repeater, were invented earlier.

It is only just, then, that in creating the Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph, Harry Winston developed a timepiece that both fascinates in its own right, and reminds us of the challenges inherent in creating a truly innovative chronograph wristwatch.

The Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph is an extraordinarily complex and visually striking timepiece. Dispensing with the simple circular registers for the elapsed seconds, minutes, and hours which characterize virtually all chronographs made today, it instead presents elapsed time on three separate retrograde counters, each of which –as it reaches the limit of its arc –must "fly back" instantaneously to its starting position so that interval timing may continue.

In most chronographs, the elapsed time mechanism draws power from the main timekeeping system in the timepiece, which can have potentially negative effects on accuracy. In the Harry Winston Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph, the challenge is even greater, as in order for each of the three hands to fly back to its starting position, additional energy is required –meaning that the Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph self-winding mechanical movement, visible through the sapphire crystal case-back, must be crafted to extremely exacting precision in order to offer its dramatically different display of elapsed time.

The Ocean Triple Retrograde Chronograph achieves this remarkable feat through sophisticated design, engineering, and painstakingly meticulous construction and adjustment, but the result is a 44-mm diameter mechanical marvel with a power-reserve of 40 hours that is nothing less than a revolutionary re-imagining of the chronograph itself. The act of timing an event becomes an exercise in pure mechanical pleasure, as the elapsed seconds hand, minute counter, and hour counter perform their mechanical dance –over a 12 hour period, the seconds counter, for instance, "flies back" 43,200 times, each time with near-instantaneous speed and perfect precision.

All this is achieved in a timepiece whose pure lines form a dramatic backdrop to the unfolding horological spectacle it presents. The Ocean Triple Chronograph is offered in a sophisticated yet sporty Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) coated high tech Zalium™ version with 5 different dial finishes, or in stunningly luxurious 18k rose or white gold versions that feature four distinct dial finishes: diamond point, guilloché, matte, and satin brushed surfaces. In every model, however, is embodied the special horological flair and savoir faire that makes watchmaking not just high tech, but high art, at Harry Winston.