AUTUMN WILL BE PRECIOUS

Chocolate brown mother-of-pearl, rose gold and white diamonds: these are the precious ingredients in the recipe made by Harry Winston, helping us take leave of summer without regrets and celebrate the arrival of autumn with due elegance

Nature is the first to show the signs that autumn is coming. As the weeks go by it is transformed, with the leaves on the trees taking on a range of colours: copper, golden and chocolate brown. Sometimes the first star-shaped snowflakes will fall from the sky. This natural but warm transformation has been captured by Harry Winston and made into a watch: the Midnight Chocolate Diamond Drops.

The new piece, with a 39mm-wide pink gold case, is decorated with a coat of diamonds. 91 dazzling brilliant-cut gems cover the bezel and extend to the lugs around the gloss brown alligator-leather strap. Beside the crown featuring the initials of the watchmaker-jeweller, the traditional three-part signature evoking the entrance to the Harry Winston salon in New York also includes three diamonds of a slightly larger size.

The dial is covered with a mother-of-pearl disc echoing the same soft chocolate brown colour and comes with six triangular gilded hour markers, along with a rectangular bar at 9 o’clock where the three diamonds are laid. The peacefulness of the chocolate and iridescent design is gently shaken by a shower of precious stones. Like snowflakes of varying sizes, the golden-edged diamonds encroach over the right-hand side of the dial, forming a cluster between 3 and 6 o’clock. In the centre of this autumnal scene are two tapering leaf-shaped hands displaying the hours and minutes, while the date is shown discreetly in a window at 6 o’clock.

Price on request

By Sharmila Bertin