The year 2014 feels like the distant past, and with the pace the world moves at these days, there’s a lot that slips through the cracks. Urwerk operates on a far more deliberate level, and they aren’t afraid to return to their past to make updates. We saw it a few years ago with a modern rendition of UR 102.2, breathing new life into one of the brand’s original concepts, and finding an entirely new audience in the process. This year marks the 10th anniversary of one of Urwerk’s most innovative watches, the EMC, and it’s concept that they are returning to this week with a new rendition called the SR-71.
The EMC, or Electronic Mechanical Control, watch turned every head in the industry when it was released in 2014, winning multiple GPHG awards in the process. The watch keeps time mechanically in a traditional way, displaying the hours, minutes, and seconds as well as the power reserve within a set of sub-dials. What made the watch unique was its use of a ‘performance indicator’ that allowed the wearer to discern the watch’s accuracy performance in real time. This relies on an electronic monitoring system, or complication, if you will, that uses an optical sensor linked to the balance wheel.
The sensor uses a transmitter and receiver mounted above and below the balance wheel, recording the oscillations over a three second period. The 4Hz operation speed of the balance is measured against a 16,000,000 Hz electronic oscillator, allowing for a differential between the rate of the mechanical component, with the ideal precise rate of the electronic oscillator. The difference is expressed as a gain or loss in an aperture adjacent to the traditional functions of the watch.
The electronic element is powered by a manual winding generator, which places a winding arm along the right hand side of the case. Once wound, the user can press a button to get run the process outlined above. On a conceptual level, this watch represented a merging of mechanical knowhow that represented the past as well as it did the present and future, and it’s all brought together in signature Urwerk style.
This week, a new EMC is being released in celebration of its anniversary, and it’s called the SR-71. The SR-71 may sound familiar as the name of the US’s most famous long range, high speed reconnaissance aircraft made by Lockheed. The plane was retired in the late ‘90s, but it’s still an icon of military aircraft. The concept for this EMC, as suggested by a pair of collectors, Jason Sarkoyan and Dr Roman Sperl, was to bring a bit of that plane, both figuratively and literally, into a new variation of the watch.
The result is the EMC SR-71, and it features a case that uses pieces of the fuselage of the SR-71. The material is titanium mixed with an “unknown alloy”, presumably an improved version of titanium, but either way it makes for an irresistible combination here. Just 10 examples will be built, as the material itself is likely pretty difficult to come by. Each are priced from CHF 150,000, which may very well be quite reasonable considering the elements involved. Urwerk