About a week ago I found out about a new series of watches from the relative new-comer in the Haute-Horlogerie scene, Urwerk. Their watches feature a one-of-a-kind complication, comprised of revolving satellites. What this means is that the minute hands operate through revolving satellites that display the current hour.
The watches are manufactured in extremely limited editions, and the prices reflect this. The 201 series have a special look, related and inspired from race cars. Of course, there are also features usually typical to race cars. Read on for more spicy details, including the pricing details and some high-res pictures.
Let’s start with the materials: they’re, of course, exclusive. For the 201 Series, you get to choose between red gold, white gold, platinum and black platinum.
Then, the complication:
The Revolving Satellite Complication displays time with telescopic minute hands operating through the middle of three orbiting and revolving hour satellites. The telescopic minute hands precisely adjust their length while following the minutes. This precision micro-engineering is achieved by means of three ‘transporters’, one end of which follows a cam plotting the path of the minute indication, the other controlling the precise length of the minute hand
Each of the satellites has four digits on it, each representing an hour. The continuous movement means that you’ll always get the current hour, pointing towards the current minute. Ingenious and original.
There are also other special characteristics: For instance, get a ‘power reserve’ gauge. It displays how much spring tension there is left (it lasts for about 5 days, by the way). It’s located in the bottom left corner. On the bottom right, you’ll see an AM/PM indicator, which is basically a small 24-hours clock.
Then, on the backside, you’ll find more gauges and a ‘fine-tuning’ setting. The fine tuning slider allows you to set the speed of the mechanism in order to ‘fit your own specific life style’. The ‘Oil change’ gauge tells you when to take your watch to the service, for a check. There’s also a ‘life timer’, which keeps track of the movement’s operation, for more than a century.
However, the watch is not available for anyone; Beside its limited production, it also has a rather exclusive price, and can only be obtained from one of the few authorized dealers. Here are the prices:
Red gold: € 92.600
White gold: € 94.000
Platinum: € 115.500
Black platinum: € 129.600
However, even if you do have the money, availability’s pretty tight, so you’d better rush to a dealer if you want one. They’ve just commenced delivery of the first 20 such watches. There’s only a total of 30 planned for this year, 6 of which will be made of platinum, and another 6 will be ‘black sharks’: made of black platinum.
http://www.urwerk.com/default.asp
