STOP AND STARE
Some timepieces offer plenty of style over substance, others plenty of substance over style. AugustMan asks: why not both?
URWERK HAS LAUNCHED a 25 piece limited edition UR-100V “Blue Planet”. The Blue Planet is the seventh iteration of the UR-100, it is also the brand’s most affordable timepiece featuring its signature satellite-disc wandering hours. In a departure from watchmaking traditions, the entire movement itself is coloured, matching the case. Since its inaugural edition, Blue Planet joins the Gold, the Iron and the epic bronze T-Rex.
It doesn’t feature a “complication” in the usual sense. Instead, it makes ample use of the ingenious way in which satellite-disc indication functions; with hours displayed by the orbital hour satellites, travelling on a 60-minute arc that displays the minutes. When it reaches the 60-minute mark, the tip of the hand performs a retrograde motion while next hour satellite rotates into position. Since the disc doesn’t “disappear” once it rotates beyond the minutes arc, the two sides of the watch can exhibit original astronomical indications: distance travelled on Earth (at 10 o’clock) and distance travelled by Earth (at 2 o’clock). It basically uses the speed of Earth at the equator or the Earth’s orbital speed around the Sun to display the distance travelled from these different perspectives in about 20 minutes. Given that the Earth is 40,070 kilometres at its widest and there are 24 hours in a day, you can travel 555.55km in about 20 minutes.
Urwerk UR-100V “Blue Planet”, US$53,000
With the Hourstriker Phantom, Ulysse Nardin partnered up with renowned luxury speaker manufacturer, Devialet, French masters of high fidelity (HiFi) sound systems to develop a unique, striking time watch. Today, they’ve taken that know-how and conceived the new Ulysse Nardin Blast HourStriker Tourbillon.
Hammer strikes on thin wire gongs inside the movement provide the musicality of the minute repeater. However, metal isn’t exactly the best acoustic material, absorbing a fair degree of sound waves with the movement and case. What Ulysse Nardin accomplishes is an improvement of the quality/power output ratio. Redesigning the entire kinematics of the 330-component striking calibre, Ulysses Nardin used a titanium membrane, acting as a speaker, amplifying the gong’s sound, co-developed with Devialet previously. Only 3 tenths of a millimetre thick, the gong is connected to the membrane with a torsion bar. This torsion bar spanning the tungsten oscillating weight then connects the gong and gong support to the rest of the movement. The exceptional two component case architecture featuring support back with X cut-outs for sounds to travel through and a gasket outside further augments the exquisite sound much like a high quality speaker.
Ulysse Nardin Blast HourStriker Tourbillon, EUR 91,100