The URWERK EMC SR-71 Blends Aviation with Reconnaissance

URWERK has been around since the late 1990s and has always pushed the boundaries with its design and reimagination of telling time. The Swiss high-end watchmaker also has multiple awards to back up its reputation; the UR-110 won the Design Watch Award at the Geneva Grand Watchmaking Foundation in 2011 while the Atomic Master Clock (also known as the AMC) won the Audacity Prize during the 2019 Geneva Grand Horlogerie Prize Foundation. And just in time for the upcoming Geneva Watch Days, URWERK has introduced a rebirth to the legend, the EMC SR-71.

The EMC, or Electro-Mechanical Control, is a mechanical watch and the birthchild of URWERK back in 2014. The world’s first precision mechanical watch, the EMC allows its wearer to monitor and adjust the watch’s chronometric performance. In the year it was released, the EMC was already a shoo-in for various awards, particularly the 2014 Innovation Award of the Geneva Grand Watchmaking Prize to go with its Mechanical Exception Prize from the Geneva Grand Horlogerie Prize. In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the EMC, URWERK has blended its mechanical watch with parts from a Lockheed Martin SR-71.

URWERK EMC SR-71

The multiple dials on the URWERK EMC SR-71 are coated in Super-LumiNova for greater readability.

It’s not uncommon to see high-end watches come in valuable materials like gold, platinum, or ceramic, but this will be the first-ever high-end watch to feature pieces of a fuselage from the SR-71 Blackbird. An upgrade from the Lockheed Martin A-12, the SR-71 was arguably one of the fastest fighter jets in the world that was designed to travel past Mach 3+. The EMC SR-71 is seen as a perfect union between aviation and aerial reconnaissance.

The 10th anniversary of the URWERK EMC will feature elements of the SR-71’s fuselage on the watch. The titanium used has been “improved” upon after being melted down, reworked, and reincarnated to be a part of the EMC’s charging crank and screw-on bezel. This has since given the EMC SR-71 the appearance of a cockpit instrument panel with four separate dials, two of which are screw-down bezels.

“The layout of the screens composing the dial is reminiscent of the SR-71’s cockpit instruments, and not without reason. A watch, like an aircraft, is a machine that provides information about its performance. The watch face is a personal cockpit; in addition to the exact time, the EMC also provides information about how it works and how it is ‘piloted’. It’s a unique and exciting experience. My fascination with all things science fiction, space travel and aviation made me particularly keen to work on this project with Jason and Roman from Dreamland.”

URWERK’s artistic director & co-founder, Martin Frei

With four different displays to go through, the EMC SR-71 will take some getting used to at first. Naturally, your eyes should gravitate towards the seconds indicator (2 o’clock dial) with a tip that was designed like a stealth aircraft. It’s one of the flagship features of the EMC with the ability to provide a great sense of precision and smoothness. To its left (10 o’clock dial) lies the EMC’s performance display shown in seconds per day while the 80-hour power reserve dial is down below (7 o’clock dial). To the right of the power reserve rests the classic hours and minutes display (5 o’clock dial) with one slightly shorter and longer set of hands as an indication.

Diving Deeper Within

The caseback of the URWERK EMC SR-71 gives you a closer look at the inner workings of the watch.

On the back of the URWERK EMC Sr-71 is its sapphire crystal case back, which gives you an inside look at the in-house movement that was entirely designed and developed by URWERK ateliers. There is also a timing adjustment screw on the caseback and when turned, will adjust the active length of the spring. This allows the wearer to adjust the time to suit their lifestyle. The performance of the movement was tested on four positions over a 30-day cycle to meet the most stringent standards for precision watches. 

Power is provided throughout the watch via two large mainspring barrels that are connected in a series and mounted vertically on a single shaft. This is what gives it its long 80-hour power reserve that is conducive to a stable and linear-timing performance. There is also a manual winding generator, which acts as the EMC’s monitoring unit. It’s powered by a micro-generator that was made by Swiss company Maxon, known for its development of NASA’s Mars Rover motors.

The bespoke balance wheel of the URWERK EMC SR-71 is made out of ARCAP due to its non-magnetic and non-corrosive properties. Its shape and overall dimensions were carefully calculated to optimise the data obtained from the optical sensor alongside maximising aerodynamic efficiency and minimising air friction disturbances. This will help to maintain the optimum amplitude within the EMC SR-71. But given that the watch is an all-mechanical movement, what controls and monitors the EMC?

Powering the URWERK EMC SR-71

The URWER EMC SR-71 is capable of lasting up to 80 hours of power reserve.

The technology that resides within the URWERK EMC SR-71 was created to observe and evaluate the all-mechanical movement of the watch. This saw the development of its electronic complication and monitoring device, which featured the use of precision optics like light to measure the performance of the mechanical movement. The control function of the EMC starts from the balance wheel with an optical sensor linked to it.

The sensor consists of a transmitter and a receiver that are positioned on either side of the balance wheel. Its role is to record the oscillations of the movement that operates at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) over three seconds. This measurement is triggered by manually pressing a start button. To obtain the most accurate measurement possible, the performance of the EMC’s balance at 4 Hz is compared against a 16,000,000 Hz electronic oscillator.

There is also an integrated circuit within the URWERK EMC SR-71 that is capable of determining the differential (symbolised by the letter δ) between the movement’s timing rate and that of the reference oscillator. Each microsecond difference between the two values is expressed as a gain or loss of a second per day of the movement’s timing rate. A variation of 0.0000014 of a second per half-vibration translates as a variation of one second per day.

Want to discover more from URWERK? Be sure to check out the catalogue or pay a visit to your nearest The Hour Glass boutique.