Made with actual pieces of SR-71 “Blackbird” aircraft fuselage.
The SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest stealth aircraft on the planet, and Urwerk continues to pay tribute in a way that only the innovative haute horologists can pull off: A stunning watch now celebrating a decade of game-changing style.
The Urwerk EMC SR-71 is an eye-catching mechanical watch concept in its own right, bringing together the “best of strategic reconnaissance aviation – the SR-71 Blackbird – with the best of EMC’s Haute Horologerie concepts,” the Swiss watchmaker said.
At the heart of the watch is a series of vertically mounted mainspring barrels positioned on a single shaft, and the watch first broke ground thanks to its δ performance indicator, tracking the mechanical movement’s chronometric position at the touch of a button. As the watchmaker says, the innovation was “the first mechanism to enable its wearer to measure their watch’s performance in real time.” That functionality can then be dialed in “to achieve the ultimate goal of perfect timekeeping,” Urwerk noted.
More astonishing still is the fact that the watch (part of an extremely limited 10-piece offering) is carefully crafted with pieces of SR-71 fuselage, and as Urwerk notes, the secretive construction features “titanium and a secret alloy whose exact composition is not known.” The groundbreaking timepiece takes on a challenging mantle: Perfect, precise performance, the company said.
“The layout of the screens composing the dial is reminiscent of the SR-71’s cockpit instruments, and not without reason”, said Martin Frei, URWERK’s artistic director and co-founder . “A watch, like an aircraft, is a machine that provides information about its performance, adding that “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.”
Four separate dials with screw-down bezels come together in handsome fashion, with a seconds indicator designed to look like a stealth aircraft. “The SR-71 is a legendary aircraft, a competition beast designed to achieve the best performance. This is also the spirit in which we designed our EMC,” said Urwerk founder and master watchmaker Felix Baumgartner. Few watches can capture the spirit and stealth of the SR-71, except perhaps this latest marker of craft and commitment from Urwerk: It’s sure to turn heads on any wrist.
