URWERK

UR-210 AlTiN The Black Maltese Falcon

Ref: The Black “Maltese Falcon”

Price available upon request

AlTiN - standing for a group of metastable hard coatings consisting of aluminum, titanium and nitride – is an application which was originally developed for industry. An AlTiN coating has the effect of multiplying the resistance of the underlying metal to scratches, shocks, oxidation and even acids. The dial of the UR-210 AlTiN features a traditional power reserve indication at one o’clock. In a near mirror image at 11 o’clock we find a similar indication. No, it isn’t a duplicate fail-safe, but something much more important which deserves our full attention, because it is actually a world-first complication that indicates winding efficiency over the last two hours. The UR-210’s satellite complication with retrograde minute is both highly original and totally explosive. The principal feature is a high-tech, oversized, three-dimensional retrograde minute hand. Its function is to enclose the hour satellite and indicate the time as it transverses the 0-to-60-minute scale. This one-hour journey through time, tracing an arc of 120°, is smooth and fluid. But the true nature of the piece is revealed at the end of the 59th minute. Then a sharp distinct “click” signals the return of the minute hand to its starting point. In less than 0.1 of a second the hand flies back to dock with the next hour satellite. This lightning fast retrograde system is based on three key elements: - A central axis set in ruby bearings provides excellent stability for the satellite/retrograde complication. A cylindrical marine chronometer type spring runs vertically around the axis and generates the optimal tension required for the retrograde minutes flyback. - A minute hand, which also forms a frame for the hour satellites, displays the time in an extraordinary way. Milled from aluminum to exacting tolerances of approximately 3 microns, the whole structure has a total weight of just 0.302g and is counter balanced by a brass weight. This three-dimensional cage offers rigidity as it transfers energy from the cylindrical flyback spring in the top center of the carrousel to the double-star gear underneath. - A double coaxial star-shaped cam regulates the retrograde mechanism through its gearing and its rotation defines the trajectory of the minute hand. When the minute hand reaches 60, the double star trips a (one of three) hockey-stick shaped spring under the mechanism, which liberates the minute to fly back to the next hour satellite at 0-minutes.

Specifications
  • Product Type

    Watches

  • Case

    AlTiN, Titanium

  • Diameter

    44mm, 53mm

  • Dial

    Black, See Description

  • Functions

    Power Reserve, Retrograde, See Description

  • Movement

    Hand-Wound

  • Bracelet/Strap

    Leather

  • Water Resistance
WARRANTY Any purchase from our new collection is covered by our URWERK international 24-month warranty. Which can be extended to 3 years if you register to our owners’ lodge.
CONTACT Contact us or chat with us live

“We began essentially as a core group of artists who wanted to interpret time differently. We were not businessmen. It was extremely risky because we had no idea how our watches would be accepted.”

Felix Baumgartner & Martin Frei, Co-Creators of URWERK

Brand Heritage

A new perspective to Haute Horlogerie Founded in 1997 by Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, URWERK is the result of a strongly held be-lief that the history of Fine Watchmaking is a constantly changing art. Felix Baumgartner, a watchmaker like his father and grandfather, has time running through his veins. A graduate from the Schaffhausen watchmaking school, Felix learned the secret language of minute-repeaters, tourbillons and perpetual calendars at his father’s bench. Martin Frei is the artistic counterweight to his partner’s technical expertise. Accepted into the Lucerne’s college of art and design in 1987, Martin delved into every form of visual artistic expression from painting and sculpture to video, emerging as a mature artist. | The two men met by chance and discovered a common fascination with the measurement of time, spending hours analysing the gap between the watches they saw in the shops and the vision of their future creation. The wandering hour has since formed the basis for URWERK’s astonishing 103 watch and the latest models, the UR-105 TA and the UR-210. They all feature highly original design, advanced watchmaking techniques and new concepts. URWERK means “original accomplishment,” and Ur of the Chaldees, in Mesopotamia, is where the Sumeri-ans first observed the concurrence of the heavenly bodies with the seasons, and so developed the first measurements of time.