For almost a decade, URWERK has been engaged in the uphill task of pushing the limits of mechanical possibilities to make progress in precision timekeeping. This has been a long-term project conducted away from the limelight of the wandering-hour watches. The URWERK team has enlisted the aid of experts and applied the latest techniques in experimental research, resulting in the development of extremely sophisticated time measuring instruments. After the breakthrough of the EMC Electro Mechanical Control watch, the first to display its rate at the touch of a button, URWERK has continued investing, testing, failing and recovering in its relentless progress…
Here its latest and certain! most ambitious project so far. The AMC.
> 1973
I have made a very important invention. I have invented a means of setting a watch to time, and regulating it without anyone having to do it.
Abraham-Louis Breguet
These creations were to be the first of a new family of clocks, which were an expression of his fascination with advancing the art of precision timekeeping as well as his fascination with ingenious mechanical solutions for their own sake. These new clocks, known as sympathique clocks, were made to work with specially designed watches. The clocks would act as master timekeepers and control the rate and time-setting of the watches.
> 1975
“My Father introduced me to the golden age of horology. It was an age of invention, by the great masters of the crafts: Berthoud, Leroy, Houriet and Abraham Louis Breguet. One evening he opened a book to show me a most ingenious clock – Breguet’s Pendule Sympathique.”
Felix Baumgartner
> 2009
Beginning of the AMC Project
In the spirit of Breguet’s inspiration of more than 220 years ago, URWERK starts designing and producing the very first master slave clock and wristwatch, in which an atomic clock, via a complex mechanical linkage, duplicates all of the functions of Breguet’s most advanced sympathique clocks in one device: it would wind, set and regulate an URWERK watch, which rests in a cradle in the case of the atomic clock itself.
> January 2018
URWERK Unveils the Watch Movement
The watch is a novel construction and is designed specifically for the AMC project. It includes typical URWERK features such as the power reserve indicator and two stacked barrels for a power reserve of four days. The watch also has URWERK’s oil change indicator.
However its most ingenious features, through unseen to the unaided eye, are revealed upon close examination of the movement. The watch was design to fit on and work with its base – an atomic clock also conceived and developed in URWERK’s workshops. This master clock will rewind the URWERK wristwatch, set it to the correct time and adjust its rate. This world first brings together in a single mechanism all the functions of the various sympathique clocks by Abraham Louis Breguet.
> March 2018
URWERK Unveils The Atomic Master Clock
The atomic master clock component of the URWERK AMC weigths approximately 35 kilos and the case is in solid aluminum. This master clock rewinds the URWERK wristwatch, set it to the correct time and if necessary adjust its rate. This world first brings together in a single mechanism all the functions of the various sympathique clocks produced by Abraham-Louis Breguet with an atomic mother clock.
> December 2018
Presentation of the First Piece
Almost a decade after the begining of the AMC project, URWERK is proud to unveil the first piece at Westime during ArtBasel Miami.
The URWERK AMC has broken the technological limits of mechanical watchmaking and reinstated the mechanical oscillator at the apex of chronometry! The mechanical oscillator is not perfect — perhaps it never will be — but in the AMC, it is self-perfecting.
> To Be Continued…
Technical Details
Movement
Calibre AMC calibre designed and manufactured by URWERK
Escapement Swiss lever
Balance Wheel ARCAP P40
Frequency 28’000v/h (4Hz)
Balance Spring Flat
Power Source Stacked double mainspring barrels coupled in series
Power Reserve 80 Hours
Winding Manually wound; automatically wound by master clock when in its cradle
Surface Finishes Openworked baseplate, Geneva stripes; snailing; sandblasting; chamfered screw heads
Functions
Balance rate adjustment
Winding through master clock
Synchronization of minutes and seconds