Urwerk EMC : A few months ago we had a look at the mind-blowing, uber cool innovation that is Urwerk’s EMC (Electro Mechanical Control) timepiece. And just last week at Salon QP we got a chance to get a real hands-on feel of it. Just in case you are wondering how it works you can have a read of the article we wrote here.
As mentioned before, the EMC features a deconstructed dial with four separate indications: A clockwise tour of the displays, from top left, presents the: on demand, precision indicator (instantaneous rate delta δ) ranging from -20 to + 20 seconds per day; seconds dial with counter-balanced seconds hand; hours and minutes; and 80-hour power reserve indicator. Turning EMC over reveals the fully in-house movement with the integrated circuit board – the EMC ‘brain’ –, the top of one of the two mainspring barrels near the crown and the top of the balance wheel and optical sensor on the winding handle side.
When putting this innovative notion into action, you’ll find it quite an easy yet enjoyable task to carry out. First things first, you’ll have to pull out the crank arm to charge the electrical circuit. After a few dozen winds the EMC mechanism will be ready to tell you if the timepiece has gained or lost any time during the last test. This action is activated by a little button on the left hand side of the watch case. The read out will be instantaneous on the δEM indicator. Luckily, the read out this time round was zero, so no adjustments were needed. Which was a bit of a shame really as we were looking forward to tinkering around with the EMC…
On the wrist it is very comfortable indeed, however it does sit quite proud on the wrist but I’m sure at 15.8mm in height you won’t mind this piece of haute horlogerie making its presence known. Interestingly enough, when we first reviewed the Urwerk EMC the only criticism we had about it was the size of the dial displaying the time. However, we did reserve our full judgement until we could actually get our hands on it. I must say in the metal it translates a lot better than first thought and is actually a lot easier to read than some other slightly larger dials that currently exist on the market today. The joint use of Titanium and Stainless Steel for the case really does aid to the comfortability of the EMC.
After having a good look and feel of Urwerk’s EMC timepiece, we sat down and spoke to the main man himself. Speaking to Felix Baumgartner (not the gentleman who skydived from space) it was interesting to hear what will be happening in the future with this new and innovative invention. This is just the first stage of this project, which has taken some years to complete. The next stage we’ll be seeing the EMC mechanism encased in, I’m sure, more elaborate and hopefully open dial cases….?
When released the EMC will retail at $120,000. For more information on the EMC visit the official Urwerk website.
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