If you're a fan of URWERK, you'll know that the brand is a big fan of Star Wars, with several timepieces over the years heavily influenced by the universe created by George Lucas. Most recently it is the iconic imperial army's uniform that provided inspiration for their latest timehunter with the new limited edition EMC Stormtrooper ....
Designed for Lucas by Ralph McQuarrie, a conceptual artist who also worked on Battle Starship Galactica and E.T. The Stormtrooper was designed to intimidate but also look super cool and super clean. The EMC Stormtrooper evokes these same characteristics. The whole watch looks like it belongs in a sci-fi movie, and for this limited edition the white ceramic case set it apart from the previous models, indeed all previous URWERK timepieces. Gone is the trademark black look, replaced by white for the first time.
The EMC TimeHunter “Stormtrooper”belongs to the UR-Chronometry family, which encompasses URWERK watchmaking concepts dedicated to outstanding precision.
An EMC TimeHunter is essentially a dual measuring instrument. Like a compass, a sextant, a machine tool, its appearance and even its surface all signal its nature. The EMC “Stormtrooper” is crafted from steel and its caseback from titanium. Its aesthetic is not round, square or cushion-like, nor indeed any of URWERK’s signature indefinable shapes. This hyper-technical "machine" hugs the contours of the ‘motor’ inside and submits to the constraints of its various organs. It is not symmetrical, regular, flat or curved, yet remains aesthetically pleasing and distinctive.
Moreover, its stainless steel ‘hood’ is micro-beadblasted and then given a hard, matt ceramic lacquer-type treatment. As a result, the surface of the EMC TimeHunter “Stormtrooper” has a grainy finish reminiscent of military equipment.
The same functionalism reigns supreme on the dial with its matt black surfaces. Each indication zone has its own clearly marked space. Each unit is painted with fluorescent green Super-LumiNova®, a neon-type colour frequently used by URWERK due to its perfect contrasts. In addition to the main dial with its chequered hand grenade pattern, which displays the hours and minutes, the EMC TimeHunter features a small disc-type seconds hand at 1 o’clock, graduated in five-second increments and located at 1 o'clock. It is complemented by a power- reserve indicator at 7 o'clock, which provides information on the state-of-wind of the hand-wound movement offering a maximum 80 hours of autonomy.
The indications linked to the chronometric (precision timekeeping) monitoring function are concentrated at 11 o'clock and indicated by the "EM Control"marking on the screw-down bezel. The rate accuracy is graduated from -15 to +15, using seconds as the measurement unit for the daily rate deviation. The amplitude ranges from
180 to 330, measured in degrees.
At the very heart of the EMC concept lies an electronic/mechanical system that makes each of these timepieces totally one-of-a-kind. It is an entirely mechanical watch, optimised with the help of an electro-optical circuit. On the one hand, its hand-wound movement stems from the mind and hands of URWERK.
On the other hand, it incorporates an electronic module whose function is to measure the rate of the mechanical part. It has its own power source, separate from the rest of the movement. Positioned on the side of the case, a large retractable lever raises a dynamo which feeds the control micro-circuit. Thanks to its laser diode, it is able to collect two essential data relating to the movement. Pointing towards the balance, it reads its amplitude (an indicator of the movement’s state of health) and the rate deviation (which is an indicator of accuracy), while comparing them to an internal clock. The latter takes the form of a processor operating at a frequency of 16 MHz and serves as a reference oscillator, i.e. a benchmark.
