The UR-105 Kryptonite

From URWERK -

Courtesy of URWERK

The team from URWERK are back with a fun new model, the UR-105 Kryptonite.

And for once, I was very pleased to receive a press release that was not chuck-full of hyperbolic language, but rather told a cool story.  And in this case, I do not feel I could do it more justice than the original, so here it is in their own words -
 
“It’s one of the stories my horologist father told me as a child,” recounts watchmaker Felix Baumgartner the brand’s co-founder. “He was fascinated by the stories associated with the historical timepieces he restored. According to the legend, the Pope ordered a special clock from the Campani brothers. It had to tell the time in the dark when he celebrated the divine offices at night. But the clock had to be silent so as not to disturb the Pope when he slept, while the time had to be immediately visible. The Campani brothers produced the so-called “wandering hour” clock in which the hands were replaced by hour numerals that successively traversed a scale of 60 minutes. The passing hours were illuminated from within the clock by a candle. Needless to say, many of these clocks, made largely of wood, caught fire, and the system fell into disuse, but one survivor was sent to my father for restoration. I found it fascinating.”

Courtesy of URWERK

Thus one of the fundamental requirements of every URWERK watch is to show the time clearly in the dark. “I enjoy the idea of fulfilling the Pope’s specifications,” says Martin Frei, URWERK’s co-founder and chief designer. “By preserving its original DNA, we have kept the concept alive.”

Courtesy of URWERK

A great watch, more often than not, has a great story behind it.  And this is clearly one of them.

Here are the pertinents, straight from the source -

UR-105 CT  “Kryptonite”  – Specifications

Movement

Calibre:
UR 5.03 with the selfwinding system governed by twin turbines

Jewels:
52

Frequency:
28,800v/h - 4Hz

Power reserve:
48 hours

Materials:
Satellite hours turning on Geneva crosses in beryllium bronze; openworked aluminium carousel; openworked digital seconds; carousel and triple baseplates in ARCAP.

Finishes:
Circular graining, sanding, brushing
Chamfered screw heads
Hours and minutes painted in SuperLuminova

Indications
Wandering hours; minutes, digital seconds Power reserve

Case

Materials:
UR-105 CT hunter case in titanium, coated with AlTiN

Dimensions: 
Width 39.5mm; length: 53mm; thickness: 17.8mm

Glass:
Sapphire crystal

Water resistance:
Pressure tested to 3ATM (30m)