Urwerk AMC Atomic Master clock with paired watch
Late last year, independent watch brand Urwerk unveiled its pretty incredible new timepiece: the AMC Atomic Master Clock. Here, we take a close up look and give you three reasons why you just might want one of these babies in your collection.
Rarity. Just three editions of this newest Urwerk AMC will be made — making them extremely rare. Add to that the fact that the master watchmakers and co-founders at Urwerk, Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, have been working on bringing this concept to fruition for a decade now, and you just might see part of the reason the clock redials for $2.7 million. Oh, did I mention that is a world’s first timepiece?
Two for One. The tabletop clock mechanically winds, sets and regulates an Urwerk watch that is paired with the clock.
Technological Breakthrough. The AMC breaks the technological limits of mechanical watchmaking thanks to a mechanical oscillator that self adjusts to ensure chronometry. When the paired wristwatch is set into the cradle of the 55-pound desk clock, the clock winds the watch, sets the time and regulates the balance rate of the watch.
Recently, on my Perfect Timing column on Forbes, I wrote in depth about this clock, so here I bring you a portion of that article to explain the timepiece. “The AMC caliber was designed and manufactured by Urwerk and features a Swiss lever escapement, an ARCAP P40 balance spring (technically advanced materials) and has a stacked double mainspring barrel, coupled in series, that enables 80 hours of power reserve. Offering synchronization of minutes and seconds of the watch through the clock, the AMC concept was inspired by Abraham-Louis Breguet’s 1795 invention wherein he developed watch that would be regulated by a clock as one slept overnight. That concept was known as the Sympathique clocks, made to work with specially designed watches and clocks.”
“Today, all of our cell phones, smart watches and more rely on atomic master clocks to keep them in sync. The idea that a mechanical master/slave clock/wristwatch could be built intrigued the founders of Urwerk, who are masters at high technology mechanical wristwatches. In fact, the brand was the first to create the EMC Elector Mechanical Control watch that displays its rate with the touch of a button. In addition to the two stacked barrels, the watch offers power reserve indicator, oil change indicator (signifying it is time to have the watch serviced) and is finely finished with Geneva strips, sailing, sandblasting and chamfering.”
