New: Urwerk UR-230 Polaris :

Urwerk continues to push the aesthetic envelope with a model new mannequin, the second, for the 230 assortment, now using wise white as the underside coloration inside the palette.

Press Launch with commentary in italics.

The Urwerk UR-230 Polaris retails for CHF 150,000 sooner than taxes. Restricted Model of 35 objects.

Commentary

The aesthetics of the model new UR-230 Polaris is unmistakable Urwerk. The case is crafted out of white ceramic, fiberglass enhanced, and acknowledged to be proprietary. The utilization of fiberglass contained in the ceramic composite is attention-grabbing on account of it gives the development the pliability to withstand chipping and breakage, which is widespread in ceramic circumstances as this can be very arduous and typically brittle.

The colour is an almost pure white. That’s achieved by way of the usage of a white resin to encapsulate the silfery fiberglass. The truth is, the case is the same old UR-230 case, with its difficult kind. The white then makes for a placing backdrop in the direction of the darkened dial with white markers setting in the direction of the uncovered 3 dimensional transferring sculpture which is the movement. That’s the UR-7.30 movement, which is almost all black other than the mobile carriage which is silver, and white and crimson accents. All correctly complemented with the extraordinary white strap. Looks like one factor from the long term.

What may also be attention-grabbing is utilizing shock absorbers inside the kind of a set of two mills. These are prepare contained in the hermetically sealed case, and act by absorbing the facility of have an effect on and converts it to rotational energy for the mills. It’s a novel thought of using pneumatic properties of air as shock absorbers inside the watch.

Launch data

Radiant and iridescent, the second installment inside the 230 assortment inaugurates a shade and a cloth that every depart from URWERK’s historic language. With its white case, carved from a block of proprietary fiberglass-enhanced ceramic, the UR-230 Polaris opens a model new shade horizon, a polar perspective. To date devoted to using black, gray, and muted textures, URWERK dramatically pivots within the route of pure brilliance and a model new energy that glimmers white.

Solely a yr after the discharge of the UR-230 Eagle – the first opus inside the 230 assortment and utterly crafted out of TPT carbon – URWERK is already shifting this new assortment within the route of a very new and immaculate intent. With its technical base unchanged, the UR-230 dons a pure white, extraordinarily technical supplies, stemming from an distinctive and proprietary enchancment.

Onerous and laborious

The UR-230 Polaris is product of a layered, ceramic-based composite. Its polymer base houses sheets of woven ceramic, intertwined with fiberglass plies. Used inside the airspace, medical and henceforth, watchmaking industries, this new and high-performance supplies combines the advantages of each of its constituents.

« The usual ceramics are arduous, however it’s moreover what makes them a obligation, says Felix Baumgartner, grasp watchmaker and co-founder of URWERK. These provides are heat-sintered, which makes them liable to shattering in case of a strong have an effect on. We would have liked to go earlier that limitation. So we decided to develop a ceramic, by and for ourselves. Due to the glass fibers it incorporates, it doesn’t break.”

White and silver

Not content material materials with overcoming the first weak spot of watch-specific ceramics, the UR-230 Polaris has one different ace up its sleeve. The resin that encapsulates the fiber-based sheets is colored white, whereas the fiberglass is a very light silver. Machining the case into its difficult kind reveals the finely stacked layers, with a varied impression counting on the curve and angle. They share a graphic factor with carbon fiber: uneven and shimmering. Shifting from full matte to barely glowing, they supply random performs with light. That specific white is alive, all the time altering, and subtly so. It totally incorporates the nearly all-black URWERK caliber UR-7.30.

This distinctive deal with white obtained right here after thoughtful consideration, as explains Martin Frei, art work director and co-founder of URWERK: « The white case open air and the black movement of the UR-230 Polaris, significantly with a white strap on, are strongly paying homage to the aesthetics of 2001: A Space Odyssey. They’re a throwback to Kubrick’s breathtaking set designs and the enduring Discovery 1 spaceship. This design moreover hints on the entire Apollo 11 aesthetics as created by NASA, the place white was used as a heat defend, an absolute requirement of space dwelling. This watch is simply not solely elegant, it’s moreover acquired NASA cool written all through it. »

Soar and alter

The model new UR-230 Polaris is a sophisticated mannequin of the revolving satellite tv for pc television for laptop complication that is URWERK’s essential signature. On a three-armed carousel, rotating blocks each carry 4 hours’ numerals. They scroll alongside a 120-degree half, with the face of the current hour pointing within the route of the observer.

These present cubes are embedded in an aluminum 3D retrograde hand to point out the minutes. Echoing the case and strap shade, this skeletonized hand may also be white. On the end of its 60-minute journey, it returns to index 0, the place it takes price of the cube displaying the next hour.

Air and motion

Together with this time present, this ceramic iteration showcases the UR-230’s new capabilities. URWERK has developed a world-first set of shock absorbers designed to protect the model new UR-7.30 caliber by means of mills. The first set of mills is dedicated to attenuating the have an effect on of any exterior shock, thereby guaranteeing the robustness and sturdiness of the watch.

A second set controls the motion of air that feeds the winding system. The ability of this “air brake”, designed to modulate the winding vitality in keeping with the wearer’s stage of train, is about by a rotating knob on the once more of the watch. A second change reverse the first serves to disengage the rotor totally. The UR-230 Polaris then switches to information winding mode. Two symmetrical indicators level out the extent of adjustment of these two capabilities at 11 and 1 o’clock.

Coronary coronary heart and physique

From the 200 assortment, which it derives from, the UR-230 Polaris retains the case design. A trapeze kind with a pronounced elongation within the route of the 6 o’clock place, a staggered construction throughout the sapphire apertures, a crown at 12 o’clock and clever administration of acute and softened angles: the UR-230 Polaris asserts its primarily URWERK nature.

Contained within the case, the UR-7.30 caliber is encased in a hermetically sealed container resembling a strongbox. The white ceramic case and black DLC titanium caseback are harnessed to a Vulcanised rubber strap spherical it.

Urwerk UR-230 Polaris Specs

Technical Specs.

Movement

Caliber: UR-7.30 developed by URWERK

Winding:  Automated winding mechanism with information winding selection

Escapement: Swiss anchor escapement

Frequency:  28,800 vph- 4 Hz

Hairspring:  Flat

Jewels: 50

Vitality:  double barrel system

Power Reserve:  48 hours

Supplies:  Baseplate in ARCAP P40; 3D minute hand in aluminum with counterweight; Central spring in steel; Hour transporters in aluminum; Central carousel and screws in Grade 5 titanium.

Finishes: Hour markers hand-painted with SuperLumiNova ©; 3D-engraved building with spherical finish; Micro-bead blasted sub-dials; Sandblasted with spherical satin finish and black rhodium coating carousel; Sandblasted with DLC coating cam; Black anodized and finely sandblasted 3D minute hand; Purple anodized counterweight; Polished screws.

Hand-painted parts with SuperLuminova © (White (blue glow): Hour transporter and markers, automated winding indicator; crimson (inexperienced glow): 60-minute marker and “Off” place for automated winding.

Indications

Wandering hours on a revolving satellite tv for pc television for laptop complication (URWERK patented); 3D retrograde minute hand; Air brake system for winding regulation; Automated winding on/off indicator.

Case

Supplies: Distinctive white ceramic developed in collaboration with URWERK

Dimensions: Width: 44,81 mm; Dimension:  53,55 mm; Thickness: 18,38 mm

Crystal: Sapphire crystal

Case Once more: Black DLC-treated titanium with sapphire crystal

Water resistance: Examined to 30 meters (3 ATM)

Strap: Vulcanised rubber ©, “Kiska” reference with Velcro closure