In 1970, one of the most famed, feared, and phenomenal aircraft in history – the SR-71 Blackbird – had a catastrophic incident. The plane, number 61-7970, went down 20 miles east of El Paso, Texas, after a collision with the KC-135Q (59-1474) refueling tanker. The pilot and his RSO (Reconnaissance Systems Officer) ejected relatively safely, but obviously, the SR-71 was lost. Since then, pieces of the fuselage – a futuristic titanium alloy mixed with metals such as vanadium and iron – have appeared for sale on occasion. Now, they're a part of a watch, specifically the crank handle and screw-down bezel on Urwerk's new EMC SR-71.
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The idea originated when two entrepreneurs, Jason Sarkoyan and Dr. Roman Sperl, showed up at the Urwerk Headquarters in December 2020. Sarkoyan is a watch collector and designer and was wearing the EMC Black. Dr. Sperl, on the other hand, is an aeronautical engineer and a specialist in the field of the SR-71 Blackbird. They had founded a company called Dreamland, which, according to the press release, is a "lifestyle brand dedicated to developing products that not only cater to the needs of space exploration but also bring the thrill of America's aerospace achievements into everyday life."
If you've followed Urwerk, you know their EMC – Electro-Mechanical Control – which has been out since 2013. The core feature is an optical sensor (linked to a control board) that checks the balance wheel's 4 Hz beat rate against a 16,000,000 Hz electronic oscillator benchmark. An integrated circuit has a calculator capable of determining the differential, and with a press of a button at about 8 o'clock on the case, you can get the readout of the chronometric precision of the watch on the 10 o'clock subdial. There's also a power reserve, running seconds (with an SR-71 on the tip of the hand), and of course, the hours and minutes.
In addition to the parts of the Blackbird, the case is made out of blacked-out titanium and steel and is rated to 30m. At 47.55mm wide, 49.57mm long, and 17.58mm thick, it's not a small watch. Inside is the in-house EMC manually-wound movement with 80 hours of power reserve. The watch will be limited to 10 pieces and has a price tag of 150,000 CHF.
Source: Hodinkee
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