Eight years in the making, and with only three pieces in the known universe, Urwerk’s AMC costs a cool S$3.8 million and features an atomic clock plus a wristwatch that can be synced with it
In the world of serious watchmaking, the mechanical and the electrical have always been at opposing ends of the spectrum. Watch purists will argue that only the former can be considered ‘real’ watchmaking and it would be blasphemous if the two elements even come close to one another in a watch.
Thus, high-end watchmakers have mostly steered clear of the latter, instead, preferring to focus on the traditional side of watchmaking. None of them will ever think of somehow combining the two, as the idea of a mechanical/electronic watch at the high-end price point seems rather preposterous. Unless you are Urwerk, that is.
With Urwerk considered the ‘mad scientists’ of the watch industry, preposterous is exactly what they—founders Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei—are gunning for. The Urwerk AMC is a combination of a mechanical wristwatch and a 35kg watch winder that, by the way, is also an atomic clock (AMC stands for Atomic Master Clock).