Urban Jürgensen - Reference 1140C Rose Gold. Inspired by the Reference 1142C Central Second model with patented detent escapement that won the first prize in the Men’s Category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2014, the Urban Jürgensen Reference 1140C in rose gold comes in a smaller case - 40 mm instead of 42 mm - and an even more streamlined dial design. The price of the Urban Jürgensen Reference 1140C in rose gold is Swiss Francs 49,000.
Inspired by the Reference 1142C Central Second model with patented detent escapement that won the first prize in the Men’s Category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2014, the Urban Jürgensen Reference 1140C in rose gold comes in a smaller case - 40 mm instead of 42 mm - with an even more streamlined dial design.
The result is outstanding. Perfectly sized, the classical round case is enhanced by the beautiful teardrop shaped lugs and distinctive stepped bezel.
The warm rose gold tone of the case is ideal to make the hand-finished guilloché dial really stand out.
Decorated with a Grains d’Orges pattern, each dial is crafted from one piece of solid silver and requires up to 700 operations and two full days of hand work to be completed.
The diamond finished hands - with the typical eye of the hour hand crafted from solid gold - also require numerous hours of fine workmanship. To achieve their eye-catching look, they are polished to a perfect mirror gloss, and thermally blued afterwards.
But the Reference 1140C is not precious just for its meticulously finished case and dial. In fact, the watch is equipped with the in-house designed P8 movement which features the world patented Urban Jürgensen Detent Escapement.
Offering even more precision than a tourbillon, the detent escapement is extremely difficult to implement on a wristwatch.
In the 18th and 19th centuries it was used exclusively in ship’s chronometers, built to withstand the motion of the open sea, always with the dial facing upwards in a gimbal mounting and set within a closed box to protect it from shocks, its main weak point.
Bringing it inside a wristwatch, so exposed to shocks and continuous changes of positions, appeared to be an impossible mission.
After several years of research and heavy investments, in 2011 Urban Jürgensen was able to present the prototype of the UJ-P8 calibre, the world’s first wristwatch movement utilizing a chronometer escapement. Its robustness was certified by the Chronofiable test, one of the toughest standards in the Swiss Horological Industry used to ensure product reliability over time.
Unlike the common lever escapement, the detent escapement has no pallet fork and therefore no sliding friction between the escape teeth and pallet jewels. The detent escapement, like the UJS-P8, uses a perfectly balanced, low inertia, and space saving detent. The detent in this case has the only function to momentarily stop the escape wheel, whilst in the lever escapement, the action of the fork is to alternately stop the escape wheel and transmit impulse to the balance, whereas in the detent escapement, the impulse is done directly by the escape wheel.
In the lever escapement the balance receives two impulses per oscillation, while in the detent escapement the balance only receives one impulse per oscillation. Those different characteristics are easily observable and audible in the Reference 1140C, as the sound of the movement beating at 21,600 vph is different and even visually recognizable with the central second hand sweeping over the dial at 3 beats per second, the only mechanical wrist watch in the world to do so.
Thanks to the twin barrels, the autonomy of the UJS-P8 is 70 hours when fully wound.
The price of the Urban Jürgensen Reference 1140C in rose gold is Swiss Francs 49,000. urbanjurgensen.com
Decorated with a Grains d’Orges pattern, each dial is crafted from one piece of solid silver and requires up to 700 operations and two full days of hand work to be completed.
Offering even more precision than a tourbillon, the detent escapement is extremely difficult to implement on a wristwatch.
In the 18th and 19th centuries it was used exclusively in ship’s chronometers, built to withstand the motion of the open sea, always with the dial facing upwards in a gimbal mounting and set within a closed box to protect it from shocks, its main weak point.
Bringing it inside a wristwatch, so exposed to shocks and continuous changes of positions, appeared to be an impossible mission.
After several years of research and heavy investments, in 2011 Urban Jürgensen was able to present the prototype of the UJ-P8 calibre, the world’s first wristwatch movement utilizing a chronometer escapement. Its robustness was certified by the Chronofiable test, one of the toughest standards in the Swiss Horological Industry used to ensure product reliability over time.
Unlike the common lever escapement, the detent escapement has no pallet fork and therefore no sliding friction between the escape teeth and pallet jewels. The detent escapement, like the UJS-P8, uses a perfectly balanced, low inertia, and space saving detent. The detent in this case has the only function to momentarily stop the escape wheel, whilst in the lever escapement, the action of the fork is to alternately stop the escape wheel and transmit impulse to the balance, whereas in the detent escapement, the impulse is done directly by the escape wheel.
In the lever escapement the balance receives two impulses per oscillation, while in the detent escapement the balance only receives one impulse per oscillation. Those different characteristics are easily observable and audible in the Reference 1140C, as the sound of the movement beating at 21,600 vph is different and even visually recognizable with the central second hand sweeping over the dial at 3 beats per second, the only mechanical wrist watch in the world to do so.
Thanks to the twin barrels, the autonomy of the UJS-P8 is 70 hours when fully wound.
The price of the Urban Jürgensen Reference 1140C in rose gold is Swiss Francs 49,000. urbanjurgensen.com
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