21st Century Watchmaking Men: Urwerk

When the atomic clock clicked over to 00:01 on 1 January 2000, the 21st Century had arrived. So would the prophecies of so many sci-fi writers come true? The horological world rose to the occasion with new brands such as Urwerk bringing radical new ways of reading the time with complex, over-sized watches. 

The company was founded in 1995 by brothers Felix and Thomas Baumgartner, in partnership with their friend Martin Frei, an artist and designer. The trio wanted to break the mould of typical round case/round dial watches with traditional hands. Having produced their first piece in 1997 (the UR-101), it was in 2003 that Urwerk made the UR-103, a four-dialled watch with hours indicated by one of the four rotating dials in analogue and digital displays, and minutes by the precise position of one dial as it arcs across the minute chapter.



That the original watches looked like a mixture of a Star Trek Communicator and a Star Wars CLE-004 Window Cleaning Droid is mainly thanks to Frei’s enthusiasm for science fiction. If you look at the images above, from the Urwerk creative department’s ‘mood wall’ on its virtual desktop, you will get the picture. There, stills from Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ are mixed with the Millennium Falcon from ‘Star Wars’.

In the first decade of the millennium, Urwerk injected a much-needed breath of fresh air into a sometimes stuck-in-a-rut Swiss watch industry. It was a completely new way of thinking, and a logical step for the trio was to launch a pocket watch that played on the image of a time-travelling Victorian adventurer.

The new device, the UR-1001, featured in the 2003 sci-fi fantasy film ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’. In addition to days, hours and minutes, the display also showed centuries and millennia.Despite some criticism from the Swiss watchmaking industry ‘establishment’ for their outlandish designs, the trio is unrepentant, proving that the horological world belongs to the brave, not just the traditional.Text: J. Philip Rathgen (Classic Driver)
Photos: Urwerk

Maria Sharapova named Porsche ambassador

Three-year contract

Porsche has named 26-year-old tennis player Maria Sharapova as brand ambassador.

She signed a three-year contract with Porsche and during this period she will be involved in the firm's global communications campaign. She is familiar with the brand as last year in Stuttgart at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix she won a white 911 Carrera S Cabriolet, along with the prize money.

CEO of Porsche AG Matthias Mueller describes Maria Sharapova as "an exceptional athlete. She combines top performance in her sports with elegance and power. These are precisely the qualities that are embroiled in our sports cars." Sharapova declared during her presentation in Stuttgart "I have had the privilege to be associated with some of the best brands in the world, but now to be partners with Porsche is such an amazing honor."

Source: Porsche

voa Worldcarfans

Max Biaggi keeps teasing on comeback

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Max Biaggi shot down any possibilities of returning to World Superbikes in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport with ‘it’s impossible’, but the Roman Emperor via Twitter keeps teasing his millions of orphaned fans with ambiguous tweets that leaves his intentions open to interpretation, and our Italian cousins over at Motoblog are now suggesting that Biaggi may decide to wildcard at the Monza.

Biaggi’s wrote in his latest tweet:

Which translated means more or less, “tomorrow a long day of work and important answers, will let you know. Keep training.”

The question that Italians keep asking themselves is why Biaggi is spending so much time training if he hasn’t any intention of taking part in a race.

Many hope that the Black Corsair will at least do a couple of wildcards in order to raise more interest in World Superbikes that has yet to fully take off now that it’s aired on an important TV channel like Sportmediaset on Italia 1 and 2 and with Biaggi himself as one of the commentators.

What do you guys think? Is is just some wishful thinking by some die-hard fans who read more into Biaggi’s cryptic messages than there actually is?

air force!!