“When one says ‘ten o’clock’ or ‘three o’clock,’ this is not the grey and
shrunken time of towns; it is the memory of a certain fulmination or
declension of light that was unique to that time and that place on
that day, a memory as vivid to the hunter as burning magnesium.”
J.A. Baker, The Peregrin
As J.A. Baker, on the lookout, in the Thames Estuary, testified to the disappearance of the peregrine, we breathe a new life into this bird of prey. Parentage, transmission and the art of hunting : two bird the Grey heir and his Carbon descendant will symbolize the origins and the future, the legacy and the evolution of the watch…
While leaving the nest, the youngest also becomes the adversary of his sire. He draws its inspiration from his antecedent to surpass him and seize his prey. From this confrontation he comes out victorious, sharper and greater.
The power of the two birds evokes the sharp lines of the UR 220 ; their fineness refers to the accuracy of its new movement.
The movie is composed of six 15 seconds sequences : incubation, awakening, the prey, the fight, the watch, the rest, posted on social medias according to the launch plan. All the sequences were assembled in a 90 seconds edit.
They are machines, alive and powerful.
Their lines are inspired by those of the Urwerk watches: sharp and fluid. They are not specifically mechanical birds, although they bare mechanical parts. They are supple and articulated, tensile and hard-shelled. They fly with the grace of their species and the determination of their kind.
One is Grey and metallic and stand for the UR 210
The other is Carbon and embodies the UR 220
The birds were fully designed, modeled, textured and animated in-house.
A grey robotic peregrine falcon flies off its nest, leaving behind his black egg. In the heart of this oval cell, mechanical parts are growing … his son is blooming.
Later a Carbon falcon unfolds. His wings open wide, his head emerges for under them. His eyes light up.In a far distance he sees something. An UR220. He takes off and rushes to his prey. His claws stretched forward, he is about to seize it, when a grey shadow outstrips him and catches the watch before. The father has outrun his son. A fight begins. High in the sky the two birds are confronting in an aerial series of aerobatics.Finally the watch ends up in the claws of the Carbon falcon. In a last attempt to grab it, the grey bird removes the blocking pin of the watch and launches the movement.
The Carbon Peregrine Falcon lands on his rock, with his prey. He has fought and won. He rests and overlooks the vast and mesmerising scenery.
“Slowly the wind falls, and the still air begins to freeze. The solid eastern ridge is black; it has a bloom on it like the dust on the skin of a grape. The west flares briefly”.
J.A. Baker, The Peregrine
As the shadows cast by the sun grow longer, the air fills with midst and dust of a mineral scenery. The rocks that shelter the nest are sharp as knives. The land is arid and dry. It is a high cliff wall, that only a powerful hawk can reach. Their home is the sky, their haven are the rocks.
The scenery is indeed one of the movie's character, sharp, high and dangerous, it must cover 360°, so that the flights and fights in the sky can be filmed with the greatest freedom.
“We wanted to have the finest possible pattern traced along the length of the UR-220’s case. We therefore needed a special kind of carbon in layers that are not only parallel but as thin as possible. The concentric pattern on the surface of the UR-220 is the result of this choice. In terms of style and technique this UR-220 is just the way we wanted it.”.
Martin Frei
Not much to say, just that we love their watch sooooo much !
Music by Mooders
