Dating back nearly 125 years, Angelus has been one of the most influential horological manufactures of the last century. Their latest creation – the U20 Ultra-Skeleton Tourbillon watch has been conceived as a beautiful mechanical haute horlogerie sculpture. Built like a supercar, its design is streamlined and based on structural optimization. Made of sapphire, carbon and titanium, the U20 is at the forefront of cutting-edge watchmaking.
From the movement to the case design, every aspect of the U20 has been conceptualized to allow light to enter the watch and reveal the splendor of the movement’s architecture and tourbillon. The first elements one sees are the raised dome sapphire crystal of the carbon case and the mirror-polished beveled edge of the monobloc titanium lugs, all reflecting the light.
The U20 Ultra-Skeleton does not boast an ordinary movement that has been skeletonized afterwards, but a tourbillon movement that has been created from scratch to be symmetrical, transparent and resplendent.
To further enhance transparency, the U20 features a sapphire main plate. The bridges have been made of blued titanium and have been skeletonized to increase transparency even further. The bridges’ beam shape also maximizes rigidity – the latter being essential for chronometric precision.
The U20 Ultra-Skeleton Tourbillon deserves closer inspection, which reveals many of the well-thought-out details that go into transforming a skeleton watch into an ultra-skeleton haute horlogerie watch: the variable inertia balance wheel of the tourbillon is especially designed and crafted to minimize air friction; the sapphire main plate is polished to the highest optical grade; ruby bearings are set into solid gold chatons. The ultra-light case, entirely made of carbon-fiber, titanium and sapphire, has been designed to echo the visual lightness and the technical feel of the timepiece.
The U20 Ultra-Skeleton Tourbillon is available in a limited edition of 18 pieces in carbon-fiber/titanium case.