Community Articles July 14, admin. Tutima Chronograph FX UTC Ref. History and Background On the outbreak of World War I, the market for expensive precision watches collapsed virtually overnight. A decade of turbulence and upheaval was to follow. Inthe situation in Glashuette was desolate. Apart from the initial production of superior quality pocket-watches, under the management of Mr. Kurtz and a few competent associates, the companies developed and produced their own ebauches for wristwatches. The product quality and the distribution exclusively through selected dealers soon earned Tutima an excellent reputation. Back then UROFA-UFAG had some employees. On May 8,just hours away from the cease-fire of WWII, Russian bombers wreaked havoc over Glashuette, severely damaging the metropolis of German watchmaking skills. Under the East German government, the factories were later merged into a state-owned combined production plant and the famous Glashuette trade names vanished from the face of the watches. Tutima, watch, survived and found a new domicile in West Germany. Ernst Kurtz, successful head of UROFA and UFAG, had packed his belongings and left Glashuette just one day before the terrible bombings. Inthe company moved to Ganderkesee in Lower Saxony. Together with former Glashuette employees, Kurtz picked up where previous developments had left off. This was not just an empty boast. By that time, however, the financial resources of Dr. A new generation of watchmakers, trained in keeping with the strict principles of Glashuette traditions, had meanwhile come of age. Werner Pohlan, former associate and close friend of Dr. Kurtz in Glashuette, continued to run the company under the name NUROFA — Norddeutsche Uhrenrohwerkefabrik, alongside a previously founded distribution company, TUTIMA UHREN. The historic name of Tutima celebrated a comeback in Lower Saxony. Kurtz resumed management of the movement factory, giving it the venerable name UROFA, after the factory which he himself had founded and which no longer existed in Glashuette. Just one year later, ebauche production was finally discontinued. The same fate, however, was not in store for the watchmaking sector nor for the name of Tutima. The survival of the production and the name of Tutima are due to an entrepreneur and former associate of Dr. Delecate continued watch production with movements from other sources. The difficult times of the 70s, when the advent of quartz watches forced many European watchmakers to close down, were successfully circumvented and it was not long until the complex mechanical watch enjoyed a revival at Tutima. The year saw the launch of the mechanical Military Chronographspecially developed by Tutima on behalf of the Germany Army and standard equipment for the German Air Force pilots ever since. The two basic lines that determined the models in the Tutima collection since then, the Military Line and the Classic Line were amended by the new FX Line. The FX line comprises a broad range of models that vary from simple hours, minutes, seconds, day-date to the more complicated Chronograph UTC. First announced for the Basel show inall FX models are now finally available with black and silver dials. The variety gets even broader as all models are available with various bezels: The roughly 50 employees of Tutima create precise timepieces mostly housed in stainless steel cases and driven by ETA based movements. There is little known about the work Tutima does on their movements. The company distributes no press information on the modules used or finish done. Producing their watches in Ganderkesee in the vicinity of the North-German city of Bremen, Tutima watch takes a local exception to the German watch industry that is mainly based around Glashuette and Pforzheim. Case, Crown, Pushers and Crystal Over grams of brushed stainless steel; the element this clearly technocratic watch is made out of. Besides the face of the pushers and the crown as well as a narrow rim on the case back, the watch is finished in finely brushed steel in its entirety. The absence of gleamy polishing adds to the rather unobtrusive appearance of the chronograph. At 38mm, the watch has a rather moderate diameter, sort of contradicted by the height of 14mm plus an additional millimetre for the domed crystal. The relatively short lugs lug to lug dimension is 46mm certainly underline a solid wearing comfort. Please click on any of these or the following pictures to see a larger version The screw down case back features a number of parallel nibs to match with the special opening tool. From critique like this, you could tell that there is very little to complain about the case design of the FX Chrono UTC. The form simply follows function and is executed in a technically impeccable manner. The middle part of the case clearly looks like milled out of a hefty chunk of steel and the way the lightly swung lugs are cut and look like floating out of the case completes the massive looks. Tiny little imperfections in the surface tell that there is a lot of manual labour involved in the finish of this case. A fact that rather adds to the attraction of the watch than counting as a disadvantage. The bezel of the FX Chrono UTC is issued in three variations. The case is either not fit with a rotating bezel at all and instead just shows a brushed bezel as part of the main part of the case. Alternatively, Tutima adds a bi-directionally rotating bezel with either 24h or 60 minute countdown markers around the crystal. I chose the 24h bezel as this technically best suits the purpose of this functional watch and adds a third timezone function to the dual timezone complication. The turn of the bezel is firm in both directions and the raster of the 48 clicks around the bezel is precise and tight. The mushroom shaped chronograph pushers with polished faces and brushed gorge add a filigree touch to the case design. When pressing the buttons, the plunger fits into a slight recess at the side of the case. I personally prefer the more massive style of pushers that are bedded in a cylindrical shaft as found e. However, such a design would not only be more difficult to implement but would also give the case a much bulkier look. The strong resistance that owners of Valjoux based chronographs are used to impairs the pleasure of operating the chronograph. The fairly large crown in turn is designed all to my satisfaction. Its diameter and depth perfectly fits the overall size of the watch and guarantees hassle-free operation. It impresses me much that the crown not only operates with utter preciseness and forex but also needs more than four full turns to be completely screwed into the thread. Checking this fine technical detail is easy because of the neatly finished face of the crown that shows the T-logo of the brand. The sapphire crystal caters to the same goal of making the watch look less massive than it actually is. The domed shape meets the flow of the swung lugs and the rest of the case. In combination with the inside antireflective coating, the curved shape of the crystal enhances the legibility of the watch. Dial and Hands We are basically talking about two different watches here. The black faced and the white dial Tutima FX line. Out of sheer personal preference I chose to have a closer look at the white face version. First introduced at the shows inthe white Tutima Chronograph FX UTC was spooking around in watch magazines for two years. I was told by a Tutima representative that it was taken from the first prototype. It had a plain white face that almost looked like an enamel dial. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed when I learned that the final version would have a silvery finish instead of the spotless white. That was when I first saw the watch in person at the Inhorgenta show in Munich. All in all, though, I still think that the white version of this watch is an extraordinary attractive candidate in the not so wide field of ultra-sporty chronographs with white dials. It might not be apparent from the pictures but the legibility of this watch, including all its functions is impeccable. The design is utterly clear and even though the dial has to comprise a number of complicated functions, it is everything but cluttered. The overall layout is determined by the specifications of the Valjoux chronograph, i. The wonderfully filigree chronograph second hand as well as the skeletonized hand for the second timezone operate from the centre of the dial. All hands of the Chrono UTC are blued. The arrow shape hands of the chrono subdials are wonderfully executed. The frame of the lance shaped hour and minute hand is blued as well and filled with Superluminova. The skeletonized UTC hand shifts as precisely as the chrono hands and clearly indicates the different timezone as it has slightly larger dimensions than the regular hour hand. But again, the particularly narrow second hand is what strikes me the most. The dial print is nothing but perfect. The heavy and glossy black print of the straight and utmost legible numerals almost gives the dial a third dimension. So do certainly the slightly recessed subdials with their concentric grooves. The additional forex scale for the second timezone is placed on a bevelled shoulder around the dial towards the bezel. With the assistance of the markers on the rotating bezel, the FX UTC could display three different timezones. In addition to the Luminova coating of the hour and minute hand, the hour indicators every fifth minute index are fitted little Luminova dots as well. Movement I wish Tutima would provide the world, respectively Timezone, with more details about the movement. Well of course, it is based on the omnipresent Valjoux automatic chronograph movement from ETA. But the again, somebody needs to add the second timezone module. This way, it is even up to speculation what exactly the refinish looks like that Tutima applies to the ETA base movement. Is it limited to engraving the company name on the rotor? Or are they completely disassembling all parts and give them a higher grade finish plus watch cosmetic mark-up like Geneva stripes and blued screws? Questions yet to be resolved. Please have a look at his detailed article in the Horologium. Part of the movement is also felt from outside without opening the watch. As mentioned before, the operation of the pushers is not as smooth as it should be on a chronograph. I assume that the reason is the coulisse-lever technique used in comparison to the much smoother column-wheel technique. Another disadvantage of this specification is the less precise start of the chronograph centre second hand. However, the frequency these jumps occur on the FX UTC as well as their deflection is rather minimal. That leaves me to assume that Tutima is actually doing quite a good deal of refinishing the movement. After a couple of days of dispersion of the oils, the FXC UTC ran at absolutely satisfactory preciseness. Below, two pictures of the Tutima version of the and the With regard to the style I would even dare say that it belongs to the nicest in the market in the utilitarian class. Starting from solid end links that fit tight between the lugs, an even floating band of completely brushed links smoothly nestles around the wrist. The links have just the right size and add to the wonderful wearing comfort. The length is easily adjustable with screw pins and a spring bar fine adjustment in the clasp. The only thing I could complain about is what I call side-clearance. The test is to put down the watch in crown down position on a flat surface with a fully stretched out bracelet as if the watch would sit on the wrist. The Tutima bracelet fails as much as for example the Rolex president bracelet would fail quartz really harsh test. The bracelet is held together by a mono pushbutton folding clasp. The mechanism of the clasp operates precisely and securely. The brushed finish of the clasp is adorned with the Tutima logo already known from the crown. In closed position, the buckle fits the overall design and quality of the watch very well. However, once opened and unfolded, it simply looks cheap. Not very charming either are the boxes the watch is sold in. The plain cubic inner box is made from soft a soft leather-like material and held together by a zipper. A white outer card box adds another layer of protection. A somewhat more sophisticated wrapping would certainly do much better service to this nice watch. Conclusion When I first saw a picture of the white dial version of the Tutima Chronograph FX UTC in the wrist watch annualI fell in love with this watch and knew that I wanted to get one as soon as they would become available. The watch came out two years later and what I assumed to be a truly white dial turned out to have a silvery finish. That initial disappointment was soon overcome by the overall quality, design, functionality and finish quartz the watch. Tutima asked Timezone not to publish any prices, yet I can say that the price is certainly very competitive and thus, I think it is a lot of watch you get for your money when buying a Chronograph FX UTC. There are a few details that are really fun about this watch. Certainly its perfect functionality for the modern frequent flyer or barbecue master timing the burgers is one of them. However, little things like the wonderful chrono second hand, the amply proportioned crown and again and again the top of the line dial print with all its detail and thick glance could make this watch grow on you more than you might expect from first sight. Bottom line, I would point out the following Pros and Cons: Sales Corner TZ Showcase Watch Repair Automotive Forum Follow Facebook Instagram Twitter. Industry News Interviews TZ Blogs TZ Features. Hands-on with the A. Please click on any of these or the following pictures to see a larger version. 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From discount model trains, to scenery pieces, hobby tools and unfinished model kits, there is something for everyone here and our catalog is constantly growing to accommodate new products.
As the Arts Council continues to evolve the OPP Art series, we are continuing the monthly roundtable discussion sessions on the third Thursday of every month in 2015.
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