The Tempostopp: 236 Parts, 90 Years

George Daniels once said he would build five tourbillons before he built a chronograph. A tourbillon rotates. A chronograph must start, stop, reset — and in the case of a flyback, do all three at the press of a single button.

UROFA Calibre 59 was the first Glashütte movement to manage it. Developed by Dr. Ernst Kurtz in the early 1940s for the Fliegerchronograph, it introduced the function that Glashütte watchmakers called "Tempostopp": press the pusher, and the seconds hand halts, snaps to twelve, and immediately restarts. One motion, no intermediate steps. Kurtz built around 30,000 Fliegerchronographen with Cal. 59 between 1941 and 1945. Originals sell for €6,000–10,000 today.

The flyback was designed for pilots timing successive legs of a flight. At the checkpoint, one press resets and restarts the chronograph without pause. Building a mechanism that disengages, returns to zero, and re-engages in a single motion requires a column-wheel switching system — one of the more demanding constructions in mechanical watchmaking.

Caliber T659 is named for that movement. Three years in development, premiered at Baselworld 2017 for Tutima's ninetieth anniversary. The specifications: 236 components, hand-wound, 28 jewels, 65-hour power reserve. Jumping 30-minute counter. Every part engineered, fabricated, and finished in Tutima's Glashütte workshop. Cal. T659 is one of very few chronograph calibers still made in Glashütte.

It does not reproduce Cal. 59 — it reinterprets it. The escapement uses a free-sprung Breguet hairspring and a screw balance with four gold regulating screws. The balance cock is hand-engraved. Steel surfaces are polished on tin. The movement measures 33.7mm across and 6.6mm tall, sitting inside a 43mm case in 18-karat rose gold. Ninety pieces, Ref. 6650-01.

The T659 arrived seventy-six years after Kurtz first assembled a flyback chronograph in the same town. A workshop of thirty-five people decided the caliber was worth building from scratch.