A project from the Special Watches forum: the Galerna UTC watch 2026

Making our own watches is a long-standing tradition in this community. ASpecial Clocks forum project is a clock created by the users of this portal from the beginning, a team effort in which each step is subject to the will of everyone. Since nowlegendary RE-1 created by Aniceto J. Pita in 2004, -the same year in which he was admitted as a member of the prestigious AHCI-, no less than 12 years and no less than eight watch projects have passed until the almost completed Galerna UTC, counting the last one.Boctok from the Russian watch forum,about to be delivered.

It must be recognized that this watchGalerna UTCIt has brought us more than one headache, and the most palpable proof is that we have been with it for almost three years, but as the saying goes “all's well that ends well”, and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer. Up to three manufacturers have embarked with us on this forum project, and in the end it has been Unity that has best understood the idiosyncrasy of what a project of this community is, supporting us above the "commercial capacity" or, directly, its profitability. Probably the fact that Eduardo, founder of Unity, is a member of Relojes Especiales has had a lot to do with this.

The “regular design team” is also made up of three members (Jaime, Jesús and Toni) who divide up the work that we could call Internal and External. The Internal defining the main lines of what the new clock is going to be, checking that it is technically viable and expressing those lines that the External work - that of communication and information management in both directions - will take to the participating forums to bring back thefeedbackthat will get the project moving and evolving. Said like this it seems simple, but it is not at all because many opinions and tastes have to be synthesized, especially those of those forum members who have followed the project from the beginning and who already feel it as their own... Which is what it is about!

The result is (will be)an instrument watch with quite radical shapes: 43mm cylindrical case, internal bezel, double crown and 24 width skeletonized lugs, water resistant to 600 meters with helium valve, calendar and GMT function. “Double domed” sapphire crystal anda strap made specifically by Peter Gunny, a reputable manufacturer is also the craftsman who will make the optional straps: Jacob Straps.

The case materials are anything but vulgar: on the one hand we have bronze with aluminum alloy (density 7.85g/cm3); lead-free to avoid allergies, which also makes it lighter but above all gives it more hardness: 150HB on the Brinell scale compared to 90HB for the usual bronzes in watchmaking. As an alternative, we will use grade 5 titanium (density 4.43g/cm3), with a Brinell hardness of 357HB and a dark silver color. Taking 316 steel as a reference (density 7.5g/cm3 and 150HB on average) we have that bronze has a similar weight and the same hardness while grade 5 titanium has double the hardness and half the weight. A black on titanium DLC version will also be offered.

As if this were not enough, we are going to use a state-of-the-art manufacturing caliber: a recently created Eterna 3945 by the same company –Eternal– who invented the microsphere bearing. Automatic with technologySpherodrive, with date at 10:30, 24-hour GMT function via central hand and 65 hours of power reserve. It is probably the first private project watch to use such a caliber, an added factor of exclusivity.

But what is going to make it even more specialGalerna is that it will be manufactured in Spain,and that is something that can be said about very few watches, whether they are forum projects or not. Unity produces the boxes for its own collections in Barcelona, and it will be that same supplier who will be in charge of making all the components of our Galerna. These components will be sent to Switzerland for final finishing and will later return to be assembled here.

All this for aforum project special watcheswhich aspires to win over at least one hundred fans, of which forty have already signed up. In any case, a very limited edition that will make history.

Essential project data
You can follow the development (and sign up for the project) in thediscussion forum on the creation of the Galerna UTC clock

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