![]() Looking like something out of a science fiction novel, they represent the bleeding edge of horological technology and innovation.Here’s an interesting fact – China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of watches. Whether automotive inspired, more classically styled, or completely distinct in shape, Urwerk timepieces are always immediately identifiable as such. ![]() Today, Urwerk’s collection is split into three distinct sub-categories: UR-Satellite, and UR-Chronometry. In 2013, the brand snagged the Innovation and Mechanical Exception Watch Prizes at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève for their EMC watch, which made use of an electronic rate measurement display. Winning the coveted Design Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, Urwerk continued to innovate throughout the 2010s, even collaborating with fellow independent maison MB&F in 2012 on the Nitro. While Thomas Baumgartner left the company in 2004, Felix and Frei would soldier on, eventually developing an in-house movement and designing a watch for Harry Winston called the Opus V. Upon their debut in 1997, the brand’s first wares were unlike any the watch world had yet seen: Incorporating a poetic ‘wandering hours’ complication, they made use of cutting-edge materials housed in avant garde cases, the results of which were thought-provoking and unique. One of the darlings of the high-end independent horology space, Urwerk was founded by watchmakers Martin Frei and brothers Thomas and Felix Baumgartner. Paired to a blue technical canvas strap, the UR-100V ‘Blue Planet’ looks firmly like a device worn by an astronaut or aquanaut in a Frank Herbert or Jules Verne novel - sleek, novel, and handsome, it’s the perfect wrist companion for someone whose taste runs more to the avant garde. (Whether you incorporate this information into your daily routine is largely irrelevant - we think it’s perfectly welcome on such a whimsical and science fiction-esque timekeeper!) On the left and right side of the dial are two additional readouts that track the distance the Earth rotates at the equator over 20 minutes, and the distance the Earth revolves around the Sun during the same period of time. Each of three satellite arms contains four of 12 hour indices the time is read by glancing at the hour displayed by the arm as it makes its way across the bottom of the dial, where minutes 1-60 are displayed in an arc. Housed in an octagonal, 41mm x 49.7mm blue PVD stainless steel case with a titanium and sapphire crystal caseback, a domed sapphire crystal, and a crown situated at 12 o’clock, it features a wandering hours display formed by the Urwerk UR 12.02 automatic movement incorporating the Windfänger Planetary Turbine Automatic System. And if the incorporation of a wandering hours display wasn’t challenging enough, the brand also added dual Spacetime complications. Its UR-100V Blue, for example, is a navy-colored, titanium and PVD steel piece inspired by Florentine artist Giotto’s depiction of the sky. The brainchild of Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, Urwerk has been pushing the horological envelope since 1997, designing cutting-edge timepieces that beg closer examination. Sophisticated and whimsical, the wandering hours display forms the basis of much of high-end independent company Urwerk’s output. While certain alternative time-telling displays can feel contrived, the ‘wandering hours’ complication always imparts a sense of wonder.ĭeveloped in the 17the century, it largely disappeared by the turn of the 20th century, to be revived by Audemars Piguet in the form of its Starwheel collection in 1991.
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