URWERK

We don’t try to bring out new versions of existing complicated mechanisms,” explains watchmaker Felix Baumgartner, co-founder of URWERK. “Our watches are unique because they are all designed as original works, which makes them rare and priceless. Our main aim is to go beyond the traditional horizons of watchmaking.” The original styling of each URWERK model is signed by chief designer Martin Frei, the company’s other co-founder. “I come from a background where creativeness has no limits. I am in no way prisoner of the traditional constraints of watchmaking, and I can therefore be freely inspired by my cultural heritage.”

Although URWERK is a young company established in 1997 (already 20 years old!) it is recognised as one of the forerunners of the new wave known as nouvelle horlogerie. Producing just 150 watches a year, the company sees itself as a craftsman’s studio where traditional expertise coexists with avant-garde styling. The company manufactures modern and complex watches that are unprecedented and in keeping with the most demanding criteria of fine watchmaking: independent design and research, advanced materials and handcrafted finishes.

The name URWERK comes from the ancient city of Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia, founded nearly 6,000 years ago where the Sumerian inhabitants first established units of time based on the shadows cast by its monuments. Ur in the German language also means primeval or original and Werk means an achievement or a mechanism. Thus URWERK can be translated as an original movement — a tribute to generations of watchmakers whose work has resulted in what we know today as haute horlogerie, or superlative watchmaking.

Some timepieces to
discover

Urwerk UR210 Final 7

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

The UR-210’s satellite complication with retrograde minute is both highly original and totally explosive. The principal feature is a high-tech, oversized, three-dimensional retrograde minute hand. Its function is to enclose the hour satellite and indicate the time as it transverses the 0-to-60-minute scale. This one-hour journey through time, tracing an arc of 120°, is smooth and fluid. But the true nature of the piece is revealed at the end of the 59th minute. Then a sharp distinct “click” signals the return of the minute hand to its starting point. In less than 0.1 of a second the hand flies back to dock with the next hour satellite. This ‘Titanium & Steel DLC’ version is a limited edition of just 7 pieces . The radical UR-210 Final Edition is uncompromising – it will be love at first sight for aficionados of avant-garde horology.

  • Reference
  • UR210Final
  • Limited edition
  • 7 pieces
  • Case material
  • titanium and stainless steel DLC
  • Case diameter
  • 43.8 mm x 53.6 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 17,8 mm
  • Caseback
  • titanium and stainless steel DLC
  • Water resistance
  • 3 ATM
  • Movement
  • UR-7.10
  • Winding
  • Self-winding
  • Power reserve
  • 39 hours
  • Frequency
  • 4 Hz
  • Functions
  • Patented revolving satellite complication with wandering hour and three-dimensional retrograde minute hand; power reserve indicator; winding efficiency indicator.
  • Bracelet material
  • Alligator
  • Buckle type
  • Pin Buckle
  • Buckle material
  • DLC Steel
  • Retail Price
  • 167 400 € including 20% VAT

Urwerk UR-111C TT

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

Ne vous attendez pas à « du conventionnel » en prenant la UR-111C en main. Elle affiche des caractéristiques fortes : double affichage des minutes – linéaire et trainante ; heures digitales sautantes ; secondes squelettées avec transmetteur optique. De plus, avec la UR-111C, vous ferez pour la première fois l’expérience d’une couronne nouvelle génération. Le système de remontage, un cylindre intégré dans la partie supérieure du boîtier, tient lieu de couronne de remontage.

Faire rouler ce long cylindre cannelé pour remonter sa montre est une sensation nouvelle. L’indication numérique des secondes de l’UR-111C est également une première mondiale. Les unités des secondes – squelettées pour plus de légèreté – sont reparties équitablement sur deux roues. Ces deux index vont s’imbriquer l’un dans l’autre afin d’illustrer une avancée du temps très graphique. La dernière touche portée à la UR-111C réside dans son boîtier. Pour emboîter un tel mécanisme dans un tel boitier dont le corps central est fait d’un seul tenant, il a fallu ruser. L’emboitage se fait donc sur la tranche.

  • Reference
  • UR-111C TT
  • Limited edition
  • 25 pieces
  • Case material
  • stainless steel
  • Case diameter
  • 42 x 46 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 15mm
  • Water resistance
  • 3atm
  • Winding
  • self winding
  • Power reserve
  • 48 hours
  • Frequency
  • 4Hz
  • Dial color
  • black
  • Dial material
  • aluminium
  • Functions
  • JUMPING HOURS, RETROGRADE LINEAR MINUTES, DIGITAL MINUTES, DIGITAL SECONDS.
  • Bracelet material
  • Alligator leather strap
  • Buckle type
  • Pin Buckle
  • Buckle material
  • Titanium DLC
  • Retail Price
  • 159 000 € including 20% VAT

URWERK – UR-120 AKA SPOKE

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

Hand up, palm forward, fingers parted in the middle, and then the greeting: “Live long and prosper!” This is a meme known to all Trekkies, almost a world heritage, a salutation that rings like a blessing. This
sign is also an integral part of URWERK’s brand DNA. It’s had pride of place on a wall of the Geneva workshop for ages. And now, so does it above the mainplate of the new UR-120, whose time display reproduces the Vulcan salute. Such is the latest challenge Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei have taken on, with the hope that it too shall live long and prosper.

This new satellite display of the UR-120 was born 16.5 million light-years from Earth, in the Beta Quadrant. That’s where the original inspiration for its display, a V-shaped open hand, is customary: in Mr. Spock’s civilization, on Vulcan. It relies on rotating satellites which split open so they can spin, each on their own axis. This unprecedented innovation allows for a substantial gain in thickness. It translates into a unique volume. At 44 mm long, 47 mm wide and 15.8 mm thick, the UR-120 case stands out with its perfect sense of ergonomics. Maximum height is reached in the middle of the sapphire glass, at the apex of a gentle curve. The upper part of the case is totally smooth, without a single screw or notch, offering perfectly fluid lines.

  • Reference
  • UR120
  • Case material
  • titanium
  • Case diameter
  • 47 x 44 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 15,8 mm
  • Water resistance
  • 3 ATM
  • Movement
  • UR-20.01
  • Winding
  • Self-winding
  • Power reserve
  • 48 hours
  • Frequency
  • 28'800 vph / 4hz
  • Dial color
  • grey
  • Functions
  • Analog minutes and digital hour satellite mounted on planetary gears
  • Bracelet material
  • baltimora fabric
  • Buckle type
  • ardillon
  • Buckle material
  • titanium
  • Retail Price
  • 122 280 € including 20% VAT

Urwerk – UR100V Ultra Violet

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

Violet! This magnificent shade is located at the far end of the visible colour spectrum perceptible to the human eye. Anything beyond violet is outside the field of colour. Violet is the ultimate hue. That of the fighters, the outsiders, the crazies. Heroes or villains? It doesn’t matter. If you need to make yourself heard, do it in violet!

Fitted with a rubber strap, the UR-100V UltraViolet picks up the codes of the 100 family. On the UR-100V, the satellite hours and minutes display is complemented by new information. Once the 60th minute has been
reached, the minutes hand vanishes and reappears as a kilometre counter. It illustrates the 555 kilometres travelled every 20 minutes by every inhabitant of Planet Earth. This is in fact the average speed of rotation of the Earth calculated at the Equator (rotational distance). Appearing exactly opposite is the Earth’s revolution around the sun (orbital distance), i.e. 35,740 kilometres per 20 minutes. On the face of the UR-100V, hours and kilometres thus share the same status, the same scale of
value. These units are lit up at night in incandescent blue for the hours and in flamboyant green for the kilometres.

  • Reference
  • UR100V ULTRA VIOLET
  • Limited edition
  • 25 pieces per year
  • Case material
  • Purple DLC on Titanium
  • Case diameter
  • 41 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 14 mm
  • Caseback
  • Sapphire glass
  • Water resistance
  • 3 ATM
  • Movement
  • UR12.01
  • Winding
  • Self-winding
  • Power reserve
  • 48 hours
  • Frequency
  • 28'800 vph / 4hz
  • Functions
  • Satellite hours; minutes; Earth’s rotation on its axis at the Equator in 20 minutes; Earth’s revolution around the sun in 20 minutes
  • Bracelet material
  • Rubber strap
  • Buckle type
  • Folding Clasp
  • Buckle material
  • Titanium
  • Retail price
  • 67 200 € including 20% VAT

Urwerk – EMC Time Hunter Xray

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

Based on the first EMC generation rewarded twice by the GPHG, the EMC XRAY enables its wearer to both monitor its precision as worn on the wrist as well as the amplitude of the watch. Interactivity remains at the heart of the EMC concept. Accuracy can then be easily adjusted for each owner’s lifestyle rather than the controlled environment of the watchmaker’s atelier.

The EMC’s monitoring unit is powered by a micro-generator made by the Swiss company Maxon, known for developing motors for NASA’s Mars rovers.

  • Reference
  • EMC Xray
  • Limited edition
  • 15 pieces
  • Case material
  • Titanium
  • Case diameter
  • 43mm width x 51mm length
  • Case thickness
  • 15,8 mm
  • Caseback
  • Sapphire glass
  • Water resistance
  • 3 ATM
  • Movement
  • UR-EMC2
  • Winding
  • Manual winding
  • Power reserve
  • 80 hours
  • Frequency
  • 28 800 vph
  • Functions
  • Hours, minutes, seconds; precision delta, amplitude, power reserve
  • Bracelet material
  • baltimora fabric
  • Buckle type
  • Pin Buckle
  • Buckle material
  • Titanium
  • Retail Price
  • 152 880 € including 20% VAT

URWERK – UR112 AGGREGAT

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

The UR-112 Aggregat is the latest addition to URWERK’s Special Project collection, a laboratory offering horological freedom and follies encouraged. URWERK co-founders Felix Baumgartner, master watchmaker, and Martin Frei, artistic director and designer, started this new adventure from a blank page. And a sketchbook overflowing with ideas.

Aggregat is a compendium of 25.5 grams of distilled technique, offering fully digital time displays, from hours down to seconds. A double or nothing challenge for the watchmaker who is betting with microns. Starting with the hour and the minutes, each are displayed on triangular prisms operating under transparent cylinders, which appear as levitating mechanisms to be admired through the crystal. On the left, the digital hour display. Each of the 12 numerals is engraved then filled with Super-LumiNova. The transcription of time takes the form of a sign display switching sharply to a chronometric rhythm.
On the right, the same system displays the minutes. Minutes free from the strain of the singular and instead jump in 5-minute increments.

  • Reference
  • UR112 AGGREGAT
  • Limited edition
  • 25 pieces
  • Case material
  • Titanium & GunMetal
  • Case diameter
  • 51 x 42 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 16 mm
  • Water resistance
  • 3 ATM
  • Movement
  • UR.13-01
  • Winding
  • Self-winding
  • Power reserve
  • 48 hours
  • Frequency
  • 4 Hertz - 28800 Vph
  • Functions
  • Jumping digital hour on triangular satellite prisms; running digital minute
    on triangular satellite prisms; digital seconds; power reserve
  • Bracelet material
  • Baltimora
  • Buckle type
  • Pin Buckle
  • Buckle material
  • Titanium
  • retail Price
  • 300 000 € including 20% VAT

Urwerk UR-111C Black Cobra

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

In the URWERK tradition, none of the indications of the UR-111C watch are conventional: The minutes are shown in two different ways – linearly for eyes and digitally for precision. Never has a roller on the case performed the functions of the crown, nor have the running seconds meandered across a cluster of optical fibers. URWERK created a new interface with the watch. Instead of the conventional crown, they conceived a roller integrated into the top of the case.

Rolling the long fluted cylinder with your thumb to wind the watch is indeed a new sensation, but making it possible requires miniature gearing, complex articulations and intermediate wheels. The same applies to the original way of setting the time. Instead of pulling out a crown you swing out a lever from the side of the case and turn the roller in either direction. The hours and two versions of the minutes are displayed within glass sapphire covers along the side of the case so that you can see them at a glance without turning your wrist or letting go of the steering wheel.

  • Reference
  • UR-111C Black Cobra
  • Limited edition
  • 25 pieces
  • Case material
  • Stainless steel
  • Case diameter
  • 42 x 46 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 15mm
  • Water resistance
  • 3 atm
  • Winding
  • self winding
  • Power reserve
  • 48 hours
  • Frequency
  • 4Hz
  • Dial color
  • Black
  • Dial material
  • Aluminium
  • Functions
  • JUMPING HOURS, RETROGRADE LINEAR MINUTES, DIGITAL MINUTES, DIGITAL SECONDS.
  • Bracelet material
  • Alligator leather strap
  • Buckle type
  • Pin Buckle
  • Buckle material
  • Titanium DLC
  • Retail Price
  • 159 000 € including 20% VAT

Urwerk UR-111C Iron

  • Description
  • Technical Specifications

In the URWERK tradition, none of the indications of the UR-111C watch are conventional: The minutes are shown in two different ways – linearly for eyes and digitally for precision. Never has a roller on the case performed the functions of the crown, nor have the running seconds meandered across a cluster of optical fibers. URWERK created a new interface with the watch. Instead of the conventional crown, they conceived a roller integrated into the top of the case.

Rolling the long fluted cylinder with your thumb to wind the watch is indeed a new sensation, but making it possible requires miniature gearing, complex articulations and intermediate wheels. The same applies to the original way of setting the time. Instead of pulling out a crown you swing out a lever from the side of the case and turn the roller in either direction. The hours and two versions of the minutes are displayed within glass sapphire covers along the side of the case so that you can see them at a glance without turning your wrist or letting go of the steering wheel.

  • Reference
  • UR-111C Iron
  • Limited edition
  • 25
  • Case material
  • steel
  • Case diameter
  • 42 x 46 mm
  • Case thickness
  • 15mm
  • Water resistance
  • 3atm
  • Winding
  • automatic
  • Power reserve
  • 48 hours
  • Frequency
  • 4Hz
  • Dial color
  • black
  • Dial material
  • aluminium
  • Functions
  • Jumping hours, retrograde linear minutes, digital minutes, digital seconds.
  • Bracelet material
  • aligator leather strap
  • Buckle type
  • pin buckle
  • Buckle material
  • titanium
  • Retail Price
  • 159 000 € including 20% VAT

News from URWERK

See all our news

Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter
Loading

Whatsapp message