Urwerk
- Founded
- 1997
- Based in
- Geneva, Switzerland
- In our catalog
- 1 watch at $72,500
Urwerk makes watches that look like spacecraft. Instead of hands, most of its models show the time with numbered satellites that travel along a minute track, a system known as wandering hours. The cases are big, angular and finished like industrial machinery.
History
Watchmaker Felix Baumgartner and designer Martin Frei founded Urwerk in Geneva in 1997. Their first watch, the UR-101, took the old idea of a wandering hour display, used on 17th century night clocks, and put it in a modern case.
The UR-103 and later the UR-202, which added a "turbine" system to control the automatic winding, made the brand known. Urwerk produces only a few hundred watches a year and often works with very small runs and special materials.
Signature models
- UR-100V Magic T: A satellite-hour watch whose minute hand passes over the Earth's rotation and orbit distances, in titanium on a matching bracelet.
What it's known for
The satellite display, the Planetary Turbine automatic system that slows the winding rotor to reduce wear, and cases with a sci-fi look. Urwerk is one of the independents that defined modern avant-garde watchmaking along with MB&F.
Price and positioning
The UR-100V is the entry point, around $70,000. More complex models cost from $100,000 into the hundreds of thousands. Its peers are MB&F, Ressence and Richard Mille's more technical side.
Urwerk watches in our library
- Urwerk UR-100V Magic T ($72,500)