URWERK Watches: Luxury Timekeeping’s Land Of Tomorrow

URWERK watches are some of the most incredible creations of ultra-modern haute horlogerie today.  Quite difficult to express with words, the timepieces of this boundary-charging independent brand stand out for their unique implementation of mechanical watchmaking technique to express the time in ways never before conceived.

Take for example the URWERK UR-202 watch variants.  Forget anything you learned about humdrum time-telling on a watch dial.  Here, a Revolving Satellite Complication turns around the dial, bearing three number-bearing elements that revolve to present the hours; as each disc rotates to the differentiated lower segment of the dial–where the minutes scales lie, a unique telescoping rod precisely extends, adjusting its length as it passes to show the passage of minutes before slowly retracting as it rotates up and away.  Turning the watch over reveals two ovoid sapphire window that look  rather odd.  What are they?  These slightly alien apertures actually show miniature turbines which compress air to regulate the self-winding mechanism of the movement!

Slightly different but no less fascinating is URWERK’s UR-103 collection, whose totally unconventional dial is reminiscent of the amusement park “saucer” ride.  A cross bears four rotating satellites, each of which bears three sets of numbers (the hours, naturally).  The mechanism enables the satellites to rotate into position, so that as each leg of the cross traverses the lower segment of the dial, the correct hour (pointing downward) neatly moves along the minute scale, providing a totally unconventional yet very, very cool–and surprisingly intuitive–way to read the time.  The caseback holds other technical surprises, including a 15 minute totalizer, elapsed seconds, and a power reserve indicator.  There is even a “fine tuning” device which enables the owner to adjust the rate of his or her watch!

I love URWERK timepieces because they are uncompromising in their creative vision–quite unlike some aesthetically over-the-top watches whose “uniqueness” is merely skin deep.  URWERK watches reflect a focused concept of artistic watchmaking, and are true originals that stay away from “me too” mediocrity.   Perhaps the most telling testament to this excellence was selection of URWERK by Maximilian Büsser (then the creative director of Harry Winston) for the creative force behind 2005’s amazing Harry Winston Opus Five watch.