Last year, Urwerk celebrated its 20th anniversary, and the designers returned to an original source of inspiration: Manhattan. The Art Deco style of two of New York's most iconic skyscrapers, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, heavily influenced the case design, notably the long, octagonal shape and deep channels. On the wrist, just the hour and a minutes scale are visible. When you open the top of the case, you'll see the fascinating movement, which uses four satellite discs to tell the hours. As the hour passes, the discs rotate past the minute scale.
Details
Company | Urwerk |
Price ($) | 68,000 |
Price range | < $100,000 |
Gender | Unspecified |
Complications | Retrograde Hours Minutes |
Water Resistance | 30m |
Movement | Automatic |
Power Reserve Range (hours) | 24 - 48 |
Power Reserve | 48 hours |
Case Size | Large (>39mm) |
Case Diameter (mm) | 40x53 |
Case Height (mm) | 17 |
Case Colour | Stainless Steel |
Case Material | Stainless Steel |
Caliber | UR-5.03 |
Reference Number | UR-105 CT IRON |
It can take a while to wrap your head around an Urwerk movement and for the firm's co-founders, Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, that is the point. They deepen the relationship between wearer and watch and create innovative movements and complications that require you to think and, in some pieces, choose how you interact with the piece. The Swiss brand's artisans test the boundaries of horology at workshops in Geneva and Zurich but its timepieces find their way to wearers in all corners of the earth.Though its Historical collection may suggest an adherence to tradition, the timepieces of this line are futuristically complex in both appearance and movement. A world first, the Opus 5 model displays a service indicator on its back and the C3H5N309 (the chemical formula for Nitroglycerine) presents polygons that rotate eccentrically rather than centrally. The Satellite, Chronometry and Special Projects collections astound with equal aesthetic and technical complexity, upholding the innovation that permeates the brand.