Prime Time: Urwerk UR-110

The wraps were removed from the latest Urwerk in Geneva earlier this year – it is a new interpretation of the planetary gear concept that has featured in Urwerk watches since UR-101 was unveiled at the Basel AHCI stand in 1997. Despite the usual rush to finish the sample pieces, both Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner were full of bounce and enthusiasm for the UR-110 project, being the most satisfying version yet. This is partly because of how fresh the idea still looks despite the 14 years since UR-101 was unveiled and partly because the balance between design and up-front horological virtuosity is so well played out.

If UR-110 looks superficially similar to its immediate predecessors, UR-200 and UR103, though, beware – surfaces are rarely what they seem in watchmaking and even apparently minor changes can lead to extensive re-engineering. UR-110 took Urwerk a shade under two years to take the watch from initial sketches to finished (or nearly so, given that Frei and Baumgartner are inveterate tinkerers), which, this being watches, is actually quite rapid.

The fundamental difference does seem to be more on Frei’s design side. Even the language has changed, “intergalactic millennium hammerheads” being traded for words like “space”, “proportion” and, without a trace of irony, “discretion”.

(Die-hard fans, fear not, the press release does start by describing the watch as having “arrow-shaped torpedoes flying in formation with the mission of indicating the time”).

The UR-110 continues Urwerk’s radical tradition of telling the time using orbiting satellite complications. In the UR-110, the time is always shown on the right-hand side of the watch. The satellites follow a vertical line, graded from 0 to 60 minutes, in a downward motion. The ingenuity of this layout lies in allowing the wearer to view the time discreetly and elegantly without the need to pull a cuff or sleeve back. 

The annual Salon QP watch showcase is on 11-12 November at the Saatchi Gallery. For more info visit qpmagazine.com