Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green Edition Watch Review
The Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green Edition perpetuates the Swiss marque’s fondness for enunciating time using a wandering hour display. On this occasion, the brand’s co-founders, Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, have embraced verdant hues, or ‘Hunter Green’ as the creative duo prefers to say, delivering another stunning timepiece.
Independent watchmaking
Where on earth do you start with Urwerk, Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner’s horological offspring? There’s a humour and light-heartedness to their watches that’s rare in Haute Horlogerie, yet they’re obsessive and focused about their design and making. They both seem determined to design and build unconventional watches, yet at the same time enjoy seeing how far they can push traditional mechanical watchmaking techniques. In the same way, glance at an Urwerk and you’ll probably struggle to work out the time. Spend a few minutes interacting with the watch and it becomes as intuitive as a conventional three-hander.
It’s against this background and philosophy that the two men launched the first UR-100V Magic T in 2023. You can see how the DNA of the brand’s earlier watches led to this model. For a start, the triple carousel time indicator, an approach employed on the first UR-satellite models, is still evident, albeit it has since evolved. Over the years, the UR-satellite collection has been presented in a number of executions.
Urwerk UR-100V
Since 2023, the UR-100V has gone through more incarnations than Dr Who (rather more successfully too – sorry, Whovians) before arriving at the current Hunter Green model. We’ve had plain (these things are relative) titanium and steel cases, titanium and steel black DLC cases, all-titanium, bronze and even a model that an Aztec Tlatoani would have loved – the copper-shrouded UR-100V Time and Culture.
Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green – a new colourway
The Hunter Green takes the titanium-cased route again, but rather than going full-on Kermit, like the earlier UR-100 SpaceTime with its fully green scale and numerals, the Hunter Green is more restrained.
You actually get two shades of green on the Hunter. The first is on the carousel pointers and at the 60 minute mark on the dial-base minute track. This is a vibrant, full-on, highlighter green. Flip the watch over and you will see the exposed movement, partially dressed in a far more restrained, almost teal, ash green. This hue features on some of the bridges and the splendidly-named ‘Windfänger airscrew’ (more of that later). And, contrasting with the grey of the titanium case and bracelet, the colour works a treat.
Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green – case and bracelet
The choice of material doubtless caused much frustration for Urwerk’s case and bracelet maker. Titanium is beautiful, but due to its notable hardness, it has a habit of devouring tools while being machined or milled. Machining those striations on the case sides and cutting 32 separate bracelet links will have also proved challenging.
The technical wizardry required, as well as the character of the metal, make titanium a thoroughly appropriate material for the UR-100V. Like the watch itself, it offers more than is apparent. At first glance, it looks flat grey. Not unpleasant, but definitely the support act for the green highlighting and black movement components. But angle the watch to the light and the shot/sandblasted surface appears almost iridescent. That’s because titanium oxidises – even at room temperature – with a non-porous oxide layer. Because of the way the oxide refracts, the ‘grey’ metal comes to life with colour as light moves across it. Neatly, it’s self-healing too; scratch the surface and the oxide reforms, protecting the metal underneath.
The case is 41 mm across, nearly 50 mm long and a walloping 14 mm deep. The numbers don’t quite tell the story, though. Turn the case sideways and you realise that a good chunk of the depth is down to the domed sapphire crystal, so it wears – and appears – slimmer.
It’s not a case design you’ll see anywhere else. It’s laterally asymmetrical with its crown at 12 and sharply angled, integrated bottom lugs – almost with shades of designer Giovanni Moro’s PRS40 military watch. Having the crown at 12 means you could wear your UR-100V either way round on your wrist, so you could orient the minute track to run right to left (as intended) or from left to right. That’s as long as the ‘UR-100’ engraving on the central bracelet link being upside down doesn’t bother you.
The caseback is screwed on (rather than in), a favourite technique around here as it removes any torsional distortion or strain on the seal. There’s a useful 30 m of water-resistance, so you won’t need to fuss about wearing your watch unless you fancy some pro-level scuba diving.
Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green – Calibre UR 12.02
Inside is the Calibre UR 12.02, developed on a Vaucher base (the earlier UR 12.01 was built on a Zenith Elite). Sometimes people are sniffy about movements that have a ‘base’, but the prejudice doesn’t really stack up – and certainly not in this case. The Calibre UR 12.02 is ‘developed’ in the same way that the 300 bhp, twin cam, aluminium-headed, intercooled, T3B turbocharged Cosworth YBB was ‘developed’ from the Ford Pinto. There’s been a huge amount of watchmaking nous and innovation invested.
Take the Windfänger airscrew mentioned earlier; it’s great fun to watch it spin, but it has a functional purpose too. It’s designed to create air resistance as the self-winding rotor spins, working like a tiny air‑brake. Slowing the rotor stops the wobble you get with some auto weights, is smoother and saves the bearings too.
The automatic movement runs at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) and will carry on doing so for 48 hours before it needs a wind. The triple baseplates that form the foundation of the display are cut from ARCAP alloy – so they’re hugely strong as well as being resistant to corrosion and magnetism. After that titanium case, it’s also mercifully easier to work with.
Finishing is of the highest quality with circular graining and satin finishing as well as sand-blasting and shot-blasting.
Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green – satellite-type wandering hours
Where conventional watches separate the movement and time indication, the two are integrated with the Calibre UR 12.02. Three hour discs, each resting upon a beryllium-bronze Geneva cross, are marked with hour values (1, 4, 7 and 10, then 2, 5, 8 and 11, finally 3, 6, 9 and 12).
So why are the hours arranged non-sequentially on the discs? All three hour discs move together clockwise, with the green-tipped pointer, near the arcing track, moving from right to left to indicate the minutes while at the same time displaying the prevailing hour. As the pointer reaches the end of the minute track ie ’60’, the next hour disc moves into place and lines up with ‘0’ ready to take over time-telling duties.
Once you get the hang of a different way to tell the time, it’s easy to do so with just a glance, despite all the activity on the dial.
But that’s not enough for Urwerk. They’ve found handy jobs for the two redundant, but still rotating, arms of the satellite mechanism. One tracks the Earth’s rotation over 20 minutes (555 km, since you asked) and the other shows the distance the Earth moves around the Sun in the same period (35,740 km). Neither is any practical use whatsoever, but they’re all the more glorious for it.
You can even keep an eye on how far the planet has moved at night (as well as telling the time) as the hours and minutes are painted with Super-LumiNova.
Closing remarks
Do you need to know how far the planet has spun in the last 20 minutes? Nope. Do you need to use three Geneva crosses to indicate the time, using rotating discs? Unlikely. Will Urwerk have a queue out of the door for the 35 Hunter Green Magic Ts it is making? Absolutely.
Further reading
Technical specifications
- Model: Urwerk UR-100V Magic T Hunter Green
- Case: sandblasted and shotblasted titanium, width 41.0 mm, length 49.70 mm, thickness 14 mm, water resistance 3 ATM (30 metres), sapphire crystal to the front
- Functions: satellite hours, minutes, rotational distance at the equator in 20 minutes, orbital distance in minutes
- Movement: Calibre UR 12.02, automatic movement, frequency 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 40 jewels, power reserve 48 hours
- Strap: titanium bracelet with 32 sandblasted and shot-blasted links
- Price: CHF 58,000 excluding taxes (RRP as of 29.1.2025)