Urwerk UR-100V “Blue Planet”
The Urwerk UR-100V “Blue Planet” is the latest addition to the brand’s UR-Satellite collection. As its name suggests, it is dressed in blue and looks different from its siblings. Once again, the Swiss Maison shows that it doesn’t play it safe and shuns mediocrity. The result of its commercial bravery is a sublime avant-garde timepiece imbued with fine finishing, worthy of the term ‘Haute Horlogerie’.
Whenever any watch company releases a new product, there is an inherent risk that it may subsequently prove a flop. Large brands may use various types of market research, including focus groups, which in theory should mitigate the risk of commercial failure, however, there are no guarantees when it comes to new product launches.
Some brands choose to play it safe, reducing the chances of alienating the masses, but this can lead to mediocrity and tedious styling.
Thankfully, there are mavericks within the watch industry, often independent brands, that are willing to place all their chips on red and follow their gut instinct. As a watch journalist and avid self-confessed horophile, these are the companies that stir my soul and augment my passion for horology.
Urwerk is a perfect example of a brand that doesn’t subscribe to safe or follow the same path as other Maisons. Over the years, it has become known for its avant-garde creations with its UR-Chrometry collection, its UR-Special Projects and, lastly, its UR-Satellite models. While I am fan of each collection, it is the latter watches which appeal to me the most.
The UR-Satellite models were inspired by the work of the Campani brothers, back in the 16th century. They became know for making wandering-hour clocks and table night clocks for the Pope. Felix Baumgarter and Martin Frei, the two founders of Urwerk, took this basic concept and expended much time and effort creating wandering hour watches for a modern-day audience. In 1997, Urwerk released its first models, the UR-101 and UR-102, two highly ingenious watches, housed in round cases.
Since entering the world of fine watchmaking, the company has playfully worked with an array of shapes, colours and textures. It often chooses to showcase the satellites pirouetting around the case, imparting time with a wonderful sense of occasion.
In 2019, the Swiss marque unveiled two wholly new creations, the UR-100 SpaceTime and the UR-100 Iron. While both watches shared the same DNA, they looked different owing to the appearance of their titanium and steel cases.
With any brand, whenever a wholly new model is released it provokes discussion. However, if a watch firm unveils a model in a different colour or presents it in an alternative case material, the watch press invariably describes this as ‘an animation’. Unfortunately, these new models attract less attention, implying they are less important, but, if a new model proves the perfect ownership proposition for a particular client, it suddenly becomes significant to them. Put simply, don’t assume that so-called animations are simple to produce or without commercial risk.
Last year, the Maison unveiled the Urwerk UR-100 Gold Edition, housed in 18-carat yellow gold. By choosing to release this model, the esteemed brand, once again, demonstrated its willingness to take risks. The cost of commissioning a specialist firm to make 25 cases purely on a speculative basis would have been significant. Procuring several other components in gold would have further heightened the brand’s financial exposure, however, it was willing to take that step.
Later in 2020, the firm unveiled the Urwerk UR-100V Iron, similar to UR-100 Iron, but this time encompassing shades of blue. Once again, the brand produced new components, unique to the UR-100V Iron. Recently, the company released the Urwerk UR-100V T-Rex, another reminder that Baumgartner and Frei seldom sleep.
Now the Swiss firm has unveiled the Urwerk UR-100V “Blue Planet” in a limited series of 25 pieces. The case is presented in blue PVD steel, while the caseback is formed of titanium. This latter material is hypoallergenic, making it ideal for direct contact with the wearer’s skin. The plate, rotor, turbine, planet carrier and hand are treated with blue PVD.
Typical of all Urwerk’s creations, the finishing is of the highest order and worthy of the term ‘Haute Horlogerie’. Indeed, there is much substance behind the brand’s products and Urwerk has enjoyed much success over the years. I suspect the new Urwerk UR-100V “Blue Planet” will prove equally successful for the brand.
Price: 48,000 CHF (Swiss Francs excluding tax as at 2.4.2021)
The brand’s press release
With interplanetary imagination, science-fiction iconography and limitless creative freedom, URWERK has its roots in spatial horology. Using out-of-this-world graphic traits inherent to all URWERK timepieces, the UR-100V collection adds an astrophysical dimension.
The astronomical action takes place under a large observation dome, where, upon finishing indicating the minutes in the 0-to-60 arc along the bottom of the dial, the vivid green and yellow arrowhead hand (one of three) disappears – only to reappear at 9 o’clock to track the 555.55 kilometres the earth rotates at the equator every 20 minutes. The hand then reappears again at 3 o’clock to display a kilometre counter tracking 20 minutes of the earth’s revolution around the sun (35,742 kilometres).
Nearby
Blending form and function, calculation and imagery, and theory and actuality, the UR-100V is adorned in blue: blue for the steel case, blue for the atypical movement, blue for the orbital carousel. A blue recalling our planet earth.
The blue hue of the UR-100V “Blue Planet” is deep, dense, and matte. As URWERK’s designer Martin Frei explains: “When I create and when I paint, all colours resonate in me, but particularly blue. During my education at the Academy of Arts and Design in Lucerne, I had the chance to study the great Florentine artist Giotto. He was the first who, at the end of the Middle Ages, painted the sky blue — dethroning Byzantine gold — and launching the ‘realistic’ style of painting is normal today. I love the colour of Giotto’s blue sky; it’s the same sky as ours. Blue is a colour that surrounds us, that encompasses us. ”
Almost all of the elements of the movement, including the automatic rotor regulated by its Windfänger turbine and the entire satellite hour display system, are also blue – as are the technical canvas strap and buckle. The most visible screws are in flame-blued titanium using a technique unique to the Baumgartner family. “My father was cult-like in his devotion to the technique of bluing hands. His search for the perfect blue was his search for the Holy Grail. He tested countless types of sand and found his grail in Corsican sand, which we religiously brought back in our suitcases from vacations,” says watchmaker Felix Baumgartner.
Against this uniform blue background, the fluorescent yellow and green arrowhead hand is a shooting star.
Metaphorical
The color of the UR-100V “Blue Planet” tells the story of a trajectory transitioning between earth and space. “We have miniaturized and reinterpreted our solar system. We get lost in the depths of the rotating carousel of the UR-100V. It is a plunge into space, a fall into nothingness. It’s a new horological odyssey with our head in the stars and feet on the ground. It’s a reverie in blue,” concludes Felix Baumgartner.
Further reading