In the November 2019 issue of Calibre Magazine, we featured the latest brainchild of Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei in the UR-100 SpaceTime, a watch that literally takes the owner through a journey through both dimensions. As we all know, we are all passengers on this blue ball of a spaceship we call Earth, hurling around the sun and traveling several billion kilometers per year while simultaneously spinning a rate of 30 kilometers per second. This is our journey that the UR-100 simulates on its dial.

As Urwerk’s designer and co-founder Martin Frei puts it, a watch is both a physical and conceptual representation of our position on the rotating Earth, fixing us at an exact time and longitude. 

The Urwerk UR-100 SpaceTime is all about bringing your spin through space in sharp focus. When the minutes hand has completed its 60-minute journey, it reappears on a 20-minute scale of 555 kilometres. This is the distance you travel in 20 minutes if you are standing on the equator of our rotating planet. The opposite scale tracks your journey through space around the sun: 35,740km every 20 minutes.

Under the UR-100’s dome, URWERK’s calibre 12.01 movement drives the carousel carrying the hours on three satellites that travel in succession along a 60-minute scale. Each is forged from anodised aluminium then sanded and shot-blasted. The satellite screws are each circular sanded. The satellites rest on a carousel of sanded brass plated in ruthenium. The structure on top of the hours display is in sanded and shot-blasted aluminium. The bi-directional selfwinding rotor of the UR-100 is governed by a profiled airscrew known as the Windfänger.

The UR-100 Gunmetal joins the previous two collections (steel+titanium and steel with black PVD+titanium) launched late last year. Similarly, only 25 pieces will be available in this Gunmetal PVD finish.