Schwarzes Brett » Urwerk UR-100V “T-Rex”

You can call Urwerk watches by many names, but shy or conservative aren’t part of this words. Daring, bold, provocative, futuristic, unusual, these are perfect ways to describe these complex and avant-garde creations. Apart from the watches inspired through sci-fi as well as space exploration, one of the most striking models ever was the UR-105 T-Rex, a textured, patinated bronze reptile that, incidentally, also displays the time, in classic Urwerk style. This design is back, this time in the brand’s latest creation, with the new UR-100V T-Rex.

As said, bronze was used for the first time simply by Urwerk within 2016, with the UR-105 - back then, the simplest model in the collection. At first, the use of this metal, which somehow represents the past and also antique objects, doesn’t really make sense within the context of ultra-modernism usually presented by simply Urwerk. But the brand likes to do things in a different way. Bronze isn’t used here to bring a vintage diver’s watch idea but to make an object with a more organic look, a more primal attraction, which is reinforced by the unusual texture of the case.

Now, inside 2022, the brand introduces this same design concept on its new classic model, the UR-100V T-Rex. Presented throughout 2019, this particular watch is a sort of back to basics, the actual “essential” Urwerk with a focus mostly on its signature display. Since its debut inside the 1990s, the particular independent brand created by Martin Frei along with Felix Baumgartner stands out with its radical, highly advanced designs and its original way to portray time. The idea of walking hours, like those on a sundial, is actually omnipresent. The stage was set from the very beginning using the creation of the UR101/102 displaying time on an arc. Then came typically the satellite period indication having a host associated with creative in addition to complex iterations… satellites, cams, transporters, turning cubes, telescopic hands, plus retrograde indications. But with often the UR-100, there was the intention to go back to the exact roots of the brand, with a display that echoed the first timepieces of Frei and Baumgartner.

The UR-100 features the very emblematic satellite time screen with orbital hour satellites. The red-tipped minute tips on the hour satellites disappear after 60 minutes, later replaced by the next hour. Yet, the red tip reappears on another part of the face, to display original astronomical signals: distance journeyed on Earth (at 10 o’clock) and distance travelled by means of Earth (at 2 o’clock).

As explained in our post on the first models: “Basically, it uses the speed regarding Earth at the equator or the Earth’s orbital speed around the sun to display the length travelled from these different perspectives with about 20 minutes. For instance, at the equator, the circumference of the Earth is 40, 070 km's, and the day is 24-hours long so the speed will be 1, 670 kilometres/hour. That gives you the 555. 55km gone in about 20 minutes by the indicator at 10 o’clock. In a similar fashion, the indication at 2 o’clock shows the distance Planet has always went around the sun, the journey occupying some 35, 740 kilometers every twenty minutes. Naturally, these additional ‘space-time’ signs won’t be of any practical use in everyday life (at least to me) but it’s more an invitation to dream that matches URWERK’s space-age universe quite well. ”

This year, the rand name brings back the UR-100V T-Rex idea with this brand new Urwerk UR-100V model, that only differs in terms of colours and materials. The 41mm width by 49. 7mm length case is made of bronze and PVD blackened titanium. The fermeté has undergone three successive treatments. The first lies in the main unusual composition of the alloy which results in a delicate patina. The actual bronze can now be in the hands of a computer-controlled milling station that carves the pattern of scales on the top and even sides of the watch case. The final processes, sand-blasting together with Urwerk’s proprietary method of biochemical burnishing, give the watch the distinctive colour. Finally, these types of bevelled pyramids are truncated and polished to present any surface that is pleasing to the touch.

The show is here exhibited a combination of dark colours -- black background and bronze-coloured moving elements : with bright yellow clues for maximum contrast. The watch is worn on a black alligator strap with solidité pin buckle.

The UR-100V T-Rex backside of the watch reveals the movement, the automatic calibre 12. 01. The particular drilled full rotor is usually regulated by a planetary flat turbine in order to minimise shocks to the rotor bearing and to reduce wear and tear. A traditional URWERK feature, the baseplates are in ARCAP, a good alloy it does not contain iron and is not magnetic. Typically the calibre twelve. 01 beats at 28, 800 oscillations per hour as well as its power reserve is definitely 48 hours.