urwerk
http://www.urwerk.ch

URWERK SA
34 rue des Noirettes
CH ?1227 Carouge GE
Tel + 41 22 900 20 25
Fax + 41 22 900 20 26
time@urwerk.ch

The great artist Marcel Duchamp ?certainly not a hidebound thinker ?has already raised the question: what will watches look like in 200 years?

URWERK is a young Geneva-based creative team who moved a step further towards answering this exciting question. The third watch in their avant-garde collection is the model UR-103. As watchmakers, URWERK have a trademark principle: that the travelling hour is the sole and sufficient indicator of time on the dial. The UR-103抯 futuristic design is a wholehearted endorsement of the "hands-off" principle.

There are no hands - only the hour figure traversing its arc across the watch face, as the sun does over our visible horizon. In any one hour, the sweep of the relevant digit simultaneously gives precise information on how many minutes have "passed" over the same period.


The UR-103
URWERK's most recent creation is the model UR-103. A futuristic timepiece, its almost rectangular, solid gold case is wrought from a block of the precious metal. The design is completely different from the previous watches. The aerodynamic cross-section of an idealized wing profile looks great on the wrist and is a work of figurative art in itself. It can also be further personalized by engraving on the top or sides. According to Marcel Duchamp, again, it is a futuristic symbiosis of two dimensions: time and space. It is also true to the archaic principle of tracing exact time simply by the path travelled by a single pointer.

The truly gigantic crown at the "12 o'clock" position is an eye-catching ?and highly unusual ?style element. Like a rocket engine, the crown is the watch抯 power source, because it is used to wind the movement up to its 42-hour reserve. As another "first" in the URWERK Collection, the display field for the "travelling hour" is closer to the viewer, having been shifted to the lower edge of the case. Combined with the display position, this makes discreet, easier reading of the time possible. There is no need to turn the wrist towards the body to do this. Another innovation are the three separate display fields on the underside of the watch, which cannot be seen when it is worn. Under sapphire glass, this control centre or dashboard has second hands, a 15-minute revolution, the power reserve and the unique running control.


The Movement UR-03.1
The back of the watch, not visible while on the wrist, contains three separate display fields under sapphire glass. This is the watch's control centre or "dashboard". It has hands for the seconds, a 15-minute revolution and incorporates the power reserve. All you could possibly need to set the time shown on the watch - to the second.

The 103's inner mechanics are "different". Felix Baumgartner invented a rotating element, which keeps and guides the four cone shaped hour discs. Each one of them supports three figures; the 1, 5 and 9 are on the first disc, the 2, 6 and 10 on the second, the 3, 7 and 11 on the third and the 4, 8 and 12 on the fourth.

As the UR-103 is so much bigger than its predecessors the UR-101 and 102, this arrangement improves the weight distribution between the rotating element driven by the minute wheel and the hour discs. Absolute synchronism is thus assured. This arrangement has also allowed the designer Martin Frei to locate the figures on the flanks of the chamfered hour discs, at a helpful angle to the display scale, which is in turn slightly angled towards the wearer. Thus the figures can be seen without difficulty ?a convenience of use far superior to any conventional watch.

The UR-103 is powered by a decorated C魌es de Gen鑦e, 21600-beat precision manual winding movement that has a power reserve of 42 hours when fully wound. The additional platins for the complications, mentioned above are crafted in blackened arcap. This new material ensures absolute stability, precision and no tensions. The movement can be accessed through a port secured with titanium screws at the back of the case. The watch is waterproof to a depth of 30 metres.

Precision adjustment of the UR-103
The 103's unique precision adjustment function is an all-time first. Next to the seconds display is a regulating screw with finely engraved subdivisions. This will tweak the watch forward or back 30 seconds in a 24-hour period. A precision coupling links this device directly to the watch's own regulating organ, thus ensuring safe handling.


THE POWER OF INVENTION
URWERK ?The Company

Revolutionary initiatives have always come from small, independent, original thinkers. URWERK is thus an example of a new freedom with regard to time. It marks a return to the fundamentals - beyond time.

The cornerstone of the URWERK philosophy is to create the precision and quality of mechanical watches, inspired by the intentions of the pioneers in this art, yet shaped by the spirit of our times. The goal is to expand the borders of tradition to offer an exclusive experience of time.

The highest mechanical precision, along with exquisite hand-craftsmanship expressed in intricate detailing, make each watch a unique piece of art. Both the form and the functional concept of URWERK present a contemporary and unconventional way to connect past, present and future.


The word UR in URWERK
In German language the word Ur represents something ancient, original, basic. Its etymological root goes back to Ur, the first city of mankind, founded (circa 4000 BC). The ancient city of Ur is located in the south of today's Iraq and was a centre of wonderful and highly advanced material and moral culture a few thousands of years before the rise of Greek and Roman civilizations. Ur is mentioned in the bible as the home of Abraham, recognized by Muslims, Christians and Jews as the father of prophets. Among the most important remains of the first dynasty, which has revealed a luxurious material culture, is the Temple of Ninhursag at Ubaid, bearing the inscriptions of the kings of the first dynasty.


The Citizens of Ur where early astronomers and "watchmakers"
In Ur, numerous annual and monthly festivals were held, including a feast to celebrate the first sighting of the New Moon. To the Sumerians, the month began with the emergence of the New Moon in the heavens and ended with its disappearance at the next New Moon.

The months were about 30 days long, with the first quarter occurring on the 7th, and the Full Moon on the 15th. This resulted in 12 months or moon cycles occurring each year, which resulted in a year of 354 days. They also divided the day into 12 periods, and further divided these periods into 30 parts, (4 minute increments). The Sumerians erected four sided monuments called Obelisks to act like sundials. By watching the moving shadows, they were able to mark off high noon as well as the solstices, (June 21st and December 23rd) and equinoxes, (March 21st and September 23rd). They built large observatories or watchtowers called "Ziggurats" in the temple complex of their city to study celestial phenomena. The Sumerian astrologer looks at the sky with eyes of an artist. If he sees a planet rising in the powerful solar halo, he will see a jewel in the crown of the Sun.


THE FIRST UR 101 DATES BACK TO 1656

Looking for a way to convert his philosophy of time into a new generation of chronometry, Thomas Baumgartner, the initiator of URWERK, came across a remarkable historical forerunner.

In 1656 the Campanus brothers had built a night clock for Pope Alexander XII. In a total innovation, they replaced the then conventional hands with hour figures on rotating discs, which performed a semicircular arc across the clock face. The correct figure appeared at the start of each new hour. It then moved clockwise across the arc of the dial and, depending on its progress, simultaneously marked the quarter or half-hour, which had just passed. Alexander's night pendulum clock was illuminated by an oil lamp so that the pope could see the time in the dark. The concept is that the moving hour display keeps an almost metaphorical count of the passing minutes as it sweeps along the hourly arc.

The Campanus clock inspired Martin Frei to design URWERK's first wristwatch, the model UR-101. All you see on the dial, which is finely grooved by hand, is this segment of a semicircle under sapphire glass. The glass rests on an otherwise bold and futuristic case, of yellow gold. The whole case is rounded like a beach pebble. Only the underside of the case bears visible lugs for connecting the strap. The top strap lug is concealed under the case.
This avoids spoiling the case's harmonious round shape, but also shifts the watch on one side into a slightly skewed position vis-?vis the wearer.

This construction makes it easier to see the time at a discreet glance. Great importance has been attributed to this almost reflex action ?and still is today. Indeed, the purpose of the new chronometric culture shared by URWERK抯 watchmaking team is precisely to counter the fixation on time of the present age, in which the watch is commonly used as an actual threat in social intercourse - as external reinforcement of the ubiquitous phrase "I haven't time".

Nevertheless, it took an immense amount of effort and ingenuity to produce a wristwatch with no hands, which shows the time in its most vivid and fleeting form, based on the model of a 17th-century pope's night clock. The makers first had to come up with a design that completely overturned previous methods of displaying the time on watches. To some extent the face itself, or at least one-twelfth of its area, assumes the role of both hour and minute hand, relying on a single visible hour figure to per-form this dual role. This means the path travelled by the displayed hour digit must be long enough for the person wearing the watch to see, at a glance, the minute gradation within the main unit of measurement, the hour.

This spectacular time display principle is comparable to the patterns of movement of the constellations. One familiar example is the apparently semicircular course of the sun above the horizon as we see it on Earth.

Just as the position of the sun can be used as an indicator of time, so also the first Urwerk watch, the Ur-101, and now the actual model UR-103, both use this principle. The unit of measurement represented by each sweep of the display arc is not the day, but the hour. Auxiliary markers then subdivide the hour. Simplicity is always a stroke of genius.


THE INVENTION

The movement of UR-101 and 102 was to be powered by an automatic system, making the most of the mechanical precision now achievable. First, Felix and Thomas Baumgartner decided that the minute wheel of their basic movement would complete a rotation every two hours, instead of the standard rotation once every 60 minutes.

Based on this 120-minute rotation, they designed and made a rotating bridge just 2 mm high instead of the usual one-hour hand system. At both ends, there is a rotating hour disc for the odd and even hour figures. The hour discs are each firmly linked to Geneva stops. A drive stud, fitted to the bottom, moves the hour discs one place forward with each completed rotation. That is the secret of the correct hour figure, which always shows in the face segment.

The two discs for odd and even numbers perform one complete revolution every two hours, and alternate every 60 minutes to appear in the window. A mask with two holes accompanies them, to ensure that only the displayed hour is visible as the single, travelling indicator of the time. Special devices and hi-tech materials such as Teflon position the whole structure so that it can work reliably even when operated on the arm.


URWERK's "genetic code"
That is how the "genetic code" of the URWERK principle was discovered. It is a basic type of chronometry with an almost archaic flavour. URWERK is the brainchild of Thomas Baumgartner. In 1995 he moved to Geneva, watch capital of Western Switzerland, and began to think seriously for himself about opening a new chapter in chronometry. Two years later the first prototypes of the 101 where ready. The case was solid gold, wrought from the complete block. The movement was automatic, and of elaborate finesse, though of course invisible.

URWERK is one of around twenty members of Acad閙ie Horolog鑢e des Cr閍teurs Ind閜endants (AHCI), an association of independent watchmakers founded by Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese. The Acad閙ie gives young watchmakers an expert panel of kindred spirits. It also has an opportunity to exhibit in Basle every year.

Hardly to the surprise of the young inventors and designers themselves, the exclusivity immediately appealed primarily to a young clientele. That was precisely their intention: to create a new form of timekeeping for future generations, who want to be able to afford to be generous with their own time. Instead of the hasty peep at the wrist, which has so incisively altered our lives, now it is the turn of the deliberate, straight gaze at the watch.

A unique experience of time is the essence of URWERK's philosophy.


UR-101/102

The original model 101 came in three gold variants. Why the 102 was known in-house as "Sputnik"? The "Nightwatch" has already sold out.

The small URWERK team handcraft all their timepieces in their Geneva atelier. URWERK manufactures watches, which show the time in a unique way. The system of measuring time, it is almost archaic, if not archetypal, being reminiscent of the sun's path over our visible horizon.

The original concept watch was exhibited for the first time in 1997, at the World Watches, Clocks and Jewellery Fair in Basle. Under sapphire glass, the hour display travels clockwise along a semicircular path. Auxiliary points mark the quarters and half-quarters. The shape of its case was inspired by Han Solo's famous spacecraft, the Millennium Falcon. Every watch, as an object, is travelling trough space and time, while informing its owner about his actual position in the continuum.


UR-101
The 101 is driven by a 28 800-beat, modified automatic movement of elaborate finesse, with 21 rubies and a power reserve of 44 hours when fully wound. The time shown is adjustable via the crown. The movement comes in a case of solid, 18-carat yellow gold, with white gold (Pd150) and red gold (5N) as options. An asymmetrical arrangement of the strap lugs puts the watch in a convenient position, skewed towards the wearer. The screw crown and screw-in watch back, marked with the consecutive serial number, is guaranteed waterproof to a depth of 30 metres. The 101 has sold out.


UR-102
URWERK used the technical and functional base of the 101 to develop its successor, the 102. Above all it was design, which made this model distinctive from the outset. The case was available optionally in stainless steel. Inspired by the technical and cultural change of the 1960s, the watch was dubbed "Sputnik" - after the first successful Russian satellite, the spherical, artificial heavenly body, with jutting antennae, buffed to a mirror-like sheen. Designer Martin Frei marked this association with Sputnik through the strap lugs, which consist of four horns.The 102 has sold out.


UR-102/Nightwatch
A variant of the 102, called the "Nightwatch", had a black, ceramic anodised aluminium case with platinum back and luminous hour figures. It has sold out.


UNIQUE PIECES

The "Star Diamond"
A one-off version of the 101, was transformed by the well-known engraver Jean Vincent Huguenin into a masterpiece of the watchmaking art, with traditional hand-etched geometric patterns on the top and sides of the case. In addition, the watch was set with 142 Top Wesselton (10 times pure white) 3.06 carats diamonds.

The UR 101/ Star Diamond shows the limitless possibilities of customizing URWERK timepieces, using the generous blank surfaces of the case.

URWERK will be present
at BASELWORLD - 15-22 April 2004
Hall 5.1 / Stand B01 (AHCI)