Urwerk UR-100 spacetime watch reminds us that our individual worlds are part of a far greater universe

 

The distance our planet rotates each day, and the distance travelled by the Earth around the sun are two intriguing complications displayed in kilometres on the dial of the UR-100 by Urwerk, the creators of Haute Horlogerie “time machines”.

The UR-100 Haute Horlogerie timepiece is a fascinating work of horology, design, space and time created by Swiss watch manufacture Urwerk. Urwerk’s watch is the first timepiece to not only measure the time, but also the distance the Earth rotates each day, and the distance travelled by the Earth around the sun.

The shape of the case is reminiscent of some of Urwerk’s earlier watches such as the UR-101, and the UR- 102.

“We live in a universe governed by three dimensions — time, rotation, and orbit — that we attempt to measure and master, but what escapes us in this notion of SpaceTime,” explains Urwerk’s Co-Founder Felix Baumgartner.

The first indication, at 10 o’clock, displays the distance the Earth has rotated (For your information, the Earth rotates 555 km every 20 minutes), and the second indication, at two o’clock, shows the distance the Earth has travelled in its orbit around the sun (a journey spanning some 35,740 km every 20 minutes).

The UR-100 SpaceTime features URWERK’s iconic satellite display, differing in one significant way. After minute pointers on the hour satellites disappear, they pass between subsidiary dials to display astronomical indications: distance travelled on Earth and distance travelled by Earth.

These complications join Urwerk’s wandering hour satellites that have been revisited in this collection. They are powered by the automatic Calibre 12.01 with baseplates in ARCAP, a corrosion-resistant alloy; a flat turbine rotor regulation system; and a power reserve of 48 hours.

As Martin Frei, Urwerk Co-Founder and Designer explained, “the case of the UR-100 is a deconstruction of an early URWERK case…I constantly question the diktat of symmetry and played with proportions to catch the eye.”