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*extract from The Peak Dec 2011
INFINITY AND BEYOND
It's no longer enough for a watch to keep track of the hours, date, moon phase or even the leap year. Not for Urwerk, anyway. The independent watch brand has created an ultra-modern pocket watch, limited to just eight pieces, which marks the passage of time from the watch's first second to it's 1000th years.
Flip open the cell phone-like UR-1001 and you'll see two indicators that works like odometers. The former counts up to 10 decades in a round subdial on the top tight corner. hitting its limit activates the second indicator, where an arrow slowly moves up the gauge for every century that goes by. To make sure you keep with it maintenance, Urwerk has thoughtfully included an "oil change" indicator to remind its wearer when servicing is due every five years.
This reminder is actually an trademark of the Swiss watchmaker and it's not the only familiar component in UR-1001. The face of th watch shows off the Hour Satellite Complication below, where three cube-shaped "satellites" track the hours as they move around a central carousel and rotate around a vertical axis over the course of the day. With the retorgrade minutes below and a second satellite mechanism for the annual calendar function above, they all come togther to create a future proof design.
"i believe it will last," says co-founder Felix Baumgartner, highlighting the use of highly durable materials such as aluminium titanium nitride and Arcap alloys that are impervious to magnetic fields. "Because of its unfathomably long lifespan, i think of UR-1001 as the mother shop of Urwerk's fleet."
Beside proving that pocket watches don't have to look antiquated, Urwerk has devised a time capsule that cna be passed down for 50 generations.
INFINITY AND BEYOND
It's no longer enough for a watch to keep track of the hours, date, moon phase or even the leap year. Not for Urwerk, anyway. The independent watch brand has created an ultra-modern pocket watch, limited to just eight pieces, which marks the passage of time from the watch's first second to it's 1000th years.
Flip open the cell phone-like UR-1001 and you'll see two indicators that works like odometers. The former counts up to 10 decades in a round subdial on the top tight corner. hitting its limit activates the second indicator, where an arrow slowly moves up the gauge for every century that goes by. To make sure you keep with it maintenance, Urwerk has thoughtfully included an "oil change" indicator to remind its wearer when servicing is due every five years.
This reminder is actually an trademark of the Swiss watchmaker and it's not the only familiar component in UR-1001. The face of th watch shows off the Hour Satellite Complication below, where three cube-shaped "satellites" track the hours as they move around a central carousel and rotate around a vertical axis over the course of the day. With the retorgrade minutes below and a second satellite mechanism for the annual calendar function above, they all come togther to create a future proof design.
"i believe it will last," says co-founder Felix Baumgartner, highlighting the use of highly durable materials such as aluminium titanium nitride and Arcap alloys that are impervious to magnetic fields. "Because of its unfathomably long lifespan, i think of UR-1001 as the mother shop of Urwerk's fleet."
Beside proving that pocket watches don't have to look antiquated, Urwerk has devised a time capsule that cna be passed down for 50 generations.
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