INTRODUCING: Urwerk UR-100V ‘Full Black Titanium Jacket’
The cerebral, astronomically inspired time-teller with integrated bracelet and in the shade that never fades.
The fervour for luxury watches with integrated bracelets appears to have well and truly caught up with Urwerk. The fiercely avant-garde independent brand addressed calls for this niche of timepieces last year with the UR-100V ‘Full Titanium Jacket’ and wasted no time with a follow-up in the UR-100V ‘Full Black Titanium Jacket’ this year.
A brand that delights in blowing our minds as they challenge us with new and novel ways to display time, Urwerk is famous for sci-fi-looking timepieces that feature a unique rotary satellite display system that employs anything from rotating cubes and telescopic hands to display the time. More often than not, however, these futuristic horological objets d’art are complemented by leather or fabric straps. Now that we have seen UR-100V paired with metal bracelets, it seems curious that typically classic leather or casual fabric straps were the preferred options on earlier Urwerk models, given how metal bracelets appear more stylistically in sync with the brand’s space-age aesthetics.
“From my first sketches for Urwerk until the present day, I have always envisioned and designed our creations on a metal bracelet. The latter is an extension of the watch around the wrist, and in my mind, it complements the design perfectly,” explains Martin Frei, the brand’s co-founder and chief designer.
If so, the UR-100V models with integrated bracelets certainly do a great job at manifesting Frei’s original vision. The UR-100V ‘Full Titanium Jacket’ from 2021 was sheathed in all-grey with sand-blasted case and bracelet. The new UR-100V ‘Full Black Titanium Jacket’ is its more badass cousin, also radiating monochromatic chic, but this time, as the name suggests, in a cool and enigmatic raven hue.
Like before, the case and bracelet on the new model are made of titanium. Here, they are treated with black DLC. Complemented by a similarly coloured dial with white markers and neon green accents, the UR-100V ‘Full Black Titanium Jacket’ is very Urwerk – a forthright and unabashed expression of its ultramodern approach to contemporary watchmaking.
Indeed, the UR-100 series that was introduced in 2019 is conceptually and technically far-out. A watch that could “measure both time and space”, the UR-100 boasts a carousel system that displays the hours, along with three arrow hands at the bottom of the dial. The three arrow hands rotate and take turns to mark the minutes, the distance travelled around the equator in 20 minutes (Earth’s rotation), and the distance Earth travels around the Sun in 20 minutes (Earth’s revolution). A metal arc across the top half of the watch bears markings on the left and right to denote rotation and revolution distances, respectively.
At the same time, the UR-100 is lauded by fans as one of Urwerk’s most elegant and wearable creations. This notion is echoed throughout the UR-100V ‘Full Black Titanium Jacket’ with its lightweight alloy and supple bracelet.
"Our goal was to make the most comfortable watch to wear,” says Felix Baumgartner, Urwerk’s co-founder and master-watchmaker. “The UR-100V ‘Full Black Titanium Jacket’ is a perfectly ergonomic watch. Its bracelet is ultra-light and incredibly soft against the skin. It’s a bracelet synonymous with pleasure.”
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