Our Take

In 2019, we celebrated Urwerk’s launch of the UR-100— the brand’s smallest and slimmest watch to date— with a collector gathering in Boston. The model by Felix Baumgartner and Martin Martin Frei was an instant home run, and so are all the other iterations of the watch from the Blue Planet to the “C3PO” to the carbon-forged C52. With the release of the UR-100V Ultraviolet at Geneva Watch Days 2022, Urwerk adds another stunner to the growing list of exciting UR-100’s

We were fortunate enough to see this timepiece in the metal in Geneva. True to Urwerk form, Martin and Felix were focused on pushing the limits, this time the limits of the human eye. Because ultraviolet colors are imperceptible (the visible color spectrum ranges from red to violet) the idea behind this timepiece was to create a watch that visually sits at the boundary of the perceptible and imperceptible. Its color makes this timepiece difficult to capture with both images and words. The purple can appear extremely dark or extremely light depending on the lighting, sometimes matte, sometimes glossy. In terms of experimenting with the tipping point of color, this is what “mission accomplished” looks like.

Created in a titanium case in violet, sand-blasted DLC coating, the UR-100V Ultraviolet ties into the brand’s iconic space-age aesthetics, one will notice the luminova tipped hand on the satellite time indicator pokes through 10 and 2 o’clock to reveal time’s most intimate companion: distance. At both locations on the dial, this timepiece’s owner can see the distance the earth has traveled on its rotation (555km) and the distance the earth has revolved around the sun (35,740km). For the thinking human, this is a decidedly philosophical watch to reflect on our position in the cosmos.

As for wearability, it’s not often a topic of discussion with modern independent watches. Pushing the boundaries of design doesn’t always mean easy to wear. Yet with the UR-100V Ultraviolet, this is the easiest to wear of any Urwerk timepiece without any doubt. As the brand’s most modestly sized timepiece, 14mm in thickness and 41mm wide, collectors with smaller wrists have a lot to celebrate. With all of the emblems of Urwerk’s innovative approach to horology and an amazing fit on the wrist, this timepiece is bound to become another classic in the brand’s work at the cutting edge of horology.

The Details

Urwerk UR-100V Ultraviolet

Diameter: 41mm × 49.7mm Thickness: 14mm Case Material: Sanded shot-blasted titanium with violet-tone DLC Dial Color: Violet Lume: Yes, Super-LumiNova Water Resistance: 30 meters Strap/Bracelet: Textured rubber strap, with titanium pin buckle Caliber: UR 12.02 Functions: Satellite hours, minutes; Earth's rotation on its axis at the equator in 20 minutes; Earth's revolution around the sun in 20 minutes Power Reserve: 48 hours Winding: Automatic, with Windfänger airscrew Frequency: 28,800 vph / 4 Hz Jewels: 40 Chronometer Certified: N/A Additional Details: Decorations include circular graining, sanding, shot-blasting, circular satin finishing, chamfered screw heads