The latest and most likely the last version of the Urwerk UR-110

The latest and most likely the last
version of the Urwerk UR-110
By
Elizabeth Doerr
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With its most recent timepieces, Urwerk enhances
the relationship between humans and their devices.
The UR-110 in brushed titanium.
ne look at the blackened platinum Urwerk
UR110PTH, pictured on this month’s cover, and
you can see why Urwerk co-founder and head
watchmaker Felix Baumgartner calls this red-dial
final edition of the automatic 110 series “Urwerk’s
bad boy.”
Introduced in 2010, the 110 series features a case made of a titanium aluminum nitride alloy
time display on the right side of the watch,
which gives a completely new visual to the emblematic Urwerk satellite system.
“We are looking at a moving future at Urwerk,” Baumgartner says.
Half Man, Half Machine
This year, Baumgartner and Urwerk added not
only this reddened 110PTH, but the Genevabased independent brand also updated its
UR210 line, which debuted in 2012, adding a
(AlTiN) with a hardness of 3,500 Vickers.
“The 210 displays a relationship to its
owner,” Baumgartner said. “In a way, half
man, half machine.”
Its skeletonized retrograde aluminum hand
containing the hour numeral also indicates
the minutes: like magic, when the hand arrives
back at the start after the passing of an hour,
the numeral has inexplicably become that of
the following hour.
And there’s more. In a first for a wristwatch,
Left: Martin Frei’s drawings for the UR-110
Below left: The back of the UR-110 in platinum
& the UR-110 in red gold
Below: An exploded view of the complicated
satellite system underneath the UR-110’s extrathick sapphire crystal.
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the 210 monitors “the symbiotic relationship
between man and his mechanical watch,”
Baumgartner explains. A further evolution
of the automatic turbines that have graced
Urwerk’s recent movements allows this wristwatch to “communicate” with its owner. An indicator at the 11 o’clock position lets the wearer
know how much he or she is moving around.
How does the watch know this? Since the
kinetic motion of the wrist supplies an automatic movement’s rotor with energy to wind
the mainspring, it can be used to determine the
owner’s activity level. When Urwerk’s clever
indication shows red, it means the wearer is
not moving around enough to keep the mainspring supplied. If the hand is in the green area,
it means the current arm motion is sufficient to
keep the watch optimally wound.
Thus, in effect, your watch communicates
with you.
New model : EMC
But almost even more exciting than the
immediate present at Urwerk is its future,
exemplified by a prototype movement
shown under the table at the recent BaselWorld. The new movement will be officially launched in the fall within a brand new
watch destined to kick off a whole line
at Urwerk.
Called EMC, the new movement was devised by Baumgartner and his “U” research
division, a sort of experimental laboratory
within the dozen-strong company. This division is reserved for the craziest of projects–
mechanics that other watchmakers certainly only dream of. Thus far, this division has
brought forth the UR-CC1 King Cobra (limited to twenty-five pieces in white gold and
twenty-five in AlTiN) and the UR-1001 Zeit
Device (limited to just eight pieces).
The idea behind the EMC was one that has
long occupied Baumgartner’s brain and was
already detectable in the 210: the interactivity
between a mechanical watch and its wearer.
In this new caliber, Baumgartner has made
very real the idea that a watch could electronically determine its own rate and convey that
data to the owner immediately.
Like wearing a Witschi machine, which is
Q&A
Felix Baumgartner
Co-founder , Urwerk
By Andrew Daley
Forum Moderator, PuristSPro.com
How did you begin your career as a watchmaker?
I finished watchmaking school in the 1990s. At this time
all the complicated watches were very traditional with
multiple hands to display different aspects of time.
This was a period when Franck Muller was making the
most complicated pieces with multiple hands. We had
to stop and find another approach, with new values;
we wanted to follow a different path. My grandfather
worked with IWC and my father restored clocks and
I wanted something to keep me going for another
forty years!
I started working with Martin Frei, which in English
means free, and he is truly free. He creates movies,
conceptual art and architecture and he brought new,
free ideas to watchmaking. He provided me with the
possibilities to go in new directions.
In the beginning people did not understand what
we were trying to do. But we kept with our vision and
were sure that one day people would start to respect
and appreciate what we were creating. We persisted
and then in 2003 we released the 103 and people’s
eyes were opened. The control board on the rear was
a new idea for wristwatches with the ability to control
the watch from the outside, although the original idea
was used on clocks and pocket watches and is actually
a very old idea.
Can you describe the collaborative process
between yourself and Martin Frei?
I decide mostly on the mechanical and functional side.
Martin is the designer-artist, but I also contribute to
the design and sometimes Martin contributes to the
mechanics. It is a true collaboration. The technical
ideas come from my side and we Ping-Pong ideas
back and forth. Eventually we are both happy. And
then we pass our ideas to the engineers.
Then Dominic and Cyrano (whom I met in watchmaking school twenty years ago) develop the computer drawings. Then these go to our Atelier in Zurich
where we start to fashion parts on our CNC machines.
We have the ability to make most of our parts today
as well as the dials.
The only parts we get from specialist outside suppliers are screws and rubies. For the cylindrical hairspring
(spiral) we worked with a company to develop it for us.
A cylindrical hairspring is always balanced.
We have a team of fifteen people producing 150
watches per year. We have kept this number static
for the last six years. This is the right balance to pay
back our investments, to invest in the future, but not to
have a company structure that is too big. It is actually
a challenge to keep the company at this size because
everyone around us wants more. But I impose this
because between creation, innovation, sales and cash
flow this is the right balance. Many companies feel they
need to grow for financial reasons, but we are happy.
In Geneva we do assembly and communication.
Zurich is concept, construction and machining. I spend
a lot of time travelling between the two, but my family
is in Geneva.
Do you feel the pressure of deadlines and
how do you approach the watch fairs?
After fifteen years you develop a certain rhythm. We
do use the watch fairs, not so much to launch a new
product, but to have a goal for the whole team. We
could play our Ping-Pong game forever [laughing], but
the fairs allow us to finish the game at a point when we
are reasonably happy. At a certain moment someone
has to say: “let’s do it” and I say to the team “Basel
is coming!” and that focuses everyone on that goal.
The satellite display of time has been a focus
of Urwerk for fifteen years. Can you take
this design further?
Over the last fifteen years we have followed a consistent design with the revolving satellites. We do this
because it is a very simple and intelligent alternative
way to tell the time. With one glance you see the hour
as well as the minutes displayed. This idea came from
time spent with my father. He was restoring clocks and
I saw a clock without hands, a 1652 Companus Brothers
clock, which was designed to read the time at night.
We have done it only for fifteen years! Other companies have been making tourbillons for 200 years
[laughing]! This is something we like and we always
think we can push it further and adapt it to what is
technically possible today. So we continue to slowly
evolve. We now have four different models in our
lineup. [There was a fifth one in the very beginning
in the 101.] So every two to three years we introduce
a new satellite watch. And in between we come up
with other crazy designs. We have done the Cobra
(the CC-1), which is also a new development. In another year we will come out with a new approach to
watchmaking, not a different display of time telling.
We see the possibilities offered in the mechanics and
techniques of time telling.
You have had some famous collaboration
over the years. Is this something that you
plan more of?
I am open for collaborations with others but I don’t
go searching. We have enough to do. In 2001 we did
the Goldpfeil, in 2005 the Opus 5 and now the Nitro (C3H5N3O9) with MB&F. Max (Busser) and I met
through the 103. He was quite impressed with it and
we have continued the relationship since 2003. We
haven’t collaborated on an actual MB&F Machine, but
we did the Nitro with Max: MB&F made the case and we
designed the movement, the mechanical side. It was
a great exchange between the two of us because we
respect each other. Working with a different team is
very inspiring for all of us as it makes us think outside
our usual experiences.
How do you balance between traditional
horology and modern production?
We use a lot of ARCAP (a copper nickel alloy) that
is more stable than brass to machine. We also use a
lot of titanium, which is light. Much of our movement
requires lightness and strength. But mostly we use
traditional materials.
We have CNC machines. But while most of the watch
industry uses CNC for quantity, we don’t use it this
way. We use it for the creation of three-dimensional
parts and for the precision it provides. Some of these
parts are impossible to do with traditional manual
machines. The finishing and assembling, however, is
manual and traditional.
Nearly everything comes from the past: the fine
tuning on the 103 comes from ideas of an A.L. Breguet
pocket watch, the time indication comes from Campanus night clock, the telescopic minute hand idea I
also adapted from an old clock so the ideas are from
history. The three planetary gears around the fixed
center wheel are actually from the tourbillon concept.
The complex cases and sapphire was difficult to create in the early days. Have
manufacturing techniques made things
easier today?
It is still more complicated than a round case but
it is really just a case of finding the right people to
work with. The main challenge in Urwerk watches
is the design and construction of the movement.
For example the minute hand has a clearance from
the sapphire of only 0.1mm.
You were there at the beginning of the
Internet. How has it contributed to your
company?
Today it is easier to accept our products because we
have our own established niche, but we still have to
explain our ideas to our potential customers.
The Internet and watch forums have been extremely
important in reaching people. We obviously need
each other. The forums would not exist without the
watchmakers. This is a very good synergistic situation.
In the beginning of Urwerk there was no Internet for
us. It was tough in those days.
How did you try to sell your watches in
those early days?
We set up at Basel and exhibited along with the AHCI.
Before Vianney Halter and Francois-Paul Journe I was
a member of the Academy. It started slowly and we
made no salary. You had to believe in what you were
doing. I worked for Vacheron Constantin at the time
to make money and invested everything into Urwerk.
For the first seven years we made no money and just
invested in the company.
What advice would you give to a watchmaker wanting to start his own company
today?
I would say first try to learn and understand the basics and the tradition, followed by the complications
and the quality. Then look at today’s possibilities
with materials and machining. Then use the best
of both worlds: the modern and the traditional,
and do it in a passionate and honest way, wanting
to go further in watchmaking and not wanting to
profit out of the company.
Martin Frei (left) and Felix Baumgartner
How do you handle after-sales services? We have a stable volume of watches coming in for
service: between fifty and sixty watches per year.
Watchmakers are responsible for the service of their
own watches, both in and outside the warranty period. And if one watchmaker leaves, his replacement
will take over both the position and the portfolio of
watches. For three months they work together and
hand over their knowledge and pieces. And when a
watch comes back, like the 103, we update it with
the newer modifications. The minimum service
time is two months and maximum is three months.
Service cost is approximately 500 to 1,000 Swiss
francs, which includes case refinishing. Straps are
extra to the cost, and usually need replacing. We
don’t need to make a profit on it but we cover our
costs and time.
What are the long-term plans for the
company? Maintain our volume and to continue innovation.
Even moving more to in-house production. We will
continue the revolving satellite system and will also
develop crazy and different watches. We want to
keep this balance.
The company is very stable. During the peak of
the world economic crisis in 2007-08 it was difficult
for six months. This was even more noticeable after
the euphoria that preceded that period, but we
have set up the company in a very balanced way
and we are very stable and strong. We have no
external backers and just finance ourselves. This
took some years.
Andrew Daley is a forum moderator on PuristSPro.
com, where this article first appeared in a longer form.
103
The UR-210, launched
in late 2010.
Below left: The EMC will combine electronics with
mechanics.
Below: Could this new EMC be the next Urwerk ‘bad boy’?
ics for the first time, making individual regulation of the movement possible.”
The high-performance capacitor in the EMC
must be wound to charge it. This is done using
a foldout winder found on the case. The winding charges a miniscule motor within the case,
which in turn powers an LED sensor placed
on the balance wheel—Urwerk’s own balance
wheel, in fact, created in ARCAP, an alloy that
the Geneva-based brand prefers due to its nonmagnetic and anti-corrosive properties.
The little optical sensor strategically placed
on the balance measures its motions, which
are then translated into +/- seconds per day and
shown on a display that comes to life when a
button on the case is pushed. The wearer can
then regulate as needed.
A moving future
The upcoming EMC launch is the biggest step
“The upcoming EMC
caliber is designed
to practically take
its own pulse and
‘tell’ the wearer
the result.”
a brand of a movement rate-reading device
found on every watchmaker’s bench, the new
caliber will in effect communicate information to its wearer regarding the movement’s
rate precision. The EMC is designed to practically take its own pulse and “tell” the wearer
the result, after which he or she can adjust the
rate thanks to a cleverly positioned screw on
the back of the watch case.
This latter concept was first seen on the
UR-103. It allows the wearer to regulate his
or her own watch using the precision adjustment function found on the control board on
the case back. By combining electronics with
mechanics in what is to date Urwerk’s first
full-blown in-house movement, the upcoming
EMC movement can measure its own rate.
“This movement is outfitted with an electronic eye to monitor the mechanics,” Baumgartner
explains in his typically low-key, yet emotional,
way. “It merges haute horlogerie and electron-
forward into holistic manufacturing that Urwerk has ever undertaken. The EMC is the
brand’s very first completely integrated inhouse movement. It will boast double spring
barrels for eighty hours of power reserve and
will likely never be usable in another watch,
making it a true bespoke movement for the
forthcoming timepiece.
The mechanics beat at 4 Hz, while the electronic oscillator beats at 16,000,000 Hz. Its “artificial intelligence” is capable of calculating the
difference between the movement’s rate and
its reference oscillator—and translating it into
seconds per day.
“This is a revolution in the world of precision watchmaking,” Baumgartner proudly
adds. If so, the new EMC could be Urwerk’s
next “bad boy.”