The first syllable of haute horlogerie brand Urwerk is derived from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur – home to the innovative Sumerian people who created one of the world’s earliest great civilisations. When they weren’t busy inventing the first writing system, the Sumerians established units of time based on shadows cast by their monuments, and the sexagesimal system we use in measuring and understanding time to this day. As this etymology suggests, Urwerk timepieces revolve around limitless innovation. The brand has just released a watch devoted to this central part of horology and its own ethos.

The UR-100V UltraViolet is symbolic of the boundary between the perceptible and imperceptible, as ultraviolet marks where the visible colour spectrum ends, and the non-visible light spectrum begins. The company’s co-founder and chief designer, Martin Frei, says, ‘The UR-100V UltraViolet is about this exploration of the limits. Our UltraViolet conveys something mystical, it’s a hue that sits on the border of a dimension we call colour.’

Symbolising such boundaries between light and darkness, the seen and unseen, the minutes hand disappears when the 60th minute is reached. Just as the Sumerians used shadow in gauging time, units of distance and time share an enlightening ratio between them, and the minutes hand then reappears as a kilometre counter that indicates the 555 kilometres the Earth spins every 20 minutes. The hours and kilometres units aptly light up at night in blue and green. The edge of the face also has marks displaying the Earth’s revolution around the sun (its orbital distance per 20 minutes being the 35,740 kilometres shown).

This self-winding model uses the new calibre 12.02, itself an innovation playing on notions of visibility: for greater legibility than previous movements offered, three orbiting and rotating satellite hour markers, which rest on a sanded and ruthenium-treated brass carousel, are situated closer to the minutes scale. With a water resistance of 30m, the watch has a 48-hour power reserve and a violet DLC case with sapphire crystal glass.

urwerk.com