A philosophical approach to space and time.

 

The creators at Urwerk may be more inspired by science fiction than real spaceflight, but they still know how to create really interesting models. These watches introduce us to hidden secrets of cosmic proportions, and bring home the feeling that we're part of the universe. Another thing you can find in the mix here is the mystery of how we perceive time.

 

Brand Co-Founder Felix Baumgartner elaborates on this in his description of the new UR-100V LightSpeed. “It is the one that explains our place on Earth, the immensity of the universe and our out-of-step relationship with the present moment: by the time the light of a star reaches us, that star has probably long since ceased to shine. What we see is no longer there; we perceive a time, a past that no longer exists.”

 

The watch demonstrates a philosophical approach to space and time. At Urwerk, time as we know it is traditionally displayed using wandering hours on satellites that travel over an arc-shaped minute track, but that's not the only type of time displayed here. This watch also shows the time it takes for a ray of sunlight to reach each planet in the solar system.

 

A round openworked black construction hovers over the wandering hour mechanism to provide information on two levels, where the names of the planets are indicated in white, and the time necessary for light to reach that planet is shown in green. The small blue-green hand which appears in openworked areas moves to show different planets.

 

Urwerk UR-100V LightSpeed
Urwerk UR-100V LightSpeed
Urwerk UR-100V LightSpeed
Urwerk UR-100V LightSpeed

Rays of sunlight reach the closest planet, Mercury, in 3.2 minutes, Venus in 6 minutes, Earth in 8.3 minutes, Mars in 12.6 minutes, Jupiter in 43.2 minutes, Saturn in 79.3 min, Uranus in 159.6 min, and Neptune in 4.1 hours. This is calculated by taking the speed of light in a vacuum, and dividing it by the distance of the celestial body from the Sun.

 

In Earth's case, that's 300 000 km/s divided by 150 million kilometers, which equals 498 seconds. Luckily for the watch owner, all the sums have already been done in advance.

 

By the way, the Sun itself has also found a new home in this watch: it was the watchmaker's source of inspiration to create the rotor for the automatic caliber UR 12.02 movement, where the winding system can be regulated using a Windfänger profiled airscrew.

It can also be seen through the transparent caseback. The movement is immersed in a composite case made of 54 layers of ThinPly black carbon, and measures 43 mm × 51.73 mm × 14.55 mm. The novelty is given a bright dash of color by its red rubber strap.