COSMIC GAMBIT: THE URWERK UR-10 SPACEMETER MEASURES MORE THAN JUST TIME

The URWERK UR-10 SpaceMeter presents a fundamental paradox: a watch that measures distance rather than duration. Its three subdials track Earth's rotation and orbital velocity in kilometres, transforming the familiar architecture of a chronograph into an instrument of cosmic awareness. For a Manufacture whose identity has been inextricably linked with satellite hour displays, this represents more than a new model—it signals a willingness to challenge their own design orthodoxy.

The significance of this departure cannot be overstated. URWERK has spent nearly three decades perfecting their distinctive time display system, where hours orbit on rotating satellites rather than hands pointing to numerals. This aesthetic has become synonymous with the brand itself. To abandon it, even temporarily, suggests a level of creative confidence that few independent watchmakers possess. Rather than becoming prisoners of their own innovation, URWERK has chosen to expand their horological vocabulary.

Yet the UR-10 isn't quite the radical departure it first appears. The watch represents a fascinating confluence of past and future, tradition and innovation; a bridge between Felix Baumgartner's classical watchmaking heritage and URWERK's futuristic vision. The story begins with a remarkable 19th-century pendulum clock by Gustave Sandoz, discovered and restored by Felix's father, Gérard Baumgartner. This unusual timekeeper didn't display conventional time but instead tracked Earth's planetary movements through space.

When Gérard gifted this restored clock to his son, he unknowingly planted the seed for what would become the UR-10. "My father, a custodian of horological tradition, gave me a classic clock, with regular hands... that do not tell time," Felix recalls. This paradox—a traditional-looking mechanism serving an unconventional purpose—perfectly encapsulates the philosophy behind the UR-10.

At first glance, the UR-10 appears to follow a familiar template: the tri-compax chronograph layout that has graced countless wrists since the mid-20th century. This configuration, typically used to track elapsed seconds, minutes, and hours, has become so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible—a default setting for sports watches.

But URWERK has cleverly subverted this conventional arrangement. Instead of measuring temporal intervals for timing your morning run or a racing lap, the three subdials track something far more profound: our planet's journey through the cosmos. The counter at 2 o'clock advances every 10 kilometres as Earth rotates on its axis. The subdial at 4 o'clock registers our orbital velocity around the sun in 1,000-kilometre increments. And at 9 o'clock, a double-scale display combines both trajectories, creating a mechanical representation of our dual cosmic dance.

The technical achievement here shouldn't be understated. Translating Earth's movements into mechanical increments required URWERK to push their engineering capabilities to new extremes. The brand employed ultra-light LIGA-process wheels, some weighing as little as 0.009 grams—about the weight of an eyelash—to minimise energy consumption whilst maintaining accuracy.

The caseback reveals another layer of astronomical complexity, with a 24-hour scale showing both Earth's rotation (read clockwise) and revolution (read anticlockwise), mirroring our planet's actual anticlockwise orbit around the sun. It's this attention to cosmic accuracy that elevates the UR-10 from mere novelty to genuine horological achievement.

The UR-10's technical specifications reveal the depth of engineering required to achieve its cosmic ambitions. At its heart beats the calibre UR-10.01, developed by URWERK in collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture. This self-winding movement features a dual barrel configuration and URWERK's patented Double Flow Turbine—an evolution of their one-way winding system featuring two counter-rotating propellers that create a mesmerising visual effect while protecting the mechanism from excessive rotor speeds.

The case construction demonstrates equal attention to detail. Measuring 45.40mm wide and just 7.13mm in height, it ranks among URWERK's thinnest creations. The two-part construction—combining a sandblasted titanium upper case with a sandblasted steel caseback—eschews a traditional middle case. Instead, the components are sealed together with longitudinal screws in a technique Martin Frei notes was favoured by Gérald Genta. "It's simple but in fact extremely complex," he observes.

The dial itself represents a departure for URWERK, who typically outsource such components. Created entirely in-house, the multi-layered construction features black or grey PVD coating with varying finishes: circular graining on the main dial, thin sandblasting on the 2 and 4 o'clock subdials, and circular graining on the 9 o'clock counter. The hands—syringe-shaped for time indication and Breguet-style for the distance counters—are filled with Super-LumiNova for legibility.

Completing the package is a sandblasted titanium bracelet with single links and a titanium deployant clasp, maintaining the watch's technical aesthetic throughout.

The UR-10 SpaceMeter arrives as more than just a new model; it's a declaration that URWERK won't be constrained by their own success. In an industry where many independents become one-trick ponies, endlessly iterating on a single concept, URWERK has demonstrated they're willing to challenge both themselves and their collectors' expectations. The UR-10 proves that innovation doesn't always mean adding complexity—sometimes it means finding new perspectives on familiar forms.

As Martin Frei eloquently puts it, "The UR-10 depicts two characteristics of our earthly condition: to be bound by human time, and to be mere passengers on a planet constantly travelling through the cosmos." In bridging these two realities—the immediate and the infinite—URWERK has created something that transcends conventional categorisation. It's neither purely traditional nor entirely avant-garde, but something altogether more interesting: a watch that makes us reconsider our place in the universe with every glance at our wrist.

The real triumph of the UR-10 isn't just technical or aesthetic—it's philosophical. By transforming a familiar watch layout into an astronomical instrument, URWERK reminds us that time itself is just one way of measuring our journey through space. In doing so, they've not boxed themselves in at all. They've opened up an entirely new dimension.