URWERK’s horological Skunk Works launches a series of 25 time – and space – measuring instruments into orbit. UR-100V “Blue Planet” tracks the earth and our solar system: it’s a 24-hour invitation to interstellar travel and the pleasure of savouring time.
With interplanetary imagination, science-fiction iconography and limitless creative freedom, URWERK has its roots in spatial horology. Using out-of-this-world graphic traits inherent to all URWERK timepieces, the UR-100V collection adds an astrophysical dimension.
The astronomical action takes place under a large observation dome, where, upon finishing indicating the minutes in the 0-to-60 arc along the bottom of the dial, the vivid green and yellow arrowhead hand (one of three) disappears – only to reappear at 9 o’clock to track the 555.55 kilometres the earth rotates at the equator every 20 minutes. The hand then reappears again at 3 o’clock to display a kilometre counter tracking 20 minutes of the earth’s revolution around the sun (35,742 kilometres).
Blending form and function, calculation and imagery, and theory and actuality, the UR-100V is adorned in blue: blue for the steel case, blue for the atypical movement, blue for the orbital carousel. A blue recalling our planet earth.
The blue hue of the UR-100V “Blue Planet” is deep, dense, and matte. As URWERK’s designer Martin Frei explains, “When I create and when I paint, all colours resonate in me, but particularly blue. During my education at the Academy of Arts and Design in Lucerne, I had the chance to study the great Florentine artist Giotto. He was the first who, at the end of the Middle Ages, painted the sky blue — dethroning Byzantine gold — and launching the ‘realistic’ style of painting is normal today. I love the colour of Giotto’s blue sky; it’s the same sky as ours. Blue is a colour that surrounds us, that encompasses us. ”
The colour of the UR-100V “Blue Planet” tells the story of a trajectory transitioning between earth and space. “We have miniaturized and reinterpreted our solar system. We get lost in the depths of the rotating carousel of the UR-100V. It is a plunge into space, a fall into nothingness. It’s a new horological odyssey with our head in the stars and feet on the ground. It’s a reverie in blue,” concludes Felix Baumgartner.
URWERK UR-100V “Blue Planet” is a limited edition of 25 pieces and retails for S$73,900. For more information, visit thehourglass.com.
