20/20

After two decades, Urwerk’s vision of avant-garde horology remains as sharp as when it first started.

- Alvin Wong

“In the beginning, people would look at an Urwerk and think it’s anything else but a watch,” says Urwerk’s cofounder Felix Baumgartner, of his watches that marry avant garde movement construction with Millennium Falcon-style aesthetics. “And that would get me really excited.”

Baumgartner added that right from the start, Urwerk’s mission was to reinterpret the traditional craft of watchmaking for contemporary urbanites. Today, after 20 years, it appears that the brand’s journey has only just begun.

At this year’s SIHH watch fair, Urwerk commemorated its 20th anniversary with the UR-T8 Transformer. The brand’s chief designer and co-founder, Martin Frei, says in its press communique that the watch bookmarks a significant chapter for Urwerk. “Our first 20 years were dominated by the wandering hour; the rest of the history has yet to be written for there are so many areas we have still to explore,” he notes. “It’s now the time to turn a page and we want to do it with style.”

The UR-T8 Transformer’s suffix refers to the reversible case construction, the first on an Urwerk and a clear nod to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s iconic Reverso. Clearly an attention grabber, the UR-T8 also features the biggest and most elaborate iteration of Urwerk’s signature ‘wandering hours’ movement (more on that later). And speaking of size, the watch is HUGE, housed in a T-Rexstyle textured case measuring 60.23mm x 48.35mm.

Besides making a statement on style and technical sophistication, the watch wants to draw its owner deeper into the world of Urwerk. “It is an object that invites interaction,” adds Frei. “You don’t just wear your UR-T8, you engage with it.”