Urwerk Launches Two-Tone UR-111C Edition

Initially available in polished steel, gunmetal, and titanium finishes, the new two-tone variation features black PVD and a brushed steel case.

Beyond the aesthetics, the new edition is identical to the previous versions, eschewing Urwek’s signature wandering-hour indication and instead introducing a linear minute display.

It uses a retrograde linear minute display with the numerals set at a 30° diagonal slant, which improves readability. Urwerk says it is a “spinoff of the mechanism invented for the UR-CC1.”

There are two conical displays on the front which have jumping hours on the left and running minutes on the right, along with a jumping digital seconds display on the top of the watch that uses an array of optical fibres to project the numbers up toward the sapphire crystal window.

Furthermore, instead of a traditional crown, there are a pair of mechanisms for winding and setting the watch.

“Having a watch with a second display was, for me, always important because that’s the way we see time passing, as we do with an hourglass,” says Martin Frei, chief designer at Urwerk.

“And I think the way the two wheels of the UR-111C’s seconds display fall into each other is like sand passing down through an hourglass. The display is a celebration of the second. Because at the end, it’s all about giving haptic pleasure.”

Like the previous versions of the UR-111C, the new two-tone version is also limited to only 25 pieces and has a price tag of around $135,000.