Pre-Owned Urwerk Urwerk UR-100 'Blue Planet' 40991490/AS08788

While certain alternative time-telling displays can feel contrived, the ‘wandering hours’ complication always imparts a sense of wonder.

Developed in the 17the century, it largely disappeared by the turn of the 20th century, to be revived by Audemars Piguet in the form of its Starwheel collection in 1991. Sophisticated and whimsical, the wandering hours display forms the basis of much of high-end independent company Urwerk’s output. 

The brainchild of Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, Urwerk has been pushing the horological envelope since 1997, designing cutting-edge timepieces that beg closer examination. Its UR-100V Blue, for example, is a navy-colored, titanium and PVD steel piece inspired by Florentine artist Giotto’s depiction of the sky. And if the incorporation of a wandering hours display wasn’t challenging enough, the brand also added dual Spacetime complications. Allow us to explain…

Housed in an octagonal, 41mm x 49.7mm blue PVD stainless steel case with a titanium and sapphire crystal caseback, a domed sapphire crystal, and a crown situated at 12 o’clock, it features a wandering hours display formed by the Urwerk UR 12.02 automatic movement incorporating the Windfänger Planetary Turbine Automatic System. Each of three satellite arms contains four of 12 hour indices; the time is read by glancing at the hour displayed by the arm as it makes its way across the bottom of the dial, where minutes 1-60 are displayed in an arc. 

On the left and right side of the dial are two additional readouts that track the distance the Earth rotates at the equator over 20 minutes, and the distance the Earth revolves around the Sun during the same period of time. (Whether you incorporate this information into your daily routine is largely irrelevant — we think it’s perfectly welcome on such a whimsical and science fiction-esque timekeeper!) 

Paired to a blue technical canvas strap, the UR-100V ‘Blue Planet’ looks firmly like a device worn by an astronaut or aquanaut in a Frank Herbert or Jules Verne novel — sleek, novel, and handsome, it’s the perfect wrist companion for someone whose taste runs more to the avant garde.