For fairly a while, Urwerk has sat on the vanguard of the avant-garde, delivering timepieces which can be as trendy as they’re jaw-dropping. Prior to now few years, my attraction to the model’s timepieces has waned. They’d taken on a glance that was too utilitarian for my style, nearly Fallout-esque of their look, and whereas I nonetheless admired them for the unimaginable works of horological marvel that they had been, there was no attraction past that. However then, each every so often, Urwerk releases a watch that jogs my memory of the model’s appeal past innovation. The brand new Urwerk UR-101 T-Rex is one such watch. Launched simply earlier than Watches and Wonders 2025, the watch is the third within the model’s T-Rex collection, and we obtained an opportunity to deal with the T-Rex in individual on the present.
Primarily based on one of many model’s 1997 debut fashions, the UR-101, the UR-101 T-Rex is among the extra wearable items that Urwerk gives as a result of its measurement and form (it’s seen right here on a 6.6-inch wrist). The bronze case is 41-wide and 11.86mm thick (on the peak). The spherical kind with the decrease lugs has a slight curve that hugs the wrist and the novel strap hook-up (inside up high, conventional on the underside, serve for a superb match that offers the texturized rubber strap nice lug articulation. Most considerate and far appreciated, the case is barely sloped towards the wearer, facilitating the precise studying of the time (or ogling of the watch). Regardless of its extra rugged look although, the 30m of water resistance retains it from being adventure-friendly. So don’t deliver this again in time while you truly go to the dinosaurs.
The watch has an simple Millennium Falcon form, and that’s as a result of it was impressed by the long-lasting Star Wars freighter — however that gained’t be what you deal with. The standout right here is the unimaginable bronze case, chosen to be extra natural than its different house age watches and meant to evoke the scaly pores and skin of a T. Rex. That is truly the third Urwerk to get the T-Rex remedy after 2016’s UR-105 T-Rex and 2021’s UR-100V T-Rex. Every case is hand-engraved and painted by hand, giving the watch what you might name a prehistoric feel and appear. It definitely has a tribal, historic look to it, and since it’s bronze, every case will take by itself look because it ages. However It’s essential to notice that whereas the metallic will age, it isn’t meant to tackle inexperienced patina like different bronzes, so it ought to merely be a darkening and shifting of tones.
The wandering hour is the place it began for Urwerk, and whereas the model has shifted its focus to its now extra recognizable and sometimes absolutely uncovered rotating satellite show, it nonetheless revisits the wandering hour, and I’m very grateful for that. Two discs include the hour numerals, with the present hour tracing an arced aperture, which additionally incorporates a hard and fast minute monitor. The hours and minutes are coated in Tremendous-LumiNova, and my solely gripe is that the cutout for the hour seems to be a bit budget-friendly. There’s actually no higher method to do that, however I want there have been. This technique of displaying the time is extremely intuitive. There’s no solution to be mistaken, and no confusion as can occur with Urwerk’s extra absolutely uncovered actions, which have a ton occurring. The dial exhibits you precisely the place to look, a finite house that makes telling the time an absolute cinch.
The very first thing chances are you’ll discover on the black DLC metal caseback is an excellent little bit of accessibility innovation: If you do want to regulate the time, flip the watch over, slide the black tab on the high, and the crown strikes out to facilitate gripping the crown; the model calls this the PEEK crown puller. Beneath the caseback is the UR-1.01V motion, which sees a wandering hour module positioned on a Vaucher base. The automated caliber has a 48-hour energy reserve at 28,800 vph.
It doesn’t occur typically, however each time Urwerk revisits its debut mannequin, it’s a reminder of the extra restrained refinement upon which the model was based. It’s not all watches with hand cranks and suitcase bombs carriers that sync a watch to atomic time. Imagine it or not, this watch — dinosaur textured bronze, wandering hour, and all — is an train in modifying and restraint for the model. It’s at all times good to know that’s nonetheless there, and that Urwerk hasn’t forgotten the place it began. The Urwerk UR-101 T-Rex is priced at CHF 38,000 and restricted to 100 items. For extra info, please go to the Urwerk website.
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