Hot Takes: Geneva Watch Days — Urwerk UR-T8 Turns Heads
The first thing to land in our hands when we arrived at the Urwerk was the UR-100 full gold that I had in for review a few weeks back. Although it was old news to me, it was incredibly enriching to watch may colleagues discover (and quickly accept it) for the first time. I had (erroneously) expected it to misfire with the team. I had forgotten that I was sharing a table with the three Fratelli that own the Speedmaster in Moonshine gold. As it turns out, the UR-100 could not have landed in the company of a more sympathetic audience. But it was the UR-T8 that blew us away…
A unique UR-T8 for charity. Amazing design? Check. Hand-engraving? Check. Dinosaurs? Of course… This UR-T8 boasts a hand-engraved velociraptor courtesy of the Johnny “King Nerd” Dowell. It earned impressed nods from the team even though none of us was sure he could pull it off. The most pleasing thing about the UR-T8 from our perspective was the build quality. Sure, you expect a six-figure watch to be well made. But this is truly exceptional engineering. The cases of these ultra-expensive Urwerk pieces are articulated like few others.
The flippable case middle feels solid in operation. It gives the impression of a watch that will never fail. While I — a big dinosaur fan — wasn’t so bothered about the subject of the engraving itself, I love the space created by the case’s articulation (and King Nerd’s execution is always on point). I enjoy seeing the brand exploit this real estate in new and creative ways.
I love the watch. This is not my favorite execution of it, but with a piece unique that’s not exactly a problem. This baby has probably found a home already…
UR-210
Hot take: My favorite piece from Urwerk this event — from the UR-210 family — placed the evolution of an existing concept front and center. We got to see a slightly reworked orbital hour mechanism that I feel is the crux of everything the brand does. The hour counters currently share one indication hour that snaps back to the start of the minute track as soon as the hour ticks over. We’ve seen this shared indicator before, but it isn’t always a staple to this mechanism (a lot of previous Urwerks using this time indication system have had separate hour markers for each rotating block rather than sharing one between three).
I’m really looking forward to the hands-on reviews of these pieces rolling in…
In-depth reviews of the pieces seen during the fair will follow. Feel free to comment below with your initial takeaways of new releases, the event format, and anything you’d like us to focus on or explore further.
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