The Urwerk UR-112 Aggregat Back to Black

If you are looking for a watch with a novel time display, Urwerk is your port of call. The UR-112, which abandons the brand’s signature wandering hours display, was dreamed up in Urwerk’s Special Projects laboratory. Introduced in 2021, the UR-112 Aggregat is a compendium of complexity, technicality and radical design with a marked nostalgia for the mythical Bugatti Atlantic Type 57 SC. Like the sexy curves of the Bugatti Atlantic, the UR-112 Aggregat reveals a streamlined profile, complete with a hinged bonnet. Today, Urwerk announces the arrival of the UR-112 Aggregat Back to Black model with a black DLC-treated steel and titanium body.

I’m in love with my car

As Martin Frei, co-founder and artistic director of Urwerk acknowledges, Ralph Lauren’s Bugatti Atlantic was the muse behind the UR-112. “It was love at first sight,” admits Frei. “Its perfect lines, its spine running along its body, its Art Deco features. This Bugatti is a true wonder!”

Sharing the same formidable dimensions and build as earlier versions of the UR-112 (51mm length x 42mm width x 16mm thickness), this third model combines black DLC-treated titanium and steel to craft the complex 30m water-resistant case.

Referencing the central spine running down the Bugatti Atlantic’s body, a seam traverses the sloping case, effectively dividing the hunter-like bonnet on the top part of the watch. By depressing the lateral pushers, the hinged bonnet rises to reveal the power reserve indicator on the left and the digital seconds display on the right. Like the grille of the Bugatti, the bonnet is decorated with vertical speed lines. However, unlike the earlier UR-112 models, the grooves on the bonnet are cut into the blackened steel revealing glimpses of the indications below.

The central body is made of black DLC-coated titanium and treated to sandblasted, bead-blasted and satin-brushed finishings. With no carousels with satellites or rotating cubes to display the time, the UR-112 displays jumping hours and trailing minutes on revolving prisms. Sharing a similar format to driver’s watches, the hours and minutes are housed in large sapphire crystal cylinders at the front of the watch. They are displayed on black aluminium triangular-shaped prisms that move in sharp, precise jumps. The hours jump on the left, and the minutes advance in 5-minute increments on the right with a trailing indicator pointing to the exact minute. No less spectacular in the dark, all the time indications and the power reserve are treated with Super-LumiNova that emits a blue glow.

Automatic UR-13.01

This fabulous yet lightweight machine – it weighs just 25.2 grams – is powered by heavyweight mechanics. Equipped with automatic calibre UR-13.01, the movement relies on a long titanium transmission shaft to deliver the power from the large barrel to the energy-hungry time displays. In contrast to the UFO aesthetics, the finishings are highly traditional, including circular graining on the bridges, Côtes de Genève and polished screw heads, to name a few.

AVAILABILITY & PRICE

The Urwerk UR-112 Aggregat Back to Black is limited to 25 pieces and retails for CHF 280,000. For more information, please visit Urwerk’s website.