Urwerk UR-100V LIghtSpeed
An Odyssey through our Cosmos
In an age when science fiction merges with reality, certain numerical values possess reassuring, pervasive and nearly immutable characteristics. These include the number 299,792,458 km/s. It’s a mysterious figure relating as much to the physical theory of classical mechanics as it does with Azimov’s worlds of fantasy. It represents the ultimate speed: that of the propagation of energy, mastered only by the initiated.
Urwerk’s UR-100V LightSpeed is the realization of this dream, bringing Time, Space and Light together in a single place. Urwerk’s artistic director and co-founder Martin Frei says: “Wearing this creation is like having a piece of the universe on your wrist, a vision of the cosmos in miniature, on a human scale.” The UR-100V LightSpeed houses a 3D planetarium featuring eight celestial bodies from our solar system, eight points of reference. “Starting from the Sun, we calculated and illustrated the time taken for a ray of light to reach each of the planets. The Sun’s rays take 8.3 minutes to reach the Earth, while the same ray reaches the surface of Jupiter 35 minutes later. A journey through space and time with light as the medium, the most magical of all vessels” he explains.
The Sun’s rays reach every planet in a specific measured time, reminding us of the dizzying distance and ephemeral beauty of our solar system. The light we see today is an echo of the past, an instant frozen in cosmic time. Within our space-time system, the Sun’s light reaches Mercury in 3.2 minutes, Venus in 6 minutes, Earth in 8.3 minutes, Mars in 12.6 minutes, Jupiter in 43.2 minutes, Saturn in 79.3 minutes, Uranus in 159.6 minutes and Neptune in 4.1 hours. Such is the beauty embodied by the UR-100V LightSpeed, whose ultimate reference is the Sun, which inspires the rotor on the back of the timepiece.
In addition to its interstellar dimension, the UR-100V LightSpeed pick up the principle of displaying the hours and minutes, which is based on the absence of hands. Instead, a satellite moves along an arc of a graduated circle. The first carries the hours, the second the minutes. And when an hour satellite has covered its 60 minutes, the next one bearing the next hour, appears in front of the minutes index. No one could have imagined that this principle – extrapolated from a 17th century clock – could be so creatively thought out, transformed and transmuted in space, volume and time.
The timepiece is 43 mm in black carbon and features a 48 hour power reserve, rubber strap with a folding clasp and Urwerk’s iconic satellite hours.
Learn more about the Urwerk UR-100V Lightspeed at Cellini Jewelers, an Authorized Retailer for Urwerk. Contact us for pricing and availability at 212-888-0505.