URWERK – THE TEXTURE SHOCK
By Sharmila Bertin
Two mastodons on the velvet-covered wooden display tray seem
ready to do battle. A spiky bearing, eye-catching solid skull, intimidating
teeth, shiny eyes…My imagination’s running away with me. But, upon closer
inspection, my daydreams may well be very real. You just have to look carefully
at these two architectural pieces by Urwerk, the UR-105 T-Rex and UR-210 Clou de Paris models,
to see their predatory, reptilian and rare side and uncover a pair of dinosaur
watches from the 21st or
22nd century.
The
thing that really starts your mind ticking is the architecture and texture of
both cases. They’re edgy and covered in sharp scales like the tapered body of a
large reptile yet despite their aggressive physique, neither of these models
“bite”. On the contrary, both the hand-patinated copper armour on the UR-105 T-Rex and
the triangular edges of the black DLC-coated titanium and steel UR-210 Clou de Paris are
soft to the touch.
Their sheer size may grab your attention
on the tray but they really roar to life when they’re wrapped around the wrist:
the 39.5mm wide by 53mm long T-Rex and 43.8mm by 53.6mm Clou de Paris settle
comfortably onto the arm with their wide black alligator or fabric straps whose
chunky mesh brings the “stud” pattern to mind.
UR-105
T-Rex takes its name,
or rather surname, from the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the
“tyrant lizard king”, a formidable biped predator over 4m tall that lived
during the Cretaceous period. Urwerk was inspired by its huge head whose skin
has a ribbed look. The case is covered in 3D copper scales lying
concentrically. Various treatments create the metal’s patina: micro-beading,
micro-sandblasting and oxidation. Rather than a hungry grin, at the bottom of
the watch the T-Rex wears a U-shaped display showcasing the hours and minutes
fuelled by the self-winding UR-5.02 calibre.
The UR-210 Clou de Paris model is a mastodon that’s far easier to tame. Its
edgy skull is only partly covered in thinner and smaller scales carved out
using the traditional Clou de Paris pattern. Its self-winding UR-7.10 calibre
brings to life vagabond hours and retrograde minutes all rimmed with
Super-LumiNova.
