Urwerk

Founded in 1997 by cofounders Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei, Urwerk has distinguished itself as one of the top haute horologie companies blending tradition with innovative vision. While the brand Urwerk was founded in Switzerland, its name traces its origins to a place far away in SpaceTime: the city of Ur in Ancient Mesopotamia, where its inhabitants, the Sumerians, are credited by historians with the invention of the concept of time. It was a full circle moment then, twenty-six years after its founding, that Urwerk unveiled Time and Culture II ‘Sumer’, which pays homage to the very civilization which gave birth to its name. 

Having already journeyed to Mesoamerica the year prior with Time and Culture I, inspired by the Aztec civilization, this iteration of the Time and Culture collection travels further back in time to the city of Ur. Crafted in titanium and coated stainless steel, the watch’s design takes inspiration from cuneiform scripts from Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations from the Sumerians to the Neo-Assyrians.

The center is engraved with a four-pointed sun representing the Sumerian sun god Utu. Between the watch’s horns is the crescent moon symbol of the moon god Nanna, whose main cult center was the city of Ur. Inanna, the goddess of love and fertility, depicted as an eight pointed star, is represented not only by the engraving, but also by the blue color of the dial which references lapis lazuli, a stone associated with the goddess. Thus completes the trio of gods most commonly depicted together in ancient Sumerian artifacts. The three gods are depicted on a backdrop of a cuneiform planisphere depicting constellations that were painstakingly reproduced on the present timepiece. 

The watch displays hours and minutes as well as information on the Earth’s rotation. The watch hands disappears after the 60-minute mark and reappears as a kilometer counter, illustrating the 477.29 kilometers covered every 20 minutes made by the Earth’s rotation. At the exact opposite end of the scale is the Earth’s revolution around the sun: 35,742 kilometers every 20 minutes. 

With a production run of only thirty examples, the Time and Culture II is a fascinating and rare distillation of history, culture, and of course, time, on the wrist.