URWERK

Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei met at artist parties in December 1995 through Felix's brother Thomas. The Baumgartner brothers explained their idea of a satellite hour display inspired by the Campanus brothers' 17th-century night clock, which Felix's father had restored. Martin Frei returned with drawings, and in April 1997 URWERK presented the UR-101 and UR-102 at the AHCI booth at Baselworld. Baumgartner had graduated from watchmaking school in Solothurn in 1995 and worked with Svend Andersen in Geneva. Frei studied Graphic Design at the School of Visual Arts in Zurich and obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the Lucerne School of Art and Design. The brand struggled financially until the UR-103 line in 2003 brought wider recognition. Thomas Baumgartner left the company after a few years. In 2005, URWERK collaborated with Harry Winston on the Opus 5. The UR-202 with turbine-controlled automatic winding launched in 2008. The EMC (Electro Mechanical Control) debuted in 2013, allowing real-time precision monitoring, and won Mechanical Exception and Innovation awards at GPHG in 2014.