First off the starting line at Dubai Watch Week is Urwerk. What have they come packing? Yet another completely and gloriously engraved UR-210, bracelet and all.
This time they’ve named it the UR-210 Dubai, for obvious reasons. And much like the UR-210 Amadeus, which we got to meet in person at Basel 2017, the UR-210 Dubai, too, was engraved by the incredible Florian Güllert, who of course, is responsible for many other engraved watch projects of Urwerk’s.
In the press release announcing the watch, co-founder of Urwerk, Felix Baumgartner shares about the first time he visited Dubai in 2007 and how fascinated he was by the paradox the city encapsulates. A city of extreme lavishness set with extreme aridity to its east and the Persian Gulf to its west.
He describes the city as, “strong and often contradictory,” and it is this very characteristic that he wanted to imbue into the UR-210 he dedicated to the city. Which is why the intricate patterns and mosaic chosen to adorn the watch are those that are found on ancient middle-eastern places of worship and royal palaces. And the watch — UR-210 — is anything but ancient.
However, the man tasked to transfer this idea into reality and actually do the engraving, Florian Güllert is an artisan better known for his Florentine gun-engraving style. To attempt patterns that are so different from what he is used to, must’ve required a fair bit of re-learning — even for someone as skilled as Florian.
Add to that the difficulty of hand engraving the titanium and steel case of the UR-210, and you have quite the Everest to climb. Let’s not even think about the steel bracelet, which is fully engraved to the point that it looks like the completed watch is one seamless piece of artwork. The totality of which, required no less than 300 hours of Florian’s blood and sweat.
Therefore — and needless to say — the UR-210 Dubai — much like the UR-210 Amadeus — is a pièce unique.
Technical Specifications: Urwerk UR-210 Dubai
Movement
Calibre UR-7.10; patented revolving satellite complication with wandering hours and three-dimensional retrograde minutes hand; power reserve indicator (39-hour power reserve); patented winding efficiency indicator
Case
Width 43.8mm, length 53.6mm, thickness 17.8mm; titanium and steel case engraved by Florian Güllert; water resistant to 30m
Bracelet
Metal bracelet with deployment clasp developed by Maspoli for Urwerk; fully engraved by Florian Güllert
