Urwerk UR-210 Amadeus: When Past and Future Collide

With some watches, you wonder if you should even bother trying to write something about it. Afraid that your words don’t add anything, or are hopelessly insufficient in describing the beauty of it. In those cases, you simply want to post the images and let the reader become a viewer. However, there is enough to tell about the UR-210 Amadeus to dedicate a few words to it, even if they only serve as modest captions to an amazing watch.

Any chef knows: you are only as good as your ingredients. When they are not up to par, your dish will never elevate to the next level. In the case of the Amadeus, that ingredient is the Urwerk UR-210, the current flagship of the brand founded twenty years ago by Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner.

With its satellite hour complication and retrograde minutes, the UR-210 still represents the futuristic idea that got the brand started two decades ago. The interesting about the Amadeus is however that Urwerk had the watch fully engraved in an extravagant post-Renaissance 17th-century style, inspired by the first collector’s clock Felix Baumgartner was gifted by his father.

Past and future collide in this watch in a most glorious way. To make this happen Baumgartner and Frei called in the help of a third Maestro: master engraver Florian Güllert.

It took him no less than 260 hours in which he completely transformed the UR-210. His challenge was not only the material, as steel is one of the most difficult metals to engrave, but also the motive. This motive floats seamlessly from the case and crown protector onto the bracelet in unparalleled precision. Although all done by hand, the symmetry is perfect, and the engravings almost seem to hold the movement and wrap on the arm of the wearer like an ivy. It makes this piece unique not only a fitting tribute to the anniversary of Urwerk but also to the past, present and future of watchmaking!