Urwerk may be just a little over 25 years old in the watchmaking industry, but it derives the inspiration for its name from the 3800 BC Mesopotamian city of Ur. Residents of Ur, called Sumerians, were the first to define the unit of time - 60 for seconds and minutes. Furthermore, ‘Ur’ in German stands for “beginnings” or “origins”, while the ‘werk’ represents creating, working and innovation. 

The new steel and titanium model measures 41mm in width and 49.7mm in length, and picks up many design cues from the Mesopotamian era - the blue colour refers to lapis lazuli, a stone linked to Innana, Goddess of Love, War and Fertility, and there is the engraving of the moon god Nanna, the chief divinity of the city of Ur, in between the lugs. Beneath the sapphire crystal are several circular grained and shot blasted designs inspired by the Mesopotamian era and their divinities, including Utu, the Sun God, represented by the four-pointed design that signifies the four cardinal points this time. (The sun in particular is relevant to the UR-100 line given that the watch on its right side displays the scale of the Earth's revolution around the sun, which is 35,742 kilometres per 20 minutes.

Further there are Super-LumiNova® painted aluminium satellite hours crafted on beryllium-bronze Geneva crosses and a minute track towards the bottom shows readings from 0-60 minutes, where the minute hand vanishes and reappears as a kilometre counter once it hits 60 minutes. The left side is engraved with 477.29 kilometres, which is the distance covered by every inhabitant of Ur. On the titanium caseback the self-winding UR 12.02 movement is governed by a Windfänger airscrew, beating at the frequency of 4Hz, and boasting a 48 hours of power reserve. Completing the watch is a Baltimore strap with pin buckle.