By Evan Ackerman
Whether or not you think it’s ugly, you have to admit that this is one pretty damn cool watch. The UR-202 Hammerhead, designed by Urwerk, brings a bunch of innovative features to an accessory that hasn’t changed that much in about a century. Okay, okay, with a few exceptions. Anyway… The first thing you’ll notice is that the UR-202 communicates the time with three hands that rotate around the center of the watch. The number blocks on the ends of each hand rotate to provide the hour, and the minute is shown by that little metal pointer, which telescopes in and out as the hands rotate, allowing for a smaller overall case since the pointers not in use are able to retract themselves as they circle back around the watch. The two dials alongside the minute bar show the moon phase, and whether it’s day or night.
The watch is powered by kinetic energy; it winds itself as you move your wrist around. Kinetic watches work best (and last longest) when they’re wound with gentle, consistent motion, and heavy wrist activity (ahem) can put a lot of strain on the mechanism. To combat this, the UR-202 contains two little turbines, which are coupled to the winding rotor. The turbines act as shock absorbers, using air pressure to cushion the movements of the rotor. A switch on the back of the watch lets you adjust the air pressure passing through the turbines to compensate for “vigorous” and “extreme” activity. They’re using air inside the watch to do all this, so the whole thing remains waterproof.
No pricing info yet, but this doesn’t look like it would be anywhere near affordable, does it?
CGI promotional video with a techno soundtrack and no additional information, after the jump.
