Each time I look at the watch I can’t help but feel “baby UR-210.” Then again, at about half the price of a UR-210, that would not be an incorrect statement to make. Each is a great watch and given the lower cost, the UR-105M might be a much better option for people. In any event, style-wise, I think it is a really sharp looking watch, given the concept.

Legibility is good, and something interesting here is that URWERK has decided to move all the complications that aren’t an indication of the hours and minutes to the side or back of the case. The means you get a nice clean presentation of the dial on the dial. Even though the sapphire crystal is AR-coated, there is still a lot of glare and I would have liked to see even more AR coating given the curvature of the crystal.

So what does the UR-105 do other than merely indicate the time? Well it also has a power reserve indicator, running seconds indicator, service gauge, and fine adjustment for the movement. The power reserve indicator has a display on both the side of the case as well as the rear of the watch–which is good so that you don’t need to take the watch off in order to know when it needs to be wound.

While you really can’t see the movement, it is amazing looking. URWERK calls it their caliber UR 5.01 and it is a manually wound caliber that operates at 4Hz with a power reserve of 42 hours. The “service gauge” as I call it is what URWERK describes as their “oil change” indicator as serves to tell you when you should send your watch in to be serviced. While people can be a bit more lax when it comes to watches that include standard ETA movements, when it comes to something like this you really don’t want to skip out on servicing because URWERK will need to oil up and clean the movement to ensure optimal performance. Hey, everyone knows a Ferrari takes more work than a Honda to upkeep.

On the rear of the watch you’ll also find the fine adjustment gauge and screw. This is a feature that allow the user to use a screw-driver and actually adjust the movement. This is a feature usually hidden inside of the watch on the movement but URWERK has moved it out to the caseback in order to promote a more interactive experience between the watch and owner. Urwerk first debuted this feature in their EMC watch–where it made a bit more sense, because that watch was actually able to tell you how accurate the watch was. In this case you’ll need to measure the UR-105 using a different devices, but correcting the rate will help you tweak its accuracy. Pretty much the only feature lacking here that I like on many URWERK watches is automatic winding, though it does have a power reserve indicator that makes it OK.

Despite being an “entry-level” URWERK the UR-105 (UR-105M) collection watches have a lot going for them. They have all the modern unconventional styling of URWERK that we appreciate as well as a forward thinking personality that is so unlike many of the high-end luxury watches we see released today. I personally don’t need gold or platinum in my URWERK so the UR-105M Iron Knight and Dark Knight watches offer seem to offer a great deal of satisfaction and features given the overall value. Last, these aren’t limited edition watches so we can expect them to enjoy some volume of production (again, within the very small production of URWERK) over the next several years. Prices for the URWERK UR-105M are 58,000 Swiss Francs ($66,000) for the Iron Knight version and 63,000 Swiss Francs ($72,000) for the Dark Knight version. urwerk.com

UR-105M  Technical Specifications from URWERK

Movement
Caliber: UR 5.01 manual-winding mechanical movement
Jewels: 38
Frequency: 28,800v/h – 4Hz
Power reserve: 42 hours
Materials: Satellite hours driven by bronze beryllium Geneva crosses. Orbital structure in PEEK (PolyEtherEthercetone). Carrousel and three main plates in brass. Digital skeletonized seconds display in nickel (LIGA process). Seconds indications and lateral power reserve in aluminum
Surface finishes: Perlage and bead-blasting
Countersunk screw heads

Indications
Dial: Hours, minutes and 10 seconds
Case band: Lateral seconds and power reserve indications
Control board: ‘Oil Change’ and power reserve indications, timing adjustment screw

Case
Materials: UR-105M ‘Iron Knight’: titanium and steel bezel
UR-105M ‘Dark Knight’: titanium and AITin-treated steel bezel
Dimensions: 39.50mm x 53mm x 16.65mm
Crystal: Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
Water resistance: Pressure tested to 3ATM / 30m
Surface finishes: – UR-105M ‘Iron Knight’: sand-blasted bezel; circular graining; and vertical graining
– UR-105M ‘Dark Knight’: AITiN-treated with bead-blasted bezel