Hands-On: The Urwerk UR-10 SpaceMeter Combines A Conventional Display With Unconventional Information

It is, after all, called the SpaceMeter, and it comes in black or light grey dials, both circularly brushed and color-coded with identical accent touches. While the main syringe hands on the UR-10 conventionally indicate the time, the three subdials are actually used to measure the Earth’s travel around the sun. At 2 o’clock, the subdial marked “EARTH” in blue lettering is, in fact, a counter for every ten kilometers the Earth travels during its daily rotation, with each increment measuring 500 meters. The next subdial, marked “SUN” at 4 o’clock, features markers at 20-kilometer increments, with an entire turn of the counter representing every 1,000 kilometers the Earth travels around the Sun. Finally, the 9 o’clock subdial marked “ORBIT” shows both measurements relative to each other, with an outer ring color-coded to reflect the solar orbit measurement, while the inner blue ring reflects the Earth’s rotation at thatpoint around the sun.