MrWatchMaster Meets…Felix Baumgartner

MrWatchMaster Meets…Felix Baumgartner

Next we meet Felix Baumgartner, the co-founder of one the most avant-garde brands around, URWERK. We had the opportunity to spend time with Felix during the week of Salon QP in London. It was a delight to discuss his passion for all things horological.

MrWatchMaster and Felix Baumgartner

We share Felix’s thoughts and opinions on business and the future development of those amazing URWERK timepieces.

MWM: How is business?

FB: For me business is creating new mechanisms. So business is good! Our drawers are full of crazy projects, our minds too. 

MWM: What are you currently working on?

FB: We are finalising our new model that it is to be launched in September. It will be a new collection, with a distinctive URWERK signature and at the same time a brand new look. I am really looking forward to unveiling it. 

MWM: Tell us something we don’t know about URWERK watches?

FB: Most of our production team, meaning engineers and watchmakers, working for URWERK are ‘schoolmates’. I met them at the watchmaking school of Solothurn in 1992. 

MWM: What watch do you wear?

FB: I am wearing our latest creation, the UR-111C iron model.

Felix Wears: UR-111C Iron Model

MWM: Apart from your own brand, what watch would you like to own?

FB: My father used to restore pendulum antiques with a fabulous past. My ‘grail’ timepiece would be a Pendule Sympathique from Mr Abraham Louis Breguet, one of the shining stars of Haute Horlogerie.

Grail Timepiece: A Fine Example Of A Breguet Pendule Sympatique (1834)

 MWM: What do you like best about the Watch business?

FB: The diversity of people I meet. Be it watchmakers, clients, watch lovers or artists. I am in a continuous learning process thanks to all of them. 

MWM: What don’t you like about the Watch business?

FB: The continuous stress that marketing is trying to impose us. To always be in a rush, always being under pressure. At URWERK, since the very beginning we have our own ‘cruise’ speed that follows our creation process. Slow but steady.

MWM: What is next on the horizon for you?

FB: A Christmas tree and family gathered all around. 

Felix Baumgartner is a Friend Of MrWatchMaster

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