Review: Xeric Scrambler Wandering Hour

There’s absolutely no reason why only the people with a $100,000 to splash on a crazy watch should have all the fun. This is a watch brand called Xeric and they’re making sure that you can get in on that action for just a percent of the price.

Background

Remember playing Tomb Raider 3 and getting stuck on the first level? You couldn’t find the stupid button to move through the next stupid level, the whole while the stupid tiger was trying to stupid eat you? Most of us realised we were not made of the kind of stuff Lara Croft needed of us and so we contented ourselves with locking the butler in the fridge until a handy dandy guide was made available in print.

Can you imagine such a thing, having to wait literal months until someone printed a book about it? Those days are long since gone, and these days we can download the cheat codes off the interwebs within mere seconds, making quick work of any challenges these games may have previously faced. Unless it’s Dark Souls. Then you just have to get good.

This immediate interconnectivity has been a double-edged sword, but when it comes to the slow, silent might of the watch industry, it’s done some pretty incredible things, least of which being the ability for individuals to actually make and sell watches direct to consumer. That’s the path Xeric has taken, but really, it’s building on the shoulders of giants.

Urwerk started life in the hands of Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei all the way back in 1997, at which point barely 25% of people even had the internet. As you can imagine, it was hard going selling crazy watches at watch fairs around the world. But by 2005, not did the Urwerk guys get the Opus V gig at the time the ever-popular Max Büsser was helming Harry Winston, the internet had finally made its way into the homes of the majority of people, too.

That gave the little guys like Urwerk a voice, and before long, the internet was buzzing with the insanity of the brand’s watches. They were the pioneers of this new digital frontier if you like, using the vast reaches of the world wide web to connect its incredibly mad, incredibly expensive watches with the crazy few willing to part ways with their hard-earned for one.

Without that, without the late nights and risky bets that made Urwerk what it was, we wouldn’t have Xeric. But they did and we do, and that’s better for everyone. But it’s not just about connecting brands with people, it’s everything. Potential customers can scour the forums and get first-hand feedback from actual owners, see how Xeric got off to a shaky start a decade ago but have since built a happy a loyal fanbase.

Even building the watches is made easier—and therefore cheaper—thanks to the internet. Businesses that build watches are contactable from the other side of the world without needing air miles every time a new screw needs discussion. It can all happen remotely. That’s the dream: technology making the things we love more plentiful and affordable. Is it true of Xeric?

Review

We’ve got two pieces from the Xeric collection here, the Scrambler in red and the Triptych in blue. Both utilise a very similar wandering hour satellite system used in the very first Urwerk, a complication that was originally presented with hidden subtlety and has since been increasingly pared back to reveal more of the insanity.

The concept is straightforward: each arm of the display mechanism carries a satellite with four hour indicators. Like a fairground ride, the central mechanism rotates and the satellites themselves rotate as well, advancing to the next position in time to meet the minute track along the top of the dial. Whichever number appears along that minute track is the hour and where it appears directs the minutes.

Even the execution, actually, is quite simple. That’s true of the earlier Urwerks too, but of course getting to simple is always the hard bit. Urwerk took this seemingly complicated device and refined it so well that it can be driven by an entirely ordinary, off-the-shelf movement. That’s the reason it can be made available for prices like this, and that’s the genius of Urwerk.

Break it down into its component motions and you’ll see what I mean. That central, three-armed carrier simply rotates as it always does, albeit geared down slightly so a third of a rotation takes an hour. The satellites hang in place, unmoving until each one reaches its advancement point in turn. There, a gear known as a Geneva cross mounted on the underside of the satellite engages with a pin that turns it round an increment to place the next hour in the outermost position.

Think of it like people walking through a turnstile. The turnstile, like our satellite doesn’t rotate until something passes through it. Only difference is with the watch is that we’re saying the turnstile is moving the person is static. Relatively speaking, it’s exactly the same, and just as simple.

Both watches are built on top of a Miyota 90S5, an affordable but reliable movement from Japanese watchmaker, Citizen. The blue Triptych is 42mm across and the red Scrambler narrower thanks to its tonneau case at 40.5mm, although that’s traded against a thickness of 11.6mm for the Triptych and 14.5mm for the Scrambler.

Crystal is sapphire and water resistance 50m, so usability is surprisingly good for such an oddball watch. And that’s really the most important bit; buyers of a Xeric are going out on a limb to find something unusual but affordable that apes the creations of the legendary Urwerk, without splashing out on something that has to be worn with delicacy and care.

I consider it a real privilege to exist in a time when there is so much available for such reasonable prices. Okay, so maybe not standard life items like houses and cars, but at least a Xeric can be a welcome distraction from that disaster of a situation…

Does a cut-price Urwerk inspire you or would you rather throw your $1,000 down a storm drain?