n almost 100 years and four generations of writing and publishing about horology, here in Europa Star‘s columns we have covered any number of relaunches of historic brands, but few have been as meticulously orchestrated as that of Urban Jürgensen this year. The American Rosenfield family, who acquired the brand, turned to master watchmaker Kari Voutilainen to conceptualise the ambitious models that mark this rebirth, presented at a launch which outshone any previous event of this kind (since, perhaps, Breguet marked its return in grand style at Versailles).

This revival was several years in preparation, after the Rosenfields purchased the company in 2021. The first models were unveiled several thousand miles from Switzerland or Denmark, the home of the Jürgensen dynasty, in Los Angeles, where the Rosenfields, veteran watch collectors, are based. Patriarch Andrew Rosenfield, 73, is a philanthropist with a successful career in finance; his son, Alex, 38, is a prominent figure in the worlds of fashion and media and, alongside Kari Voutilainen, 63, co-chief executive of the brand.

The early days: the Age of Enlightenment

Urban Jürgensen is a direct descendant of the Enlightenment spirit that forged modern watchmaking as a science and an art. The first stone was laid by his father, Jürgen Jürgensen, who in April 1773, at the age of 28, presented a repeating watch to the Danish Watchmakers Guild in Copenhagen, earning the title of master watchmaker. He trained under the foremost specialists in Switzerland and Germany, in a century when men and women of science and letters – indiscriminately – travelled through Europe, ignoring the separations between countries and disciplines in their thirst for knowledge.

Urban Jürgensen was of similar ilk. Barely out of his teens – and, let us not forget, in a late eighteenth century rife with revolution – he left Denmark for Le Locle, where he studied under the tutelage of Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, a close friend of his father. From there, his grand tour took him to the workshops of Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris (where he also met Ferdinand Berthoud), then to John Arnold in London. Breguet and Arnold were close despite the conflict that opposed their two countries: Europe’s thinkers, whose concerns lay far from the battlefield, remained united in their desire to progress knowledge.

Urban Jürgensen studied under the leading lights of European watchmaking in the late eighteenth century: Abraham-Louis Breguet, John Arnold and Jacques-Frédéric Houriet.

And so the young Dane learned from the greatest horological minds of his time (some would say, of all time). He compiled his knowledge into a treatise consulted by every Danish watchmaker, supplied the Danish royal court with marine chronometers and was granted the right to sell his own production (for a more detailed account of Urban Jürgensen’s life and work in five chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Urban Jürgensen’s workshop and home in Copenhagen. He supplied the court of Denmark, a seafaring nation, with marine chronometers.

Says Alex Rosenfield, “Urban synthesised these influences into a philosophy that transcended the boundaries of any single tradition. His work combined French precision, British practicality and Swiss artistry to create timepieces that were both technically groundbreaking and exquisitely beautiful, through a distinctly Danish lens – one that paired elegant simplicity with a profound appreciation for time’s rhythm, shaped by the extreme contrasts of Nordic seasons.”

“What’s remarkable,” adds Kari Voutilainen, “is how Urban didn’t just learn from these traditions – he distilled them into something uniquely his own. His time in Switzerland deepened his appreciation for precision and craftsmanship. From Breguet in Paris, he drew elegant design principles and theoretical insight, while Arnold in London instilled in him the practical ingenuity and robust engineering essential in creating instruments for maritime navigation.”

A further two generations of Jürgensen succeeded Urban in the nineteenth century, with several companies simultaneously bearing the family name, merging into a single entity only in the 2000s. The brand would pass through various hands and numerous repositionings before finally re-emerging in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

The second golden age: the mechanical revival

One bright day in 1976, on a visit to Copenhagen, Swiss watch dealer and collector Peter Baumberger came across a small shop where Christian Gundesen, owner of the rights to the Urban Jürgensen name, presented antique Jürgensen timepieces, publications and various souvenirs of the great master. By now, Jürgensen’s glory days seemed relegated to a distant past, though temporarily revived by the Danish Watchmakers Guild (the very one which, two centuries earlier, had approved Jürgen Jürgensen’s masterpiece), which was celebrating the bicentennial of Urban’s birth.

Gundesen had dressed the shop’s window for the occasion, and this caught Baumberger’s eye. Undeterred by the travails of Switzerland’s watchmakers, who were feeling the first heat of the quartz revolution that would sweep away everything in its path, he resolved to restore Urban Jürgensen to its former glory.

Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt, the duo behind Urban Jurgensen’s “second golden age”, from the 1970s to the 2000s. At the height of the quartz era, their ambition was to do justice to watchmaking’s finest artisanal techniques.

To help him achieve this, Baumberger could count on the technical ingenuity of one of the greatest watchmakers of the latter half of the twentieth century: Englishman Derek Pratt, a contemporary of George Daniels. Together, they created an initial series of pocket watches which set a remarkable standard of quality and would pave the way for a new generation of wristwatches.

©Archives Europa Star 1991

As these pages from Europa Star show, Urban Jürgensen directly contributed to the revival of mechanical watchmaking in Switzerland in the 1990s.

©Archives Europa Star 1992

Stepped cases, elegant teardrop lugs and meticulously crafted, two-tone, frosted and hand-guilloché dials honoured Urban Jürgensen’s legacy. At the same time, Baumberger and Pratt embarked on an ambitious project to make a mechanical wristwatch that would be as accurate and efficient as a marine chronometer. This would lead to the presentation, in 2011, of Calibre P8: the brand’s first modern, serially-produced movement.

©Archives Europa Star 2011

A 2011 article on the detent escapement for a wristwatch, the work of Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt, both recently deceased. Assisted by Kari Voutilainen and Jean-François Mojon, watch expert Helmut Crott took the reins.

©Archives Europa Star 2011

In 1996 Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt enlisted the services of a young Finnish watchmaker, a certain Kari Voutilainen who quickly became a key member of the team. He recalls how “I had created a tourbillon pocket watch that was displayed at an exhibition in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Peter was quite impressed and he wanted to purchase it, but I decided to keep the piece for myself. That encounter marked the beginning of our relationship, and I soon began work with Peter on various projects for Urban Jürgensen alongside Derek Pratt, one of horology’s true masters who had a unique ability to blend traditional craftsmanship with technical innovation.”

The 21^st century: the rise of the independents

This relationship continued even after Kari Voutilainen decided to set up his own brand. “Peter became my biggest customer when I started out as an independent watchmaker in 2002,” he explains. “He gave me the possibility to be independent. In a way, we have come full circle.” These years at Urban Jürgensen would be pivotal for the Finnish watchmaker, not least in shaping the absolute dedication to finishing that characterises his work.

Under Peter Baumberger’s stewardship, the brand was, says Voutilainen, “ahead of its time” with its stated ambition to make contemporary watches whose uncompromising craftsmanship and subtle beauty mirror nineteenth-century production (today, finishing is paramount and certainly more highly prized than it was then). After Derek Pratt and Peter Baumberger passed away, horology expert Helmut Crott took up the mantle and steered the brand through this transitional period (read Helmut Crott’s tribute to Peter Baumberger, in Europa Star).

Andrew and Alex Rosenfield, a family at the head of Urban Jürgensen.

©Madison McGaw BFA

Between 2017 and 2021, a new group of investors expanded production, including sports watches. However, for Kari Voutilainen, “craftsmanship and rarity are at the heart of Urban Jürgensen and this philosophy benefits from the new ecosystem of collectors and means of communication. For us to position ourselves thus, we had to start from scratch, making a clean sweep of the immediate past. When I work on our movements, I’m acutely aware that I’m adding to a storied lineage that stretches from Urban’s groundbreaking escapement designs to Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt’s own revolutionary work.” Which brings us to the present-day revival.

The 2025 collection

A few months before we met with the Finnish master watchmaker, in a suite overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Oval Pocket Watch N°1, created by Derek Pratt for Urban Jürgensen and from Helmut Crott’s personal collection, had hammered at Phillips for CHF 3 million.

Completed in 2005, the Oval represented more than 20 years of painstaking labour. This landmark piece, which Derek Pratt began in 1982, received its finishing touches from Kari Voutilainen’s hand. The only one of its kind, it is equipped with a one-minute flying tourbillon with a cage-mounted remontoir, an Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement and a moon-phase display.

The Oval, which sold at auction in 2024 for CHF 3 million, is representative of Derek Pratt’s watchmaking genius. It is equipped with a one-minute flying tourbillon with a cage-mounted constant-force remontoir, an Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement and a moon-phase display.

It is also the watch that would lead directly to the UJ-1, the first of the three models in the launch collection. Commemorating Urban Jürgensen’s 250th anniversary, the UJ-1 serves as a bridge across eras by transposing Derek Pratt’s legendary oval pocket watch into wristwatch form. It too features a tourbillon, a remontoir that delivers constant force to the escapement, and deadbeat seconds.

Miniaturisation of the Oval’s movement, inside the UJ-1, represents a genuine tour de force.

The man who completed the Oval in 2005 also miniaturised its movement, to give it new life in wristwatch form: a remarkable accomplishment. “The pocket watch is wound by a key, hence we had to adapt the entire mechanism so it could be wound by the crown,” Kari Voutilainen explains. “The architecture for the tourbillon cage has also been extensively rethought.” The UJ-1 is proposed as a 75-piece limited edition, in three executions of 25 pieces each. Price is CHF 368,000.

The UJ-2, a study in elegance, attention to detail and exquisite finishing, with the double wheel natural escapement that is the brand’s new signature.

The UJ-2 three-hand watch and the UJ-3 perpetual calendar with instantaneous moon phase are both distinguished by a double wheel natural escapement, a new signature of the brand. Descended from the work of Abraham-Louis Breguet, perfected by Kari Voutilainen and specifically designed for the collection, its two escape wheels deliver a direct impulse to the balance. On both models, the two wheels can be seen synchronously functioning under the balance bridge.

“The free-sprung balance with direct double wheel escapement is an aspiration I had set my sights on when I began as an independent watchmaker,” says Kari Voutilainen. “I have adapted it specifically to Urban Jürgensen. This escapement design embodies what has driven me throughout my career: the desire to enhance traditional watchmaking principles while respecting their core wisdom. Its significance lies in how it addresses the age-old challenge of reducing friction while achieving the optimum transfer of energy efficiently and precisely within a mechanical watch.”

This system delivers a direct impulse to the balance through an impulse roller, achieving up to 30% more power efficiency than a traditional Swiss lever escapement. The double wheel, featuring an overcoil and Grossmann inner curve, ensures a smoother energy transfer from the gear train to the hands. The new movement provides the base for future designs and complications.

A lesson in restrained and refined aesthetics, stripped of unnecessary frills, the UJ-2 is the epitome of “quiet luxury”, although such artistry and artisanship is perhaps better described as “timeless luxury”. This is luxury that will last a lifetime, even several lifetimes, distinguished by an unparalleled sense of precision and detail, and entirely hand-finished. Non-limited, the UJ-2 is offered as four versions in platinum or rose gold, for CHF 105,000.

The UJ-3, a collaboration with Andreas Strehler, combines a precision moon-phase indication that is accurate for 14,000 years with Urban Jürgensen’s double wheel natural escapement.

For the third piece in the launch collection, Kari Voutilainen collaborated with engineer and master watchmaker Andreas Strehler. The UJ-3 combines Strehler’s precision moon-phase indication (accurate for 14,000 years) with Urban Jürgensen’s direct double wheel escapement. It is the first serially-produced perpetual calendar to incorporate this type of escapement.

Why call on Andreas Strehler for the UJ-3? Kari Voutilainen’s answer is simple: “Because he is the master of calendars! Also, because I would rather work with a friend, someone of immense worth whom I hold in great esteem.” Non-limited, the UJ-3 is listed at CHF 168,000.

This trio of models, which could be described as neo-classical, and their price, position Urban Jürgensen in the (very) high-end segment. They reflect the brand’s lofty ambitions for its “third golden age” — not simply to copy the past but to marry mechanical invention with elegant design. All three watches feature a more moderately sized case with recognisable teardrop lugs.

Thus the collection explores distinct creative directions, all of which open up multiple perspectives, be this a certain sense of continuity with the UJ-1, or innovation with the UJ-2 and UJ-3.

The production challenge

Considering their complex mechanisms and the exacting standard of finishing required for each component, the principle challenge now, according to Kari Voutilainen, will be to meet demand which, given everything the relaunched brand has to offer, will certainly exceed production.

“Each Urban Jürgensen watch takes, on average, a month for a master watchmaker to create,” notes Alex Rosenfield. “Because of this, production initially is limited to very small numbers and we will be working directly with clients.”

©Ellen von Unwerth

“Finishing isn’t just decoration – it is intrinsic to the watch’s character,” Rosenfield adds. “Consider our signature ‘observatory’ hands. Each set is entirely hand-crafted in-house and requires over 50 separate operations, including careful flame-bluing to achieve that rich, deep blue hue. The openworked hour hand, with its characteristic ‘eye’, alone comprises four separate components. The hand-finished anglage on our cases creates subtle plays of light, while our engine-turned guilloché dials require an average of four days per watch.”

©Ellen von Unwerth

The brand also draws on entities managed by Kari Voutilainen, such as Brodbeck, a specialist in guilloché. A man of many talents and activities, the Finn can count on the support of his daughter, Venla, (read our portrait of father and daughter in issue 3/25), which facilitated his decision to become part of the adventure in 2021. “Fortunately, I knew the brand well,” he continues, “although we did have to put a lot of things in place during Covid, from assembling the team to ordering components. But there is no way round it. Making beautiful watches takes time.”

Qualified watchmakers were given the necessary training, swelling the ranks of a team that now comprises some twenty people, based in Biel/Bienne: “We wanted controlled growth as we also had to establish our corporate culture.”

Urban Jürgensen is a multi-generational brand for both the Rosenfield and Voutilainen families, with Venla Voutilainen at the head of the after-sales department. “It is my core belief that it is through after-sales service that we forge lasting relationships,” offers Kari Voutilainen. “My daughter, Venla, is an accomplished master watchmaker who brings her technical expertise and a profound understanding of what makes an Urban Jürgensen watch special.”

Indeed, the presence of Kari Voutilainen is instrumental in the revival of this prestigious brand, established in Copenhagen in 1773. The Finnish watchmaker brings immediate credibility, legitimacy and visibility in a landscape dominated by independent artisanal Haute Horlogerie, in addition to a clientele that includes some of the foremost collectors. However, while the master watchmaker’s hand is evident in the models and their finishing, their spirit and lineage is unquestionably that of Urban Jürgensen.

Observers will no doubt wonder how the two brands will co-exist at relatively similar price points (bearing in mind the extended wait times at Kari Voutilainen, the winner of 11 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève awards, more than any other independent watchmaker). Alex Rosenfield shares his analysis of what differentiates the two: “Kari functions as an atelier with very limited production; Urban Jürgensen positions itself more as a ‘brand’. Not all production will be limited… but all the finishing will be as only Kari knows how.”

Jürgensen, Voutilainen, Rosenfield: longstanding ties

The Rosenfield family and Urban Jürgensen go back decades, to the 1990s when Andrew Rosenfield, an admirer of independent watch brands, including Kari Voutilainen, was already collecting Urban Jürgensen, under Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt.

“Our family has a long relationship with Kari,” Alex Rosenfield explains. “When we purchased the brand in 2021, the first thing we did was call him. We knew the company had to be helmed by a watchmaker and, more so, someone of Kari’s ilk and with his deep experience of Urban Jürgensen.”

He believes family ownership allows them to focus on the long term: “We are not driven by short-term success, nor constrained by bureaucratic leadership. We are free to invest, modernise and build the company with a focus purely on enduring value creation both as owners and for collectors.”

Feel the “hygge”

The brand’s image is as distinctive and finely wrought as its watches. Its visual identity borrows the handwriting of the founder of the Jürgensen dynasty and pairs it with whimsical, Nordic-inspired imagery. It’s a narrative imagined by Alex Rosenfield who has charge of the brand’s creative direction, strategy, operations and sales, drawing on his experience as a media and fashion brand strategist. With an admirable sense of detail, he was spotted at the launch party, which the Rosenfields hosted at their Los Angeles home, wearing trousers printed with images inspired by the Jürgensens’ life and watches!

©Casey Zhang

Alex Rosenfield insists on the quiet joy Urban Jürgensen must symbolise — not unlike the Danish concept of “hygge”, which is about savouring life’s small moments. This new image is reflected in the Time Well Spent campaign: a series of portraits by renowned fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth.

©Ellen von Unwerth

The decision to launch the new Urban Jürgensen in the United States, the most dynamic market for watch sales these past years, suggests that this is where part of the historic Danish brand’s fortunes will play out.

And so this specialist in marine chronometers has crossed an ocean — although America is by no means unknown territory for Urban Jürgensen. In 1919 Henry Freund & Bros., the brand’s largest distributor in New York, partnered with the Biel-based Ed. Heuer & Co. to purchase the assets of Urban Jürgensen Copenhagen. Between 1919 and 1930, several series of slim, elegant, innovative pocket watches were produced, in Biel and under American ownership. History is an eternal recommencement and nowhere more than in watchmaking.

©Casey Zhang