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Guggenheim's Rosenfield revives Danish brand selling $581,000 watches
The UJ-3 has an instantaneous jump mechanism at midnight that keeps the moon phase accurate to within one day every 14,000 years. PHOTO: URBAN JURGENSEN
LOS ANGELES – Urban Jurgensen, a Scandinavian watch brand with a history dating back more than 250 years, is now being revived, thanks to a partnership between an American-based finance family and independent watchmaker Kari Voutilainen.
Its first three watches were officially launched in Los Angeles on June 5 – the result of 3½ years of research and development. The timepieces range in price from about US$125,000 (S$160,000) to more than US$400,000 and are marketed under the slogan, 'Time well spent'.
'We are bringing expert Swiss watchmaking and exquisite craftsmanship together with the Scandinavian heritage of the brand, so people can appreciate it all in a modern way,' says Mr Alex Rosenfield, who co-owns the brand with his father, Mr Andy Rosenfield, and Mr Voutilainen.
The younger Mr Rosenfield's background is in fashion and beauty marketing, and his father is a philanthropist and the president of the financial services firm Guggenheim Partners.
The three timepieces represent the revival of a brand that traces its roots to 1773, when Danish watchmaker Jorgen Jurgensen started creating his own pocket watches – far away from the watchmaking heartlands of Switzerland and France.
Later, his son Urban took over the helm. A master of mechanics and crafts, Urban built some of the finest pocket watches of the time. The company was handed down from generation to generation until the early 1900s, when it was sold and, in the ensuing years under several different owners, its popularity declined.
The brand enjoyed a second renaissance when Swiss watch collector Peter Baumberger purchased the company in 1979 and brought British watchmaker Derek Pratt on board to create beautiful pocket watches, some oval in shape – including the Pratt Oval, a rare masterpiece – and others with teardrop-shaped lugs.
In 1996, Mr Baumberger hired Mr Voutilainen, the cult Finnish watchmaker, to work on new movements for wristwatches.
Those round wristwatches featured design aesthetics such as teardrop lugs, stepped bezels and small subsidiary seconds dials, embracing a Danish minimalist, comfortable and functional design style.
Mr Voutilainen says he honed his unique finishing skills, the distinctive techniques that define his work, while at the company.
Today, he is one of the most celebrated and award-winning independent watchmakers, known for his mastery of the art of engine turning dials by hand on vintage machines, for his incredibly complex finishes on movement parts and his complicated horological movements.
While he was passionate about propelling the brand forward, Mr Baumberger died at the age of 71 in 2010, which ushered in a new set of owners and diminished demand.
Then, four years ago, in 2021, Mr Andy Rosenfield, who is also a watch collector, purchased the Urban Jurgensen brand with a small group of investors, with the goal to propel it into a third golden age.
(From left) Master watchmaker Kari Voutilainen and Mr Alex Rosenfield, who co-owns the Urban Jurgensen brand with his father and Mr Voutilainen.
PHOTO: URBAN JURGENSEN
Already an owner of several Voutilainen watches, Mr Rosenfield brought Mr Voutilainen on board, along with his own son Alex, to act as co-chief executives. While the Rosenfields own 85 per cent of the business, Mr Voutilainen and some family and friends own the remaining 15 per cent.
Together, the co-CEOs vowed to return Urban Jurgensen to its former glory but with a modern twist.
'Our goal is to take our Danish spirit and to create a brand that feels joyful and welcoming. The watches were designed by Kari to be appealing to both men and women,' says the elder Mr Rosenfield. 'He designed a new case and lug shape for the watches that make them sit very comfortably on a smaller wrist.'
The round cases are 39mm and 39.5mm in diameter and boast either shortened lugs or reinterpreted teardrop-designed lugs to fit nicely on the wrist.
The new Urban Jurgensen watches are made in Switzerland. They are powered by in-house movements designed by Mr Voutilainen and made in the Urban Jurgensen workshops in Biel.
Two of the three watches are based on a pre-existing Voutilainen calibre that has been adapted. It features a free-spring balance wheel with direct double-wheel escapement. Each is crafted in limited numbers.
The UJ-1 watch, for instance, is built in a limited edition of just 75 pieces.
Also referred to as the 250th Anniversary watch, it boasts a 39.5mm case and houses a complex gold movement with tourbillon remontoir escapement, which compensates for errors in timekeeping due to the effects of gravity and brings constant force for precision.
The watch was inspired by the Pratt Oval, with details such as hand-guilloche finishes, an asymmetric minute track and a gold subsidiary dial.
Retailing for 368,000 Swiss francs (S$581,000), it is crafted in either rose gold or platinum and features a hand-finished dial in silver or grey. Three combinations will be offered in runs of 25 of each.
The plan is to create just 75 each of the other two watches as well. The UJ-2 watch (105,000 francs) is an elegant time-only watch.
Created in cooperation with another top independent watchmaker, Mr Andreas Strehler, the UJ-3 is a perpetual calendar with an instantaneous jump mechanism at midnight that keeps the moon phase accurate to within one day every 14,000 years. It retails for 168,000 francs.
The brand expects to make fewer than 100 watches in its first year, then double that in the next. Unlike Mr Voutilainen's namesake brand, which makes about 60 watches a year, Mr Rosenfield says Urban Jurgensen will aim to steadily grow over the course of years, focusing on developing new complications.
Currently, the watches are available only directly to consumers online.
'This collection is a tribute to Urban Jurgensen and his unique and extraordinary legacy. It's rooted in everything that defines who we are: precision, artistry and a profound respect for the value of time,' says Mr Voutilainen.
'We want to keep the brand rare, and while we want to grow it, we can't grow too fast. We want to keep building the most sophisticated movements and create watches with a soul.' Bloomberg
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