Urban Renewal
The watches are beautiful, the ambition unmatched, and the price point unapologetic. The Danish heritage brand Urban Jürgensen is back — and with a bang. The rake reports from the spectacular relaunch.
Travelling from London to Los Angeles for 48 hours takes some justification. It has to be worth it, especially if you’ve been to L.A. before and the bungalow neighbourhoods make you feel very far from the warm embrace of London’s multistorey comforts. L.A. is many things, but it is not cosy.
It might surprise you to hear that my reluctance to travel halfway around the world submitted to a little-known watch brand called Urban Jürgensen. This Danish heritage maker was being relaunched after quietus and speculation over the past few years, and the announcement of the relaunch was accompanied by the kind of fanfare you do not expect from an independent brand: journalists flown in from all over the world, campaign imagery shot by Ellen von Unwerth, and a vast dinner and concert inside an aircraft hangar were among the highlights. Furthermore, the central figure in the operation showed that the new owners were not messing around. Kari Voutilainen, the Finnish co-Chief Executive and designer, is widely regarded as one of the greatest watchmakers, with a thriving business under his own name.
The ‘co-’ to his C.E.O. is Alex Rosenfield, a lithe James Marsden duplicate whose father, Andy Rosenfield, has collected Urban Jürgensen since the seventies. It both is — and is not — a family affair. The Rosenfields are dotted around the United States but are originally from Chicago. They all cut something of a dash, impervious to European snobbery about sophisticated American families, and while Andy clearly passed on his sartorial chops to his children, he is only half the equation, with the matriarch, Betsy, taking the lead. This has been useful, considering the brand wanted to keep the rebuild under wraps. Indeed, Alex credits much of the successful revival to the family. “I have been incredibly lucky,” he says. “We didn’t want anything out there before we were ready, and we are not part of a large corporation, so the family have been the sounding board, both mine and the Voutilainen family.”
The relaunch was bookended by two different but spectacular events. The first was chez Rosenfield in leafy Brentwood, which, even in a neighbourhood in which there are numerous attractive residences, was remarkable, showing a dedication to refinement over decadence, a quality that will always merit The Rake’s approval.
Chez Rosenfield showed a dedication to refinement over decadence, a quality that will always merit our approval.
By this time there were renderings and press releases but still no watches to be seen, for the official unveiling came the next morning. As the cars to the old post office in Santa Monica left our hotel, L.A.’s June gloom lifted and sunshine haloed the event. Kari and Alex took to the stage, having been expertly introduced by The Rake’s founder, Wei Koh, and they revealed the three watches in the new collection. We learned about the brand’s heritage in Denmark, which in the late 18th century was becoming an expanding naval power, so horolog y was the applied art du jour. We learned how
Urban Jürgensen’s mantle was actually passed down to him by his father, Jørgen, and how this era of the brand is very much forward- thinking but with large rearview mirrors.
Then we got to examine the watches in detail.
This piece is referred to as the 250th anniversary watch, which may be a couple of years late, as the brand was founded in 1773, but the delay is more than obscured by this amazing piece. It is a startlingly complex homage to the oval pocket-watch of the brand’s former owner Derek Pratt. Starting from inside, it features an in-house movement in rose gold with a flying tourbillon that is concealed when worn, and 47 hours of power reserve once hand-wound. What it conceals is a significant feat: a tourbillon with a spring remontoir d’égalité. What this does is counter what is, in essence, a high carbon footprint from the tourbillon, whose added weight uses a lot of energ y.
The dial is a refined, elegant guilloché with a fractional power reserve at 12 and small seconds at six. The three styles (two platinum case variants and a rose-gold case) are limited to 25 pieces each.
My favourite of the three (specifically the UJ-2-RG-B-001), with its scrumptious blue and rose-gold combination on the dial, the UJ-2 is a nod to Kari’s own 20th anniversary tourbillon, except he has reverted to his fabled teardrop lugs. The overlapping dial rings for the main dial and small seconds at five make me think of the Richard Lange ‘Pour Le Mérite’, my herzelein. The in-house calibre UJ-2 movement includes a double- wheel natural escapement that rounds off a watch that meets the criteria of the brand’s philosophy — of time being kept and spent beautifully.
There are four variables of this watch.
The UJ-2 meets the criteria of the brand’s philosophy — of time being kept and spent beautifully.
The UJ-3 feels like the brand flexing its muscles. The UJ-1 and 2 are both worthy achievements of haute horlogerie, but the perpetual calendar and moonphase brings out the show-off in Voutilainen’s modest manner. There are two versions of the UJ-3, both with a black dial but one with a platinum case and one with rose gold.
The event at Santa Monica airport made even the most ambitious Watches & Wonders booth seem timid. Feeding and watering the 400 or so guests, with live music throughout, and with a separate musical performance on a separate stage thereafter, is not what we expect from independent watch launches. This was pushing the boundaries in a way that is very on-brand for Alex and Kari’s vision.
Was it a picture-perfect relaunch? Well, the answer to that is subjective. My concern lies in the pricing, with everything north of £100,000. This is not to say the watches are worth a cent less, as value is not being disputed here. What I’m wary of is the disparity between this new age of Urban Jürgensen and the fact that you can pick up older models for a tenth of the cost. One could argue that this problem is part of what makes the brand special. Alex Rosenfield says, and he can be taken at his word, that the bottom line is not the motivation here; it is about building a brand that shines brighter through more exciting and boundary-breaking watches. The fact this was also the philosophy of previous owner Peter Baumbergerand his design guru Derek Pratt is no coincidence.
Whether the market responds to this new chapter with fervour or circumspection remains to be seen. But if the goal was to make an entrance — to shatter the silence with éclat rather than whisper — then Urban Jürgensen have exceeded expectations. The watches are beautiful, the ambition considerable, and the price unapologetic. In the end, if you’re going to fly halfway around the world for 48 hours, it helps if someone is trying to change the way time is kept, and it’s comforting — cosy, even — to know they are succeeding.
