Founded in Copenhagen in 1773, Urban Jürgensen is one of the world’s oldest watch companies with an uninterrupted history. Despite this longevity, the brand has nonetheless mastered the art of relevancy in the modern age, capturing the attention of contemporary aficionados while retaining its traditional values. The key lies in an unbounded, unflagging spirit and the work of a string of legendary independent watchmakers, most notably Kari Voutilainen.

Established by Jürgen Jürgensen in his native Copenhagen – and expanded by his firstborn son Urban, who gave the brand its name – the company was already 189 years old when Voutilainen was born in 1962 in Rovaniemi, Finland. Voutilainen sought horological education in Switzerland (following both Jürgen and Urban nearly two centuries earlier), settling in Môtiers, where his first speciality was restoration.
The UJ-2’s elegant hand-guilloché dial
Between the original Jürgensen family heirs, who sold in 1936, and Voutilainen’s first involvement with the company in 1996, the brand had a chequered history. It more or less slumbered until 1974, thanks to a series of ownership changes, and in 1979, at the height of the quartz crisis, it was rejuvenated by Swiss watchmaker Peter Baumberger.

Baumberger’s takeover positioned the small brand to make a quiet comeback at the highest end of watchmaking at the start of the mechanical renaissance, with breathtaking timepieces springing from collaboration with masters in independent horology. Dr Helmut Crott, who later took over leadership of the brand, credits Baumberger’s vision with having “rescued and revived” it.
The UJ-1’s beautifully constructed tourbillon
The watchmakers Baumberger brought in included Derek Pratt and, in 1996, Voutilainen, whose reputation as a master of both technical execution and hand-finishing was just beginning to grow. Baumberger’s goal was to create exceptionally small production series of exclusive, complicated wristwatches. The rarity of the pieces gave them an almost underground feeling, a whispered secret only for a few initiated collectors. This air of mystery came to be associated with the brand just as much as the timepieces’ beautiful teardrop lugs, a hallmark. The high quality of the complicated watches with wonderful guilloché dials spoke for itself; serious collectors lined up (and today, still avidly seek models from this era).

By the early 2000s, Baumberger and now-technical director Pratt had created plans for the UJS-P8, an in-house chronometer wristwatch with detent escapement, the first of its kind, cleverly riffing on Urban’s marine chronometer history. Involving independent movement design specialist Jean-François Mojon to make it suitable for serial production, the watch arrived in 2011. By then, the independent virtuoso Voutilainen had already worked with Urban Jürgensen on many occasions, and here, he assisted in developing the P8’s prototypes and was responsible for assembling, finishing and regulating the movements.
A caseback view of the UJ-2
It was to be a decade of transition, as both Pratt and Baumberger had passed away by 2010. At that time, Dr Crott, a noted vintage specialist, former auctioneer and investor, stepped in to steward the exclusive brand into its future – which arrived in 2021, when Andrew Rosenfield and his son Alex, prominent watch collectors and businessmen, led the acquisition of Urban Jürgensen.

Relaunching earlier this year, the brand is now shepherded by Kari Voutilainen and Alex Rosenfield as co-CEOs. “The story of Urban Jürgensen is one of passing the torch through generations of master watchmakers,” says Alex Rosenfield. “This is another such handover moment.” Up to the takeover point, fewer than 1,000 wristwatches had been produced by Urban Jürgensen.

Urban Jürgensen’s new owners are continuing the tradition of independence, focusing on the meticulous in-house craftsmanship and innovation. The brand introduced three new wristwatches at its 2025 launch, all featuring captivating new in-house movements and designs that lead the brand to a new generation of collectors.


The new timepieces showcase technical achievements while honouring the brand’s heritage: the UJ-1 serves as a bridge across time, honouring Derek Pratt’s Oval Pocket Watch and featuring a tourbillon with a remontoir d’égalité providing constant force to the escapement and incorporates deadbeat seconds. The movement of the three-hand UJ-2, meanwhile, contains the brand’s double-wheel natural escapement, in which technical beauty and philosophy come together. And the UJ-3 is a perpetual calendar with an instantaneous moonphase built around the double-wheel natural escapement. Their intricate dials all feature hand-guilloché perfection, while their freshly designed platinum and rose-gold cases feature a modern take on the classic teardrop-shaped lugs the brand is so known for. It goes without saying that the movements are expertly hand-finished with exceptional artisanship.

“The blend of Danish design and Swiss craftsmanship has always been the cornerstone of Urban Jürgensen’s identity,” says Voutilainen. “Denmark gave us a design philosophy centred on elegance and restraint, while Switzerland anchored us in precision and horological mastery. Our watches will remain clean, minimalistic and graceful in their design, reflecting Danish aesthetics; at the same time, they’ll be driven by the kind of innovation and technical expertise that Swiss watchmaking excellence stands for.” It’s an admirable combination of old and new – and it’s already seeing collectors flocking to get their hands on the new creations.
The UJ-3 model

All photos © Urban Jürgensen