Despite missing the original 2023 target, the revival of Urban Jürgensen has proceeded surprisingly swiftly, especially since the brand is making its debut with three all-new models, including the flagship UJ-1 tourbillon – a substantial achievement in a relatively short period of time.

The brand was only acquired at end 2021 by a consortium led by American financier Andrew Rosenfield, which installed Kari Voutilainen at its helm, whose presence explains a great deal of the brand’s momentum and product quality.

The impressive UJ-1 movement with a flying tourbillon incorporating a remontoir

Mr Voutilainen is now co-chief executive of Urban Jürgensen as well as a shareholder; the watches certainly bear the hallmarks of his work, namely top-class execution. Rosenfield senior’s son, Alex, is fellow co-chief executive primarily focused on crafting the brand’s image, which is a little fresher than the artisanal watches would imply.

Now in his seventies, Rosenfield senior is president of Guggenheim Partners, the investment bank and asset manager, but more importantly, a collector of independent watchmaking for several decades. Mr Rosenfield has been a client of Mr Voutilainen’s for many years now, and owns one of the biggest collections of the watchmaker’s timepieces in the world.

Andrew Rosenfield. Image – Urban Jürgensen

The allure

A wealthy, successful individual buying a watch brand is not a novel happening. The allure of owning a prestigious luxury watch marque is undeniable.

Such ventures rarely end well, often because the investors understanding business and finance but not the watch industry; the watchmakers or brand entrepreneurs take advantage of that ignorance.

One of the earliest instances of such a venture that I encountered personally was Cabestan around 16 years ago. That did not end well.

Urban Jürgensen, however, is a story that will probably unfold differently. The brand has several factors in its favour, all of which imply longevity.

The UJ-1

The people

The most obvious strength of Urban Jürgensen is not that brand itself or its history, but Kari Voutilainen. Mr Voutilainen is a great watchmaker, but also a businessman, and I mean that in the best possible way. He has built his own brand into a vertically integrated enterprise that produces watches as well as many of the components required, mostly famously guilloche dials but also cases and soon, even enamelling.

Crucially, Mr Voutilainen has managed to expand and integrate the business while maintaining an impressively high standard of quality. I’ve said this before and will repeat it again: Voutilainen produces exceptional watches on a surprisingly large scale for its level of artisanal quality. Granted, delivery times have suffered and the wait for a Voutilainen is now officially six to eight years, though I expect that to shorten in due time because Mr Voutilainen knows what he’s doing.

The UJ-1 from the back

Mr Voutilainen’s partners also seem to be the right fit. The Rosenfield family can afford to bankroll a watch brand, but more than that Rosenfield senior seems to have grasp the nuances of watch collecting, watchmaking, and the watch industry. He told me he’s in the business for the long term, and I believe him.

Alex Rosenfield, on the other hand, has brought a new approach to building Urban Jürgensen as a brand. The watches are unquestionably old school in styling and quality, but the branding is offbeat and whimsical, with several humorous references to Urban Jürgensen’s Danish roots including fish, chinaware, and a Great Dane.

The only brand I can think of that successfully blends luxury and whimsy is Hermes, so the bar is high, but it is a useful way an otherwise niche watch brand to a new audience. For the traditional audience, the quality of the watches – and the Voutilainen name – are enough.

Kari Voutilainen (left), and Alex Rosenfield. Image – Urban Jürgensen

The product

Today’s Urban Jürgensen watches far exceed the quality of the 1990s watches. While the earlier generation of wristwatches had fine, artisanal cases and dials, the movements were largely off-the-rack calibres, mostly from Frederic Piguet. The Ref. 1 of that period was powered by the Zenith El Primero, a decidedly mid-range movement at best.

Now Urban Jürgensen is genuine high-end watchmaking, through and through. The styling and quality is familiar and reminiscent of Voutilainen, but also different. The fact that Urban Jürgensen is its own brand probably allowed Mr Voutilainen to experiment a tiny bit more than he would have with his own brand.

Mr Voutilainen cleverly designed a riff on the teardrop lugs that were once a hallmark of Urban Jürgensen but are now more synonymous with Voutilainen. The stubby lugs work surprisingly well and instantly give the new watches a distinct identity, despite the overall classical styling.

The signature lugs of the revived brand

The watches are made by Voutilainen in some sense, but in reality much of the value added, namely decoration, is done by the Urban Jürgensen team in its Bienne workshop – in the proper, manual manner.

Modern manufacturing and clever suppliers can fabricate parts today that are appear almost finished out of the machine, with only a quick veneer of hand finishing required to simulate the appearance of tedious traditional decoration.

The refined engine turning on all the dials is the work of Voutilainen naturally

The time-only UJ-2 is powered by a movement inspired by the 19th century “Jurgensen” calibre

I spoke with Stephan Bastide, one of the brand’s decorators, and quizzed him on the techniques employed, including how frosting is applied and if mechanical methods are employed for the tubular steel bridge. Mr Bastide responded convincingly and precisely on the work done; I am glad to say that Urban Jürgensen still does it the old fashioned way.

Ironically, the latest trio of Urban Jürgensen watches are arguably more authentically artisanal and haute horlogerie than several of today’s “hot” indie watchmakers. Even though the brand is owned by investors across the Atlantic, Urban Jürgensen is the real deal.

The UJ-1 movement was modelled on the Oval pocket watch made by Derek Pratt for Urban Jürgensen from the 1980s to early 2000s

The brand’s intellectual property is in-house, much of the design work was done by Mr Voutilainen, the manufacturing is partly in-house, while the decoration and completion is entirely in-house.

The only weakness of Urban Jürgensen today, in my opinion, is the pricing. It’s steep for an unproven brand, though it is arguably appropriate given the quality since the three models are priced comparably to equivalent Voutilainen watches.

Even if the pricing is justified, it isn’t the strong value proposition that an emerging independent brand should be. That said, the price index of the watch market as a whole is at a high, and I would buy a UJ-2 over many of the similarly priced time-only watches from other new(ish) independent makers.

Also, Urban Jürgensen is planning to sell direct to clients for the most part, rather than having retailers and distributors. This makes sense, since independent brands with the right products, like Urban Jürgensen, arguably do not need third-party channels to sell watches. Going direct to the client also means the brand retains most of the margin, which helps its longevity.