Urban Jürgensen has a rich history that goes back to the late 18th century. The manufacture’s namesake, Urban Jürgensen (1776-1830), along with his father Jürgen Jürgensen, have long been credited with introducing the watch industry to Denmark. Shortly after the birth of his son in 1776, Jürgen Jürgensen moved to Le Locle in Switzerland to work with Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, laying the foundations for a Danish-Swiss connection which persevered well into the late 20th century.
Peter Baumberger acquired the brand in 1976, and together with master English watchmaker Derek Pratt, set about bringing the Urban Jürgensen name – and the legacy of elegant and complicated timepieces it conjures – to the modern era. Pratt of course is one of the most accomplished watchmakers of the 20th century and was a long-standing friend of the late Dr George Daniels. The two shared ideas and collaborated on more than one occasion.
The Reference 1 encapsulates the spirit of Urban Jürgensen perfectly, going the route of melding a calendar complication with a chronograph packaged in a 39mm wide, 12mm thick stepped yellow gold case. While 186 examples were made in yellow gold, subsequently 15 were produced in platinum. The case, perfectly rounded, is marked by a wide midcase from which stems the rotund form of the stepped bezel. Rather than a sharp edge, the bezel flows from the midcase in a most organic way. Similarly, the midcase features a stepped detail on the movement side. The caseback is screwed on and is devoid of any marking or engravings. While the rest of the case is polished, the caseback wears a brushed finish. On the crown side are the two rounded pushers for the chronograph while on the midcase on the other side, between 7 and 9 o’clock, are the two correctors for the calendar complication. The date is corrected via the crown. Arising also from the midcase are the thin, short lugs, that curve down at a sharp angle. They are teardrop-shaped when viewed in profile. They are 20mm apart and come furnished with a brown alligator-grained leather strap secured by a signed yellow gold pin buckle.
The silvered dial has a printed chapter of minute plots separated from the brushed rim that houses the chapter of Roman hours. Both are printed in black and the Roman hours, set against a satinated backdrop, reveal beautiful volume and lustre on close examination. Each chapter is separated from the next one by a sauté piqué rim. The centre of the dial wears a fine Clous de Paris relief, punctuated by the three chronograph registers, the windows of the calendar complication as well as the arc that bears the brand mark at 12 o’clock.
The three chronograph registers bear a similar layout – they have a brushed outer rim with centres adorned with guilloché in a chequered pattern. Worth noting is the fact that in this era of the brand, many of the dials were engine-turned by Pratt himself. The 12-hour chronograph register is also home to the moonphase display. Finishes have been deployed to aid readability – the chronograph hands are all heat blued while the time-telling indicators are golden. By the same token, the calendar wheels are silvered and printed in black. The hour and minutes hands are Breguet style.
Powering it is the self-winding calibre 3019PHF, a refined iteration of the El Primero calibre, and finished well. It is obscured from view by the classically faithful closed caseback.
This is a fine example of the Reference 1, accompanied by its outer and inner boxes and its user manual. It is imbued with the occasion as the first of the numbered series of watches produced during the Baumgartner–Pratt years of Urban Jurgensen’s history. It is doubly interesting given the imminent revival of the brand under Kari Voutilainen’s stewardship.
