Our first live auction of 2023, the PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XVII, takes place on May 13 and 14, at La Réserve Genève. The auction includes more than 200 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogs we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sale over the next month, including the four Urban Jürgensen watches seen here.
– By Logan Baker
Urban Jürgensen is one of the greatest horological names of the 18th and 19th centuries, right alongside those of Breguet and Arnold. A contemporary of those more famous French and British names, Urban Jürgensen hailed from Denmark and built a multigenerational dynasty with his father Jørgen Jørgensen and son Jules Jürgensen.
The family firm relocated to Switzerland in the early 19th century, where it has remained ever since under various ownership. One of the more prominent leaders in the company’s modern era was Peter Baumberger, a prominent antique dealer who acquired the rights to the name and company in the late 1970s, guiding it through sheer force of will to become one of the shining lights of Switzerland’s mechanical watchmaking revival in the post-Quartz Revolution era.
Baumberger brought on a talented British watchmaker and restorationist named Derek Pratt, a friend and contemporary of George Daniels, as Urban Jürgensen’s technical director in 1982. Together, Baumberger and Pratt would oversee some of the most exciting watchmaking of the late 20th century, creating an entirely new series of wristwatches that developed a fresh set of aesthetic codes for the centuries-old brand.
The partnership only ended in the late 2000s, after more than two decades of fruitful collaboration, when the pair unfortunately passed away in successive years. Dr. Helmut Crott – the founder of the German auction house, a member of the PHILLIPS advisory board, and a friend of Baumberger – took control of Urban Jürgensen after Baumberger’s death, eventually selling the brand to a consortium of Danish investors in the mid-2010s.
After a few years of slow growth, it was announced in late November 2021 that the Finnish watchmaking superstar Kari Voutilainen had led a group of investors to acquire Urban Jürgensen, subsequently installing himself as the new CEO.
Things have been relatively quiet from the brand ever since. Voutilainen, who previously worked with Urban Jürgensen when it was under Baumberger’s control, has spent the past 18 months restructuring the business and developing a new path forward for the company that closely honors its unique history. He installed his daughter, Venla, a trained watchmaker herself, as the company’s head of aftersales service, and he’s mentioned to me previously to keep an eye out later this year for the first big news from the brand under his leadership, coinciding with Urban Jürgensen’s 250th anniversary.
Urban Jürgensen, a company that has always been closely prized by in-the-know enthusiasts, is trending in a positive direction, which makes now an excellent time to learn more about the brand and potentially add one to your collection. The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII has a selection of four different Urban Jürgensen timepieces available, coming from multiple different eras for the brand.
Here’s what you should know about all four watches.
Lot 123: A 1990 Urban Jürgensen Ref. 2 Perpetual Calendar
The wristwatches produced during the rebirth of Urban Jürgensen as a brand in the 1980s and 1990s epitomize the marriage of old and new in a way that brought fresh life to modern watchmaking. Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt set out to rebuild the company with a commitment to its original tenets of technical excellence, traditional aesthetics, and handmade master craftsmanship.
This 1990 Urban Jürgensen Reference 2 Perpetual Calendar could be considered a quintessential examples of that approach. Its satin outer track with Roman numerals and simple minute divisions frames the clean guilloché center. Subtle aesthetic details, at first glance easily missed, work behind the scenes to achieve the final effect. The calendar apertures, for example, do not feature simple sloped sides but are rather recessed inside the dial.
The ultra-slim self-winding movement inside uses a Frédéric Piguet ébauche with Pratt's in-house perpetual calendar module and is beautifully finished with a 21k gold winding rotor. Featuring a perfectly proportioned 38mm platinum case with classic teardrop lugs, the present Reference 2 is one of only 50 examples known to have been manufactured in platinum. The case is in remarkable condition, with a crisp brushed caseback and a pair of visible hallmarks between the lugs, while the dial has gained a warm patina with age.
The watch was purchased in Hamburg by the consignor from a collector of Urban Jürgensen who had acquired a number of new-old-stock pieces. He has worn it infrequently since, and now enjoying his yellow-gold Reference 2 more, has entrusted PHILLIPS with its sale in hopes it will find a most deserving owner. Estimate: CHF 25,000 - 50,000
Lot 184: A 1995 Derek Pratt For Urban Jürgensen Pocket Watch
Derek Pratt is most certainly one of the most revered watchmakers of the past five decades. A British horologist, Pratt was a contemporary of George Daniels with whom he had long telephone conversations each Sunday, each exchanging the experiences and challenges they faced in their individual horological pursuis. Daniels consulted Pratt on many of his innovations, and Pratt even produced some components for him.
A watchmaker who spent his life studying the old masters, Pratt never signed his watches, even under the newly reborn Urban Jürgensen brand. Pratt designed complications for Urban Jürgensen and even created the brand's beautiful guilloché dials. However, his true passion laid in pocket watches – a passion that materialized under the form of the superb pocket watches he made for the brand using only traditional techniques and no CNC machines.
This perpetual calendar minute repeating pocket watch was finished by Pratt in 1995 and uses a heavily modified vintage Louis-Elysée Piguet ébauche, with every one of its components, from the bridges to the tiniest of screws, involving manual labor, between adjusting tolerances, anglage, and so on. Pratt's attention to detail is exemplified in the fact that even the underdial components that remain hidden are finished to the same standards.
The incredible guilloché dial was also hand made by Pratt, a painstaking manual process that took him close to a week to finish. The case is also hand made featuring a huge number of subtle details that make it a work of art all its own. Pratt made only 14 perpetual calendar minute repeating pocket watches, and only four in the present configuration with a hunter-style case. This pocket watch is an ode to traditional, artisanal watchmaking in its purest and most exciting form. Estimate: CHF 70,000 - 140,000
Lot 111: A 2013 Urban Jürgensen Ref. 11CR
The detent (or chronometer) escapement is one of the most precise escapements ever created. Developed in the mid-18th Century, the balance wheel in a detent escapement runs virtually without friction, enabling greater precision and making it an ideal candidate for use inside marine chronometers. However, the detent escapement is also very sensitive to shocks and thus was never successfully produced in a wristwatch format ... until a dream team at Urban Jürgensen composed of Derek Pratt, Kari Voutilainen, and Jean-François Mojon changed horological history.
In 2003, Derek Pratt started working on a pivoted detent escapement in an existing Unitas caliber. After encouraging results, it was decided that a wristwatch movement with a pivoted detent escapement could be created.
The project was then handed over to Jean-Francois Mojon, a movement constructor and watchmaker, now best known as the founder of Chronode. The third member of this incredible team was Kari Voutilainen, who was trusted with not only the difficult task of finishing, regulating, and assembling the first-series prototypes but also creating the beautiful guilloché dials. The prototype of the new caliber P8 with its patented chronometer escapement and safety system was introduced at Baselworld 2011. The Urban Jürgensen Ref. 11C SC with the P8 caliber inside received the first prize in the Men's category at the 2014 GPHG.
Urban Jürgensen's archive states that of about 40 finished prototypes were produced for Version 1A and 1B (the only difference of V1B versus V1A is the skeleton balance bridge), with 15 cased in pink gold, 13 in platinum, and 12 in steel. The example in our Geneva sale is number 12 in 18k pink gold. Estimate: CHF 25,000 - 50,000
Lot 125: A 2017 Urban Jürgensen Big 8
The aesthetic guidelines established by Peter Baumberger and Derek Pratt consisted of elegant, slim stepped cases, teardrop lugs, intricate guilloché dials, and Observatory-style hands. The present "Big 8" watch comes from the late 2010s, when the brand was under the control of a Danish ownership group. It perfectly encapsulates the company's modern design philosophy with the immediately recognizable lugs, hands, dial, and a convex bezel.
Finished to perfection, the stainless steel case has been made the "traditional" way, meaning that each component has been hand-polished and built without overly relying on contemporary technology. The dial, meanwhile, features a beautiful handmade guilloché pattern. The numerals are made with enamel, and the contrasting patterns are delicate and a sight to behold. This example dates to 2017 and comes as a full set. Estimate: CHF 10,000 - 20,000
You can learn more about Urban Jürgensen and register to bid on the highlighted pieces above by visiting the online catalog for PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XVII.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade working in watch-focused media, reporting on every aspect of the industry. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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