URBAN JURGENSEN

Jürgen Jürgensen opened a shop as a Scandinavian importer for Houriet’s watches in the 18th century. His son Urban and then his grandson Jules took the company over and became famous watchmakers. Urban Jürgensen wrote an important book in 1804, General Principles Concerning Timekeeping by Clocks. The brand Urban Jürgensen was founded in 1811 in Denmark and it firstly created marine chronometers for astronomical and navigational uses. When Jürgensen died in 1830, his sons continued the company under the name UJS (Urban Jürgensen & Sønner) and moved to Le Locle in Switzerland. The brand produced mostly marine chronometers between 1850 and 1880. In 1919 the brand began producing high quality wristwatches. In 1979, Peter Baumberger, a passionate watchmaker, purchased the brand. In 1981 Derek Pratt, a famous watchmaker, built the Urban Jürgensen & Sonner Pocket Watch N.01, a one minute tourbillon pocket watch. This watch was the first timepiece in which the remontoir assembly was integrated into the rotating tourbillon. In 1982, the brand unveiled the Reference 1, an automatic winding perpetual calendar chronograph. In 2012, Dr. Helmut Crott, a friend of Baumberger, built the new in-house calibre, the automatic UJS-P8 and then the Urban Jurgensen P8 Chronometer Reference 11C timepiece with typical hand engine-turned silver dial and teardrop lugs to house the new calibre.