Urban Jürgensen

Founded in Copenhagen, the company later moved to Switzerland.

The recorded working language is Danish. Places of work recorded in the authority are Copenhagen. Distinctions recorded are Decoration of the Cross of Honour of the Dannebrog, Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog and The Royal Danish Academy Silver Medal.

• Name — Urban Jürgensen • Born — 5 August 1776 • Birthplace — Copenhagen, Holstein • Died — 14 May 1830 • Place of death — Copenhagen, Denmark • Occupation — Watchmaker • Awards — Decoration of the Dannebrogordenens Hæderstegn (1809) Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog (1824) The Royal Danish Academy Silver Medal (1804)

Jürgensen was born on 5 August 1776 in Copenhagen, the son of royal watchmaker Jørgen Jørgensen (1745–1811) and Anne Leth Bruun (1755–1828). He attended Efterslægtens skole where his teachers included Edvard Storm and Knud Lyhne Rahbek. Jürgensen was in the same time a watchmaker's apprentice in his father's workshop. Aged 20, he went on a five-year journey abroad with economic support from Fonden ad usus publicos and Det Reiersenske Fond. He spent one and a half year in Neuchâtel and half a year in Switzerland before continuing to Paris where he studied under Abraham-Louis Breguet and Ferdinand Berthoud and then to London, apprenticing for John Arnold and John Brockbank. He then returned to Paris. • Illustration — Urban Jürgensens Sönner regulator clock with jumping hours at Frederiksborg Castle.

Jürgensen returned to Copenhagen in 1801. He was supposed to enter into a partnership with a French watchmaker, Etienne Magnin, who had been called to Denmark to construct the next chronometers for the shipping industry. These plans changed when watchmaker continued to Saint Petersburg and Jürgensen then joined his father's workshop. In 1804, he published Regler for Tidens nøjagtige Afmaaling ved Uhre. It was the following year published in an improved edition in French. It was followed by a German translation. In 1804, he was also awarded the Academy of Sciences' silver medal for a publication about mainsprings published in one of its journals. In 1705, he was awarded Landhusholdningsselskabet's large gold medal for a metal thermometer. In 1807, weakened by gard work and personal griefs (the death of several children), he left Copenhagen for Neuchâtel where he stayed for two and a half years. He brought an extensive collection of machines and instruments back to Denmark which was the largest of its kind in the country. He was accompanied by a team of Swiss watchmakers which replaced his poorly trained Danish employees. In Geneva, he had been able to study the art of perforating precious stones, a technique which had for many years been kept secret. Jürgensen was also the first in Denmark to make cylindrical wheels in steel instead of brass. Jürgensen continued the workshop alone after his father's death in 1811. Over a twenty-year period, he only manufactured around fifty chronometers. In 1810, he was awarded the prestigious Order of the Dannebrog by King Frederik VI, recognizing his advancements in watchmaking. Furthermore, in 1815, he became the first watchmaker to be admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

• Illustration — Louis Urban Jürgensen (1806-1867) He was engaged to Sophie Henriette (31 January 1780, Locle - 24 January 1852, Copenhagen) in Neuchâtel, and they were married on 12 May 1801 in Peseux. She was a daughter of watchmaker Jacques Frédéric Houriet (1743–1830) and Henriette Courvoisier (1753–88). Urban Jürgensen's brother was adventurer Jørgen Jørgensen. He died on 14 May 1830 and is buried at the French Reformed Church in Copenhagen. • Illustration — The Urban Jürgensen shop in Gothersgade in Copenhagen 1863 Jürgensen's two sons, Jules-Frederik Jürgensen and Louis Urban Jürgensen, continued the family tradition: Jules studied in Switzerland and subsequently went on to establish his own workshop that later developed to the watch company Jules Jürgensen, while his brother Louis remained in charge of the workshop in Copenhagen operating under the name "Urban Jürgensen & Sønner". Victor Kullberg, who went on to be one of London's most famous clockmakers, worked for Louis in the late 1840s. In 2021, the Rosenfield family, led by Andrew M. Rosenfield -- a leading independent watch collector and the President of Guggenheim Partners -- purchased Urban Jürgensen. They tapped Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen to serve as Co-CEO alongside Alex Rosenfield. The revival has been covered in detail by horological publications, which outlined the continuity between historical craftsmanship and the new leadership's ambitions for long-form independent watchmaking.