Urban Jürgensen Reference 2

Early Urban Jürgensen has been one of the better kept secrets of independents for a few years. This, I suspect, because the brand has one of the most convoluted and difficult-to-follow histories of any. Here’s what’s relevant to this, their 90s Perpetual Calendar. The storied Danish brand was acquired by a Peter Baumberger, an enterprising Swiss watch lover & retailer who put his full soul into reviving the brand. For this, he brought on board Derek Pratt. Pratt’s legacy is only just beginning to be appreciated properly: it’s massive. But this is some of his best work. It’s the Reference 2, a name surprisingly refreshing amongst twenty-digit AP refs, one of the more lovely perpetual calendars to have been made in the 90s that, really, isn’t discussed enough.

The Ref 2 really is the epitome of 90s UJ. The 38mm case is very traditional, with a flair of style in teardrop soldered lugs. Its dial was painstakingly made by Pratt with three distinct guilloché sections, brushed chapter rings, and applied plaques for both the brand and case number. The fine observatoire hands are another very tasteful touch. It is not difficult to see what attracted Kari Voutilainen, who is leading this brand today, to this work. The Reference 2 utilized a Frédéric Piguet calibre 71 ébauche with a Lemania-developed perpetual calendar mechanism. Baumberger actually went one step further to secure the rights to this exact module in period, in order to make it somewhat UJ’s. That said, the caseback is solid gold. It’s a bit George Daniels on the dial construction (or even old English), a bit AP 5548 in the stepped bezel, and VC teardrop in the lug. Yet, it is its own thing altogether and very confidently so.

These watches were the precursor to the duo’s eventual development of in-house calibres and the first detent escapement wristwatch guided under Pratt. In the Reference 2, 122 examples were made in yellow gold with 50 in platinum. It is a watch which leans very heavily into both tradition and 1990s, or neo-vintage, design cues. More importantly though, you can tell that everyone involved here really wanted to create something beautiful, characterful, and enduring. While the brand has been through many periods of dormancy, after this explosion of creativity, Urban Jürgensen has been back on track. We have Pratt and Baumberger to thank, and this is one of the watches that best encapsulates their aspirations.

This example appears lovely. Has its box and clasp, and the clasp is quite a lovely design on these. Its hallmarks and deep, case appears lightly worn and better for it. It comes from a relatively recent US retailer, still on Instagram mostly but doing great work.