Urban Jürgensen

Life & work

Timeline

Urban Jürgensen's recorded dates, dated events from this profile and its sources, and dated pieces and sales from the object catalogue. Dates are as each record gives them.

1. 1773 · Career

   Urban Jürgensen was a Danish watchmaker, son of the royal watchmaker Jürgen Jürgensen, who founded the family firm in Copenhagen in 1773.

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2. 1776 · Career

   Born

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3. 1797 · Career

   Urban trained in his father's workshop before undertaking an extended European study tour from 1797, working with Jacques-Frédéric Houriet in Le Locle, studying under Abraham-Louis Breguet and Ferdinand Berthoud in Paris, and apprenticing with John Arnold and John Brockbank in London — placing him in direct contact with the leading French, Swiss and English precision-horology traditions of his day before he returned to Copenhagen in 1801.

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4. 1804 · Career

   In 1804 Jürgensen published a Danish-language treatise on precision timekeeping ('Regler for Tidens Nøiagtige Afmaaling ved Uhre'), and from 1811, after his father's death, he ran an independent Copenhagen workshop producing marine chronometers and observatory regulators, becoming chronometer supplier to the Danish Royal Navy and being admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Science in 1815 in recognition of his technical standing — an unusually well-documented case of a non-Swiss, non-English maker achieving front-rank precision-horology recognition in this period.

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5. 1804 · Career

   Published an influential early nineteenth-century Danish treatise on precision timekeeping (1804)

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6. 1815 · Career

   Supplied marine chronometers to the Danish Royal Navy and was elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Science (1815)

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7. 1830 · Career

   Died

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8. 1830 · Career

   After Urban's death in 1830, his sons continued the family's work along two paths: Louis Urban Jürgensen maintained the Copenhagen workshop as 'Urban Jürgensen & Sønner,' while Jules Frederik Jürgensen relocated to Le Locle, Switzerland, founding the separate Jules Jürgensen brand; both branches earned exhibition medals through the nineteenth century, and the Urban Jürgensen name has continued, through several later ownership changes, into the twenty-first century as one of the few watch brands with a documented, if not always continuously operating, history back to the 1770s.

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9. circa 1852 · Catalogued piece

   Louis Urban Jurgensen Deck Chronometer No. 47

   Provenance: Antiquorum

10. Circa 1982–2005 · Catalogued piece

    Derek Pratt for Urban Jürgensen Oval Pocket Watch

    Provenance: Phillips

11. 1996 · Catalogued piece

    Urban Jürgensen Reference 2 'Prototype' in 18k yellow gold

    Provenance: Phillips

Training, contributions & innovations

• Trained directly under Breguet, Berthoud, Arnold and Houriet, synthesising French, English and Swiss precision-horology methods in a single career
• Published an influential early nineteenth-century Danish treatise on precision timekeeping (1804)
• Supplied marine chronometers to the Danish Royal Navy and was elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Science (1815)
• Founded a Copenhagen watchmaking dynasty that split into Danish and Swiss branches after his death, both of documented historical significance

Inventions & patents

• No individually attributed mechanism patent for Urban Jürgensen is confirmed in the sources consulted here; his significance lies in applying and disseminating the leading French, English and Swiss precision methods of his training rather than in a documented singular invention.

Signatures & markings on surviving work

• Movements and dials signed 'Urban Jürgensen, Kjøbenhavn' during his lifetime; the later Copenhagen firm signed 'Urban Jürgensen & Sønner', and the separate Swiss branch signed 'Jules Jürgensen'

Collecting significance

Watches and chronometers signed by Urban Jürgensen himself, or by the early 'Urban Jürgensen & Sønner' Copenhagen workshop, are a recognised and increasingly well-studied Scandinavian precision-horology collecting category; because the family name was used by both the Danish and the later, separately developing Swiss ('Jules Jürgensen') branch, and because the modern revived brand has changed ownership multiple times since the late twentieth century, collectors should be careful to distinguish the historical maker's work from later unrelated commercial use of the name.

Firms, key models & movements

In the object catalogue

3 catalogued objects are recorded under Urban Jürgensen. Attributions are as given by each source and are not independent authentication.

• Derek Pratt for Urban Jürgensen Oval Pocket WatchTourbillon & karrusel watch · Circa 1982–2005
• Louis Urban Jurgensen Deck Chronometer No. 47Deck watch & deck chronometer · circa 1852
• Urban Jürgensen Reference 2 'Prototype' in 18k yellow goldPerpetual calendar watch · 1996

Browse all 3 in the object catalogue

Provenance

Where the 3 catalogued pieces by Urban Jürgensen were recorded, with the collectors, owners and sales their records name.

Auction history

Each line is copied from the object's source record and is not independently verified. Holders are as recorded when the piece was catalogued: museum objects may not be on display, and sold lots have since changed hands.