In conclusion, I want to share a few pictures of Urban Jürgensen's latest creations. When these might be offered for sale is anyone's guess. I know the new movement has been in development for several years and prototypes were shown in Basel last year. The detent chronometer escapement piece is killer.
This year Peter Baumberger, the owner of the brand and chief designer, went to a place I was happy to see, a steel cased UJS! 40mm with a beautifully finished F. Piguet based self-winding caliber sporting a 21k gold engine turned rotor. The silver dials with their exquisite engine turned face are simply stunning, together with those beautiful hands, make for some of the most elegant watches made today.
The recent death, last year, of Derek Pratt was a tremendous blow to Peter and his baby, Urban Jurgensen. Responsible for much of the creative watchmaking within Urban Jürgensen & Sønner, and sole creator of a couple of UJS complicated pocketwatches, the horological world is much the poorer for his passing. But onto bigger and more happy subjects, the introduction of a new Perpetual Calendar model is superb.
Using a similar windows layout to the Reference 2 Perpetual Calendar, this new watch is quite stunning and will appeal very much to collectors of classic, elegant thin wristwatches, rather than the fairly recent departure into big flashy watches that many brands have delved. The other new feature are two toned hands, of blued steel and gold, which is a revival of an old UJS tradition. I was also privy to several rather unusual, for UJS, dials that are protoypes at this point, but if released, will certainly appeal to other collectors than the traditional hand engine turned silver dials found in the UJS gems.
The 40mm Perpetual Calendar on my wrist:
Check out Vianney's display at his stand nearby the AHCI stand: can you say Steampunk! Actually this was a display from an exhibit of Steampunk artists in the UK that occured last year at Oxford University.
And the watches, a RG Antiqua and a WG Trio on wild colored straps:
A view from outside the main watch exhibition area, Hall 1. Audi are big sponsors of the show, providing cars for shuttling VIP's around Basel.
I headed over to the Bahnhof, via the green trams that run throughout the city, in order to take the train back down to Luzern. I could/should have spent an extra day in Basel, I was out of time and missed several places I wished I could have visited. Oh well, til next year...
