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Results for Urban Jürgensen

123 articles · 919 videos found · page 3 of 35

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In-Depth: The Unique and Magical Oval Tourbillon Watch by Derek Pratt SJX Watches
Vacheron Constantin ever Sep 10, 2021

In-Depth: The Unique and Magical Oval Tourbillon Watch by Derek Pratt

I first met Derek Pratt (1938-2009) at a sale held by Ineichen, a Zürich-based auction house, in 1975. He was in the company of Peter Baumberger (1939-2010), an antique watch dealer and trained watchmaker that took over long-dormant Danish brand Urban Jürgensen & Sonner in 1981 . A contemporary and friend of George Daniels, Derek was a talented English watchmaker who restored many of Baumberger’s outstanding historical pocket watches. Amongst them was then the most complicated Vacheron Constantin ever, the grand complication N°402833 made for King Fuad of Egypt in 1929, which Baumberger bought at auction – the watch was lot 202 at the October 7, 1979 sale at Galerie d’Horlogerie Ancienne (the business founded by Osvaldo Patrizzi that would later become Antiquorum). Baumberger would have trusted no one else other than Derek to restore that watch. In the following years, I visited Derek’s workshop several times with Peter, often in the company of illustrious watch collectors and enthusiasts, all fascinated by Derek’s knowledge of traditional watchmaking and his beautifully equipped workshop. Not long after, Peter recruited Derek to be consultant and technical director at Urban Jürgensen. As such, he was responsible for the company’s greatest technical achievements in pocket watches, which was the leading genre in watch collecting at the time. Derek at work According to Urban Jürgensen records and my personal archive, Derek completed around 34 watches for the...

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Hands-On: Bell & Ross BR 05 Skeleton SJX Watches
Bell & Ross BR 05 Skeleton Demand Oct 10, 2019

Hands-On: Bell & Ross BR 05 Skeleton

Demand for the luxury sports watches that were born in the 1970s – all with integrated bracelets and designed by Gerald Genta – is now red hot. That has fuelled the development of such watches from every corner the industry, from Chopard to Urban Jurgensen to Bell & Ross (B&R;). While many of these watches have sparked criticism for their derivative design, B&R;’s entry into the genre comes with a distinct price advantage. The BR 05 is probably the most reasonably priced watch in this design category, starting at under US$5000. No doubt it owes a great debt to Genta’s designs, but it would be futile to compare it with the alternatives given the price gulf. But the standard BR 05 is a pretty conventional watch – well done for the price but not something that jumps out at you. The BR 05 Skeleton, on the other hand, is striking, with a look and feel that is distinct – priced at about 20% more than the base model. Well dressed Like all watches in its category, the BR 05 is largely all about the case and bracelet. The BR 05 Skeleton is identical to the base model on the outside, with a rounded-square case and a bezel with visible screws at its corners. While it is appears to be a mishmash of Genta’s classics, it bears a strong enough resemblance to the brand’s signature BR 01 and BR 03 cases – which were inspired by aircraft instrument panels – that it can pass as a rather natural evolution. But in contrast to the BR 01 and BR 03, the BR 05 ha...

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Hands-On: Hermès Arceau L’Heure De La Lune SJX Watches
Hermes Chronode conceived Oct 8, 2019

Hands-On: Hermès Arceau L’Heure De La Lune

Hermès, as a brand, usually has an elegant, light and sometimes whimsical house style that makes it unique amongst luxury houses. The Arceau L’Heure De La Lune unveiled at SIHH at the start of the year exemplifies the house style, although the case is thicker than ideal. Functionally, the Arceau L’Heure De La Lune is a straightforward watch – it shows the time, date and phases of the Moon in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres. But the execution of the time and date is striking and clever. Orbital moon phases The two are essentially orbital displays, as each is on a sub-dial mounted on a rotating, central carousel. The carousel take 59 days to make one complete revolution around the dial. But each sub-dial also rotates on itself as the carousel turns. As a result, each sub-dial is always the right way up regardless of its position. Both sub-dials also double up as the moon phase indicator, with position of each sub-dial indicating the age of the Moon in each hemisphere. And in a bit of whimsy, the hemispheres have been inverted, with the Southern on top and Northern below. The Arceau L’Heure De La Lune with a meteorite dial The inventive display was built by Chronode, the complications specialist founded by Jean-Francois Mojon, which has a diverse body of work that includes Urban Jurgensen’s P4 movement, the MB&F; LM2, and the constant force tourbillon of IWC. The display module by Chronode. Photo – Hermes Chronode conceived and builds the ...

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Introducing the Trilobe Les Matinaux SJX Watches
De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Affordable Jul 4, 2019

Introducing the Trilobe Les Matinaux

Jean-François Mojon, founder of complications specialist Chronode, has a client list that reads like a who’s who of independent watchmaking: from establishment names Hermès and MB&F; to revived brands like Urban Jurgensen. His latest creation, however, is one of the most affordable to date. Constructed for Trilobe, a start-up founded just three years ago by former banker Gautier Massonneau. The brand’s first collection, Les Matinaux – “The Morning” in English – derives its name from a poem written by French author René Char.  Novelty aside Built at Chronode’s Le Locle facility, Les Matinaux is designed to subvert traditional time-telling. Instead of conventional fixed indices and moving hands, the hands, or rather pointers, are fixed but the markers – on three separate chapter rings for the hours, minutes and seconds – are constantly in motion, and rotate counter-clockwise to boot. The concept is not entirely new, of course. This type of time display is most often used on digital-style dials with numerals shown either in a single line or within a window, as on the De Bethune Dream Watch 5. Affordable brands have done the same with quartz movements, including Klokers, which is sadly now defunct, as well as Lip with its Mythic Jump Hour Watch. In contrast, Les Matinaux does not have its indicators arranged in a linear manner. Instead, the trio of trefoils – trilobe is French for trefoil – seem casually scattered across the dial, so i...

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Maurice Lacroix Aikon Skeleton Urban Tribe Time+Tide
Maurice Lacroix Aikon Skeleton Urban Tribe Sep 6, 2023

Maurice Lacroix Aikon Skeleton Urban Tribe

The Maurice Lacroix Aikon Skeleton Urban Tribe introduces even more complexity and depth At 39mm in diameter, it’s a comfortable fit for such a visually-loud watch The skeletonised dial artfully shows off the ML115S movement, based on a Sellita SW200 Maurice Lacroix aren’t afraid to get experimental, and the Urban Tribe is a key example … ContinuedThe post Maurice Lacroix Aikon Skeleton Urban Tribe appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

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Maurice Lacroix Takes their Urban Tribe Design to a New Level with a Limited Skeleton Version Worn & Wound
Maurice Lacroix Takes their Urban Tribe Aug 25, 2023

Maurice Lacroix Takes their Urban Tribe Design to a New Level with a Limited Skeleton Version

One of my favorite things about working in the watch industry is the capacity this strange little world still has to surprise. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, you’re reminded that you most definitely have not, and in fact you might just be scratching the surface. I love getting press releases about watches I don’t expect, particularly when they come from brands that I thought I knew and understood. Enter: Maurice Lacroix. If you know Maurice Lacroix at all, you probably know them as the brand behind the Aikon, an integrated bracelet sports watch that bears a certain resemblance to another much more sought after and much more expensive watch with a similar footprint. The Aikon, though, has proven to be a worthy blank canvas for many of Maurice Lacroix’s most interesting ideas over the years, and a new version, an update of a design first seen in 2021, takes that to a new level.  The Aikon Urban Tribe Skeleton is lie no other Aikon before it, except the Aikon Urban Tribe, which featured a similar series of engravings along the case walls and throughout the bracelet. The Urban Tribe’s calling card (for both the 2021 version and this new reference) is the elaborate case engraving. It’s unusual enough to see a well known Swiss brand dabble in engraved cases to begin with, and it’s even more unusual for those engravings to seemingly live in the world of tribal tattoos and similar motifs. But that’s not all – these designs are inspired by urban arch...

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Pre-SIHH 2015: The Montblanc TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap Revolution
Montblanc TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap Jan 8, 2015

Pre-SIHH 2015: The Montblanc TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap

We live in an age defined by portable computing, but nailing wearable computing has –at least so far –proven to be much more elusive.  While there has been a lot of soul-searching occasioned by things like Google Glass and so-called smart watches (which, thus far, have been more notable for interesting failures than resounding successes, […]

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The Hermès H08 Gets Two New Light And Urban Styles Fratello
Hermes Sep 13, 2025

The Hermès H08 Gets Two New Light And Urban Styles

The Hermès H08 is a remarkable success story. Emerging from the traditional and complex designs of the maison’s catalog, the cushion-shaped H08 in titanium seamlessly cut through the crowd. And the sports-watch segment is indeed crowded. Yet, the H08 takes the history of the brand’s multifaceted design approach and boils it down into a wearable […] Visit The Hermès H08 Gets Two New Light And Urban Styles to read the full article.

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Testing The Rugged Micromilspec Milgraph In Inhospitable Urban Conditions Fratello
Dec 16, 2024

Testing The Rugged Micromilspec Milgraph In Inhospitable Urban Conditions

Let’s start this review with a confession: I hate this time of year in the Netherlands. With gray skies for days on end, endless wet streets, howling winds, and inhospitable temperatures, it’s not always the most enjoyable place to be. It’s not necessarily that I can’t handle these conditions individually, but together, they are rather […] Visit Testing The Rugged Micromilspec Milgraph In Inhospitable Urban Conditions to read the full article.

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Hands-On With The Charming Undone Urban Automatic Fratello
Oct 4, 2024

Hands-On With The Charming Undone Urban Automatic

It’s been a while since we covered an Undone watch. The Hong Kong-based brand is widely known among watch enthusiasts for its affordable timepieces. Undone’s latest creation is the Urban Automatic, a triple-calendar watch that’s the first mechanical model in the vintage-inspired Urban series. I have always liked the Urban line because it takes inspiration […] Visit Hands-On With The Charming Undone Urban Automatic to read the full article.

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Yema Takes to the Land, Air, and Sea with their New Urban Sport Collection Worn & Wound
Yema Jan 11, 2024

Yema Takes to the Land, Air, and Sea with their New Urban Sport Collection

The concept of “air”, “sea”, “land” watches continues to capture the imagination of enthusiasts. Some even build collections of watches that cover each base. The idea stems from the focused tool watches of yesteryear that were deliberate and intentional in their design languages in order to accomplish very specific goals. Yema leans into this idea in introducing a new trio of watches under their Urban Sport moniker. Within the new line, each watch tackles one component of air, sea, and land, with the Flygraf, Yachtingraf, and Rallygraf, respectively. The Flygraf dominates the air and is the punchiest of all three in color scheme. It is marked with an airplane icon at six o’clock and features a combination of inner and outer multifunction bezels for calculating speed, fuel, and other conversions. It has thicker, more legible hands befitting of a pilot’s watch and a brushed black dial designed to pay homage to vintage airplane fuselages. The second hand in particular is a bright orange that matches the inner bezel for maximum contrast. As a whole, the dial is cleaner and simpler, and the hour markers are slightly rounded. The Yachtingraf is designed for, you guessed it, yachting. With a gradient dial and thinner hands filled with cream lume, it is the most overtly vintage-inspired of the three. The Yachtingraf has, unsurprisingly, a bi-direcitonal graduated bezel with special 15-minute markings to signal regatta race starts. Its second hand is in silver and f...

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HANDS-ON: The Briston Streamliner Urban and its retro-modern inspiration Time+Tide
Cartier Baume & Mercier Aug 23, 2023

HANDS-ON: The Briston Streamliner Urban and its retro-modern inspiration

After working for lofty brands such as Cartier, Baume & Mercier, and Zenith, Brice Jaunet needed to forge his own path. Briston was founded to be the culmination of his experience, as well as a blend of French and British styles to represent both his homeland and university days. Small watch brands can sometimes struggle … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Briston Streamliner Urban and its retro-modern inspiration appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

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HANDS-ON: The Yema Urban Traveller delivers integrated-bracelet watches in a soft palette of summery dials Time+Tide
Yema Jul 18, 2023

HANDS-ON: The Yema Urban Traveller delivers integrated-bracelet watches in a soft palette of summery dials

Earlier this year, Yema indicated their intentions to spice up their collections with the release of the Urban Field. With their Wristmaster Traveller Micro-Rotor being such a barnstorming hit last year too, it made perfect sense for the next experiment to evolve as the Yema Urban Traveller. Clinging to that 1970s retro swagger, this new … ContinuedThe post HANDS-ON: The Yema Urban Traveller delivers integrated-bracelet watches in a soft palette of summery dials appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

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Yema Urban Traveller Joins Chorus of Integrated Bracelet Sport Watch Releases Worn & Wound
Yema Jul 11, 2023

Yema Urban Traveller Joins Chorus of Integrated Bracelet Sport Watch Releases

Yema is fleshing out their young Traveller collection, which made its debut just last year, with a new family of integrated bracelet sport watches called the Urban Traveller. The new family is on-trend with a design that features the now familiar hallmarks of the genre, such as a flat link bracelet that integrates with the case, a flat octagonal mid case with single piece bezel, and a textured dial. Check, check, and check. The Urban Traveller does take a unique approach in a few ways, however, and more options of a good thing is, well, a good thing.  Yema is a French brand that was founded in 1948, with an increasing selection of in-house labeled movements, which we’ve discussed before launched, somewhat curiously, via Kickstarter. The Traveller collection of watches have been no exception, with the template for the Urban Traveller, called the Wristmaster Traveller, hitting funded status in late 2022. That watch, which recalled Yema’s heritage with the use of the Wristmaster label, featured a colorful selection of in-house ultra-thin micro-rotor movements, a playful choice that set that watch apart from other integrated sport watches. The Urban Traveller takes a more direct approach to the design, using Yema’s YEMA2000 movement, which is around 80% in-house, instead of the colorful micro-rotor movements seen in the Wristmaster Traveller. This change means a slightly thicker case and a closed caseback, as well as a dramatic reduction in pricing. The ultra-thin Wrist...

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HANDS ON: The Yema Urban Field combines a premium feel with vintage vibes Time+Tide
Yema May 5, 2023

HANDS ON: The Yema Urban Field combines a premium feel with vintage vibes

Although the French brand Yema have never stopped producing watches since their inception in 1948, their lapse into relative obscurity during the ‘80s-‘00s has to qualify them among the best brand revivals of the 21st century. Professional divers, racing chronographs, and even space-faring pilot pieces are classics of the Yema catalogue, but the Yema Urban … ContinuedThe post HANDS ON: The Yema Urban Field combines a premium feel with vintage vibes appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

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Yema Introduces a Wide Range of Field Watches to Their Urban Sport Collection Worn & Wound
Yema May 1, 2023

Yema Introduces a Wide Range of Field Watches to Their Urban Sport Collection

As it is currently constructed, Yema’s Urban Sport watch collection is made up of two models – the Wristmaster Micro Rotor and the Wristmaster Traveller. Both use an octagonal profile, a unique bit-like fixed bezel and an integrated steel bracelet design. Besides the dial, their in-house movements which include the micro rotor equipped CMM.20 (a brand first) and the YEMA2000 are what distinguishes each model. But if a more traditional, round-cased silhouette with a splash of neo-vintage character is what you’re after, then this incoming batch hitting Yema’s Urban Sport collection might tickle your fancy. The new Yema Urban Field comprises ten watches with five various dial colors, two different case sizes, and a Swiss manual winding movement. In the world of sport-casual field watches, there has always been this ongoing debate as to what is the appropriate case size for a solid everyday wearing field watch. Those who lean strongly towards the purist end of the spectrum might say 36mm, or bust. The enthusiast who prefers a more contemporary wearing watch might argue that 40mm is the way to go. Whatever your preference is, Yema is looking to cover the entire ground by offering a svelte 37.5mm case and a modern 40mm case, respectively. Both the 37.5mm and 40mm case sizes get the same set of five dial colorways. Each dial is embellished with a sandblasted finish that provides a sea of grainy-like texture that surrounds the more muted appearance of both the markers and ...

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The Glashütte Original 2023 PanoInverse Limited Edition brings an urban cityscape to the wrist Time+Tide
Glashütte Original 2023 PanoInverse Limited Edition Mar 23, 2023

The Glashütte Original 2023 PanoInverse Limited Edition brings an urban cityscape to the wrist

Glashütte Original’s offering mainly comes in two forms – rugged, but finely finished pieces like the SeaQ, and contemporary works of art in the likes of their Senator and Pano collections. Available in a limited edition of 50 pieces, the Glashütte Original PanoInverse Limited Edition follows the biennial release of this special edition, and falls … ContinuedThe post The Glashütte Original 2023 PanoInverse Limited Edition brings an urban cityscape to the wrist appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

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