Urban Jürgensen UJ-3: A Bold Return with a Perpetual Calendar & Moonphase Masterpiece
The iconic watchmaker Urban Jürgensen is back in 2025 with a bang, unveiling three high-end timepieces that mark a new chapter for the legendary brand. Leading the charge is the Urban Jürgensen UJ-3, a refined watch that harmonizes heritage craftsmanship with modern technical sophistication, featuring a perpetual calendar and moon phase complication built atop a manual movement with a rare double natural escapement.
This rebirth comes under the guidance of co-CEOs Kari Voutilainen-a revered horological craftsman-and Alex Rosenfield, who handles branding and business development. Voutilainen teams up with acclaimed independent watchmaker Andreas Strehler to craft an innovative perpetual calendar system, showcasing the power of collaborative watchmaking at its highest level.
Unlike typical perpetual calendars, which are often cumbersome to reset if not worn daily, the UJ-3 still carries that slight inconvenience (adjustments require a stylus for recessed pushers), yet its beauty and clever design make it a compelling exception
. A useful power reserve indicator sits subtly at the 12 o’clock position, ensuring you’re never surprised by a dead movement.
The dial layout is a triumph of form and function. The date is indicated by a second hand in the subdial, while day and month indicators are elegantly framed in window displays. The moonphase complication, built by Strehler, is not only stunning in its design but also shockingly precise-off by just one day every 14,000 years. That’s not a typo.
With the leap year indicator moved to the caseback (visible through sapphire crystal), the dial remains uncluttered and elegant. Multiple guilloché engravings and a perfectly balanced layout create a dial that feels less complicated than it truly is-an aesthetic feat in itself.
The UJ-3 comes in 18k rose gold or platinum, both with a sleek 39mm diameter and a 13.9mm thickness.
It’s not oversized, nor minimalist-but it is modern elegance perfected. A galvanic black dial over a solid silver base lends richness and depth to the design, while future dial variants are expected.
Debuting as references UJ-3-PT-B-001 (platinum) and UJ-3-RG-B-001 (rose gold), the watch is priced at CHF 168,000. It’s not just a timepiece-it’s a declaration of technical artistry, collaboration, and independent watchmaking at its peak.
Urban Jürgensen has returned not just with nostalgia, but with purpose-and the UJ-3 proves the brand is thinking about the future, one handcrafted gear at a time.
1 comment