Let's Spot the Redial | The Watchlist

And why watch brands are the new sports teams.

Happy first Summer Friday. In today’s newsletter:

• The impending launch of Urban Jürgensen, and here’s to hoping all these finance guys getting into watches do it right.

• Behind the paywall: The Watchlist gets hands-on with a few vintage watches on the block next week: An honest Paul Newman Daytona, how to spot a refinished dial, and a quirky complication with NO bidders.

For paid subscribers: Our livestream Q&A with Max Braun is today at 3pm ET—link below if you missed it on Monday.

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Urban Jürgensen Is (Almost) Back

Urban Jurgensen ref. 8; the 250th anniversary exhibit catalog feat. Dr. Helmut Crott's collection.

The evening before Watches & Wonders began in April, I made my way to a suite overlooking the lake at the five-star Beau Rivage Hotel to preview the upcoming collection from the June 5 relaunch of Urban Jürgensen. No pictures were allowed. Excitement’s been building since Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen became involved with the relaunch in 2021.

Financier Andrew Rosenfield and his son Alex Rosenfield are backing the rebirth of the Danish brand, with Alex serving as co-CEO alongside Kari. Following current indie trends, the collection emphasizes meticulously crafted time-only pieces alongside classic complications. (Rosenfield hinted at this in WWD.)

Voutilainen’s experience with UJ runs deep; he finished the Oval Pocket Watch back in 2005, which recently sold for $4 million.

As Kari has explained, this will very much feel like his take on Urban Jürgensen’s original pocket watches, and not his reinterpretation of the 1980s and ‘90s wristwatches from Peter Baumgartner and Derek Pratt.

That’s good.

This is, for example, what worked for Breguet and Daniel Roth in the 1980s. Check out the 250th anniversary exhibition of Urban Jurgensen, featuring Dr. Helmut Crott’s collection (who briefly owned the brand in the 2010s), and you’ll see there is so much ripe for reinterpretation. The neo-vintage wristwatches, while beautiful, are a specific POV. I’m also just not a huge fan of the teardrop lugs.

Bremont. Urban Jürgensen is just one example of an American investor getting involved in watchmaking. Bill Ackman recently announced he has a controlling stake in Bremont, promising to bring his playbook to the sputtering British brand. (Interestingly, Ackman also recently disclosed that he bought Roger Smith’s Pocket Watch No. 2 for $5m in 2023. Before that purchase, he says he made a deal with Smith that if he won No. 2, he’d have the option to buy Pocket Watch No. 1, the piece Smith famously presented to George Daniels in hopes of being his apprentice, but that Daniels said wasn’t good enough. Smith still has the movement, but melted down the case.)

Benrus. Meanwhile, attorney Michael Sweeney recently fully relaunched Benrus, the historic American watchmaker founded in 1921, after first acquiring the name in 2017. The relaunch comes after a juicy, drawn-out legal fight between Sweeney and Benrus’ previous owner, who also tried to run for governor of Rhode Island after seemingly running Benrus into the ground. The dispute played out in Rhode Island’s business tabloids, a quaint corner of the internet of which I was previously unaware. The relaunch is focused on military-inspired watches; of course, there’s also a take on the Benrus that Steve McQueen famously wore in Bullitt (how many brands have a “McQueen watch”?).

All these rich guys getting into watches!

Watch brands are like the new sports teams. And why not? They're more culturally relevant than ever, and after you've made money doing all kinds of boring things like algorithmic credit default swap monetization or synergistic cost optimization, why not try to make it the cool way?

I just hope they don't bring those tactics from a previous life, because we don't need more of that in watchmaking.

Luckily, all are indicating a desire to build a brand for the long term. After all, there are much better ways to make money than reviving old watch brands.

Livestream Q&A Today!

For paid subscribers, a reminder that our livestream hang/Q&A with Max Braun is today at 3pm ET. Here’s the link: