While there’s no dearth of sports watches born from a block of 316L stainless steel, it’s a challenge to find a top-tier sports watch that’s a) available (just look at your local authorized dealer’s wait list for the GMT-Master II in Oystersteel) or b) not something that everyone has (the Rolex Submariner comes to mind). That’s where the Urban Jürgensen One reference 5541 shines. It’s got clout and refinement all while being somewhat stealthy about it. Since the 5541 is Urban Jürgersen’s first foray into proper sports watches, the silhouette of the case and the striking open hand design hasn’t been ingrained in the mind’s eye of the collective watch world, but I think it could definitely make its way there eventually.
The brand comes from a four-century long tradition of Danish-Swiss watchmaking, and there’s something about the One Collection’s aesthetic that seems to take all history and neatly package it into a sporty piece of kit that fits into horological modernity nicely. It’s not like Jürgensen just reached into the archive and pulled out something to re-engineer or “reference.” They simply couldn’t. Almost all of their past watches have been made in precious metals and focused on fine executions of complications and finishings. Instead, they created something entirely new from scratch with the One. They started with a tradition of haute horology and somehow transposed enough of that into a watch could square up with the likes of prolific, instantly-recognizable sports watches. When someone enters the same ring as the Patek Nautilus or Audemars Piguet Royal Oak it’s worth paying attention.
This ultimately leads to an answer to the simple question of “Why?” What compels a maker of fine dress watches to make their mark on a segment with little to no elbow room? Because whether or not it’s artificial measures or actual supply and demand curves making some of the well-known models scarce, it’s still hard to get your hands on many of these extremely popular watches. And even if you are lucky enough to find some of these, there’s a certain type of collector that doesn’t want to join the club of which many are already a part. The One collection is offering a different type of alternative.
from Best Watches For Men https://ift.tt/2EAQiym