After seeing Christian service a Junghans ‘Max Bill’ in a previous post, I decided I loved the clean dial, and to see if I could get my own. I found this poorly watch in a job lot for £10, and although it’s battered, the dial is in great condition (with the little bauhaus 4 :-)), and it runs. That’s a good start! Continue reading
Ever since I serviced Torsten’s Junghans watch, I wanted to get one myself. Now the big questions was used or new, and the main trade-off is that Junghans doesn’t make their own movements any more. So if you want a genuine Junghans movement, you have to go vintage. As I quite like the ETA2824-2 for it’s precision and reliability, I wasn’t too worried about that. And I do like the excitement of unpacking a brand new watch! Continue reading
Jason from Germany sent in two watches, and the first one I’m servicing is his Glashuette. It’s post-reunification, so it has an ETA movement, and not a GUB. Not a bad thing 😉
If you look closely, you can see that the inside of the crystal is hazy. An odd thing to happen with a pretty watertight diver’s watch, and you wonder if that was caused by overheating (oil fumes) or fumes coming off the dial paint or lume. Continue reading
As promised earlier, here is the second one of Torsten’s Junghans watches. This also has the J83/E movement, but has the famous Max Bill design dial.
This is one of the most iconic watch dials there are – at least for me 😉
Just to break the spell of Omegas, it’s a lovely Junghans watch today. I am of course quite partial to Junghans watches, which has probably to do with the fact that I’m German 😉
It doesn’t get much classier than this. Not to forget that Junghans makes (made) their own movements. Nowadays, they also use standard fare, but in happier days, they made their own.
This beauty is off eBay – I paid a bit less than a tenner for it, and I hope I can restore it to its former glory. It’s not working at all …
I’m not surprised that jump hour watches didn’t conquer the market, as they aren’t very easy to read. I find it takes me a lot longer to figure out what time it is on one of these than on a normal display with hands.
The crystal is pretty scratched, and the dial has some damage, but, overall, it’s looking good.
A bit of a story up-front… This watch belongs to my brother Gerhard. He’s had it for around 35 years. My father used to work for PUW (Pforzheimer Uhren-Rohwerke) in the 70s as a management consultant. PUW went into bankruptcy, as there weren’t enough assets and too much debt. A certain Mr. Hayek bought what was left from the administrators, and the rest is history.
My brother asked my father to buy a watch for him whilst he worked there, and so he did…
Another one of Torsten’s watches – a great looking Junghans Chronograph. The dial and case look super-cool. A very clean design, with no frills. Just how I like watches 😉
Note that the crown is on the left, and the pushers on the right.
The movement works, but the second hand of the chronograph gets stuck on the minute hand, and the amplitude isn’t too good, and there is a bit of a beat error. When winding, the watch makes a pretty terrible noise…
Torsten from Hong Kong sent me a whole batch of watches – and this great looking Elgin 105 electronic is one if them. It doesn’t work any more, but he sent a long another Junghans 600.10 for parts.
Elgin used the Junghans movement for this watch. It’s an electro-mechanical movement, based on the principles invented by Leon Hatot (that’s why Junghans called these movements ato-chron – ato from Hatot, chron from the Greek chronos = time). The idea is to provide the moving force for a watch or clock by accelerating the pendulum or balance wheel with a coil that pulls a magnet. So no winding, and an electronic watch that is almost entirely mechanical. Continue reading
Ken from Ireland sent me this lovely Glashütte watch. The Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB) were founded in 1951, in what was back then East Germany. Apparently, all watch manufacturers in Glashütte were combined into GUB, something not unusual in the early days of the German Democratic Republic.
So, not only a piece if history, but also a good looking one!