Junghans is a 155 year old German watchmaker nestled in the Black Forest city of Schramberg, not far north of the Swiss border city of Schaffhausen, home to IWC. In the early 1960s they had Max Bill design lines of watches and clocks. He was[FONT=&] an apprentice of Walter Gropius studying at Bauhaus from 1927 until 1929. It helped him develop a very recognizable, and very Bauhaus influenced style. In recent times, Junghans has been primarily known as a technically advanced company making radio-controlled timepieces. However theyve recently reintroduced the Max Bill in a variety of flavors, from hand-wound, automatic and even quartz movements (the least expensive). The model here is the automatic Chronoscope, using the ubiquitous Valjoux 7750 movement (they, like IWC, modify it to meet their standards). Theyve had some limited distribution in the US, but you dont often see them here (although theyre now on Amazon). Thanks to the current exchange rate, I was able to save a good deal of money buying it in Germany. If you appreciate an understated clean design without a recognized brand, its a nice piece with a vintage look and feel. It came with the tan calf strap, which I replaced with the blue alligator strap. [/FONT]
