1997: Junghans Max Bill
Nomos Glashütte isn?t the only German watchmaker to be making bafflingly affordable Bauhaus beauties ? in fact, Junghans of Schramberg started in 1961 with the help of Walter Gropius?s star pupil before being rebooted as a modern design in the late 1990s
By Alex Doak
German watchmaking doesn?t begin and end with Glashütte, you know. Admittedly, the town has bounced back from its GDR doldrums with a dazzling flourish of new and revived names, but it pays to tear oneself away from this picture-postcard, fairytale story and look further afield. There?s Tutima in Bremen, for example, on the north coast; you?ll find Sinn more centrally in Frankfurt, making similarly utilitarian watches; and then Gerd-Rüdiger Lang?s confusingly named Chronoswiss in Bavaria, saved from bankruptcy two years ago by an investor. The biggest of all, however, is Junghans ? still going strong since 1861 and still nestled in Schramberg in the Black Forest, flanked by rolling scenery that gives Glashütte a run for its money. What?s more, Junghans is booming, as we reported here, with a majority of its output powered by mechanical movements, new owners pouring money into buildings and all-important manufacturing autonomy? and most tellingly, a new generation of design-savvy hipsters falling in love with their ?Max Bill? reissues.
It began with a kitchen clock, developed together with Bill?s students at the Ulm College of Design in 1956. As a Bauhaus student of Walter Gropius, he understood how t...
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