Germany’s Junghans watch brand has long been known by its ardent admirers for a dedication to simple designs inspired by principles of the Bauhaus, the influential German design school established in 1919 in Weimar. As the Bauhaus marks its centennial in 2019, Junghans offers a new watch from its flagship max bill collection that pays the Bauhaus its most direct homage yet. Read on to discover this week’s Watch to Watch, the Junghans max bill Automatic 100 Jahre Bauhaus.
Junghans max bill Automatic 100 Jahre Bauhaus
For those not in the know, Max Bill (1908-1994), the original watch’s namesake product designer, studied at the Bauhaus shortly after it expanded its facilities to the city of Dessau in 1925. Upon laying eyes on Dessau’s Bauhaus building after his arrival there in 1927, Bill was exhilarated by its “white walls and huge dark glass facades… and the balcony doors accentuated in red lead” and used those aesthetic elements in his work over the years, including the max bill watches and clocks that he designed for Junghans, a longtime client. The new watch, which is limited to 1,000 pieces, not only features a host of these influences but also represents the first time a Junghans max bill watch has offered a view of its internal workings through the caseback. The round, 38-mm case is in stainless steel, with a matte-anthracite PVD coating that recalls the look of the Bauhaus building facade, and wafer-thin at just 9.7 mm high. ...