Junghans

Junghans was founded in 1861 in Schramberg, in the Black Forest, by Erhard Junghans and his brother-in-law Jakob Zeller-Tobler. By 1903 it had grown into the largest clock factory in the world, with more than 3,000 employees; the stepped terrace building on the hillside above the town, completed in 1918 to bring daylight to every workbench, has housed the company museum since 2018. Wristwatch production began in 1927, and by the 1950s Junghans was among the leading producers of chronometer-grade movements.

From 1956 the Bauhaus-trained designer Max Bill created a kitchen clock and, from 1961, the wristwatches that remain the brand's most recognisable products. Junghans was official timekeeper of the 1972 Munich Olympics, and in 1990 launched the Mega 1, the first radio-controlled wristwatch. After insolvency in 2008 the company was acquired in 2009 by Hans-Jochem and Hannes Steim of Schramberg. Today its catalogue centres on the max bill, Meister and Form lines.