The centenary of Bauhaus has seen a cavalcade of limited editions released by Junghans to mark the occasion. One of the most fun pieces so far is the Junghans FORM A watch, which pays homage to the color wheel created by Johannes Itten, one of the first tutors to be installed at the Bauhaus school of design. A Swiss-born painter, Itten developed a new color theory he went on to incorporate into his teaching. This 1,000-piece limited edition honors the man and his career, and the indelible influence he had on the Bauhaus school and its students.
Itten’s color wheel is based on the primary colors of blue, yellow, and red, from which the secondary colors — purple, green, and orange — can be made. So far, so good — this is all pretty elementary stuff, right? But beyond the secondary colors, there is another strata known as the tertiary colors, which are made by mixing a secondary color with a primary color again (forgive my amazement if your first grade teacher told you about tertiary colors — mine started and stopped with the color gray, which is all you need to describe the Mancunian sky). There are six tertiary colors; red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet. When these six are added to the primary and secondary colors, you have (you guessed it) 12 colors.
The transition of the colors on the dial of the Junghans FORM A watch is, therefore, logical and easy on the eye. Interestingly, Junghans elected to put yellow at the top of the dial. While most of the color wheels I’ve seen follow this pattern, it would have been easy enough to change it had they wished to. However, I believe the presence of the red scale (probably the most common accent color in watchmaking) around 3 o’clock was just a perfect coincidence, given that the 3 o’clock position on the dial is the most visible (thanks to the existence of long sleeves).
The Junghans Form A 100 Jahre Bauhaus Watch (ref. 027/4937.44) is powered by caliber j800.2, a self-winding movement with a power reserve of up to 38 hours, quick-set date, and a customized rotor weight sporting the Junghans logo. The movement is visible through a tinted mineral glass window in the screw-down caseback.
The pared-back stainless steel case measures 39.3mm across, with a height of just 9.5mm. A flat sapphire crystal (with anti-reflective coating on the underside) helps keep the thickness down, while the lugs are stout and tucked under the lip of the case to reduce the size of the watch on the wrist. The employment of a Milanese bracelet keeps the whole look very fresh and clean, allowing the colors on the dial to really “pop”. A black leather strap, for example, might have subdued the chromatic impact of the watch face. Pleasingly, for a watch of these dimensions, water-resistance of 50 meters has been achieved (which isn’t exactly stellar, but it’s a big improvement on the more standard 3 bar rating for watches of this style and proportions). There will also be a special Bauhaus-inspired presentation box for this limited model, which will retail for $1,095. Learn more at junghans.de.
