Some of you will know that I have a passion for stopwatches, my first nice one being bought from Will Fly, a long-standing member of the forum. Over the last week, I have had a bit of a charity shop bonanza, purchasing three decent stopwatches from two different charity shops - a Sekonda, a nice unbranded Swiss example from just pre-War, and a gorgeous Junghans example, the like of which I had not seen before. On returning home, I looked up the Junghans and discovered that my watch is in the throes of becoming a bit of a classic. Indeed, it even is featured in a YouTube video about the watch itself and the Junghans watch company, and amusingly there is a section of the video where the watch is viewed working, accompanied by a music track.
The Junghans stopwatch comes in two forms, with my own example being the rarer type with a left-of-crown side pusher to reset the watch rather than all functions being accomplished by means of the crown. The movement in my example is designated caliber 628/02 while the simpler model is caliber 628 - the basic movement being the same in each model. In keeping with my Junghans watch moving towards classic status, there is a review of the model 628 online, published in 2012 by Ken Rockwell. He dates the watch to about 1970, while another source places it in the 1960s. In fact, there is no firm start-date readily known for this unusual stop watch, with earlier versions apparently seeming to be marked "JUNGHANS" without the star emblem. Whatever the case, the Ken Rockwell review is very positive about the watch, and I will quote from it here.
Here is my model/version - the Junghans 628/02 caliber 3-register stopwatch (pic from images.bidorbuy.co.za):
As Rockwell states, "This Junghans reads directly in minutes, seconds and tenths, and none of the hands cover anything else. Most other 1/10 mechanical stopwatches only read to 15 minutes, while this three-handed Junghans reads precisely to 60 minutes." " With a separate minute hand, this Junghans stopwatch reads to 60 minutes, then repeats. ... Other stopwatches use fewer hands that cover each other. No matter what the setting, this stopwatch's hands are always easy to read." What Rockwell is struggling to say here is that the Junghans comprises three separate registers - a minutes register up to 60 minutes, a seconds register and a wonderful tenth of a second register that operates almost like a four-bladed propeller.
The most interesting aspect of Rockwell's review is the results he obtained when he tested the 40-year old stop watch under review. He discovered that his example ran precisely to a tenth of a second, and even after one hour, was accurate to 0.3 seconds. Other mechanical watches tested by him had been less accurate, with other 1/10 stopwatches being off by one full second after 15 minutes. One additionally nice factor about the watch is that, "When running, the minutes and seconds move continuously, while the tenths hand clicks instantly from one mark to the next."
Ken Rockwell's model 628 version of my stopwatch from about 1970, with the functions all operated from the crown (pic from kenrockwell.com):
The watch in basic 628 form as reviewed by ken Rockwell can cost up to about £100, depending on condition, with £50-75 being a good mean. However, if one was to obtain the earliest version of the watch, also in very good condition, the price could rise and there is an example online priced at £177.68. This example has been dated to about the 1930s, which may be a bit optimistic, and has a mineral glass rather than acrylic crystal and a cork seal. Like my own example and Rockwell's, from the 1960s and 70s, the movement is the 7-jewel caliber 628, with my own watch being slightly modified to incorporate the side pusher. The older versions sometimes have the legend "Process Time Meter" on the dial and they are, while the most modern versions of the 1/10 stopwatch seem to have abandoned the "1/10 sec" mark for the decimal "0.1s". Rockwell's watch measures 54.93mm in diameter as opposed to a similar simple version from the earlier period which is very slightly smaller. As I have mentioned already, the earlier versions, perhaps first emerging just before World War Two, and then on into the 1960s, do not seem to have the Junghans star mark on the dial, but all versions have the made in Germany designation at the base of the dial. It also seems that these watches are all chrome plated brass.
A Junghans caliber 628/02 stopwatch like my own but somewhat earlier in date, with the left side pusher (pic from images.bidorbuy.co.za):
The Junghans Caliber 628 as found in the crown only version of the 3-register 1/10 stopwatch - sorry about how uninspiring the appearance of this movement is. Better to focus on the wonderful dial (pic from vtgwtch.files.wordpress.com):
Before leaving this fascinating and increasingly classic stopwatch, I have wind of a related stopwatch that could be regarded as the holy grail of Junghans stopwatches, and one I would love to have in my collection. This is the Junghans Meister 3-register model in which the bottom register measures down to 1/100 of a second. The movement in this wonderful timepiece is a Junghans 15-jewel caliber, and I would expect to pay about a couple of hundred pounds for a really good example from a watch dealer or respectable online site.
The holy grail for collectors of Junghans stopwatches - the 15-jewel 1/100 of a second Junghans Meister stopwatch (pic from i.ebayimg.com):
