Junghans Max Bill watches

The Junghans Max Bill watches go back to the designs the Swiss architect and designer Max Bill made for Junghans. His watch series for the brand began in 1961, after a teardrop-shaped kitchen clock with timer from 1956. Bill studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau and in 1953 co-founded the Ulm School of Design with Inge Aicher-Scholl and Otl Aicher. Junghans still presents the line as Bauhaus design, and many of its best-selling watches today are based on Bill's.

The current Automatic shows how little there is to it: a polished steel case, a matt silver-plated dial with a minute track, and luminous hands. Junghans now fits it with a domed sapphire crystal, while Max Bill models such as the 027/4700.00 have an acrylic (Plexi) crystal.

The main lines differ in movement and size. The Hand-Winding has a 34 mm case 9 mm thick. The Automatic is 38 mm and 10 mm thick, and the current model runs on Junghans' self-winding J800.1 with up to 38 hours of power reserve; the No-Date versions leave out the date window. The Chronoscope is the automatic chronograph, 40 mm and 14.4 mm thick, and the current model uses the self-winding J880.2 with up to 48 hours of reserve; the Day / Date versions add the day to the date. The Quartz keeps the 38 mm diameter of the Automatic in a 7.9 mm case.

The Ladies models are 32.7 mm across and 6.9 mm thick. The Hand-Winding, Automatic and Chronoscope also come in PVD-coated steel with a silver dial. Bracelet versions carry a .44 suffix, such as the Automatic 027/4002.44 and the Chronoscope 027/4500.44.