Best Looking Watch Under £200 | Junkers 100 Years Bauhaus Review
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The most important thing about wristwatches is how they look. In this day and age, even their time-telling ability is inferior to that accessible on your mobile phone.
I think most people just use watches as fashion accessories and to an extent, that’s my view on them too. If a watch doesn’t look good, chances are I won’t like it and just won’t wear it.
However, the watch I’m reviewing today looks absolutely phenomenal and I think is a great dress watch option for well under £200. This is a new watch from German brand Junkers and is part of their range celebrating 100 Years of the famous Bauhaus art school. I saw it pop up a couple of months ago and thought I would take a look at it on the channel.
Junkers Watch Heritage
The Junkers brand, founded by Hugo Junkers, dates back to 1895 and acted as one of the main sponsors of the Bauhaus until it’s forced takeover by the Nazis in the early 1930s. I think that’s some cool history and it’s one of the reasons I consider this to be true Bauhaus, rather than just a wannabe Bauhaus.
These watches are made in Germany by Point Tec, alongside the popular Zeppelin watches. That original Junkers aircraft division was absorbed into Messerschmitt in 1969 and the Junkers name was only seen on central heating products until the watch brand spawned in 1996. I believe in some regions these are sold under the brand name ‘Iron Annie’; a colloquial reference to one of their former planes. I personally much prefer the Junkers name.
Either way, I’ll link an interesting read about their full backstory here.
Design
Design-wise, you’ll definitely notice the similarity between this and some of the popular Junghans models. Both brands’ offerings are sewn with Bauhaus design cues; this particular model having a really minimalist dial with slim markers all around. For me it’s the little details like the font selection, the hands and the small round tips at each 90 degrees that separate good design from average design.
This watch features a lovely sunburst texture, giving this cream dial a beautiful reflective appearance from a variety of angles. This is made all the nicer when paired with the warp from the domed hesalite glass. I love the distortion you get from a side on perspective, especially on dress watches like this one. As nice as the glass looks, unfortunately, this type of plastic is really not going to provide good scratch resistance. Nevertheless, it is more impact resistance versus other types of glass and is also less reflective.
Brands sometimes opt for this because apparently it gives their watches a more retro appearance, due to the increased distortion hesalite can allow for. I imagine this is the reason Junkers opted for this. You can make up your own mind about what type of glass you prefer, though personally, I would prefer more scratch resistance and less impact resistance as I don’t recall ever dropping a watch directly onto a hard floor (and certainly don’t plan on doing so).
Case
This is paired with a really slim case. This one comes in at 10mm in depth including the raised glass and 6.5mm without it. It sits comfortably, without looking too imposing.
Something I love about these Junkers 100 Year Bauhaus watches is that they come in two sensible sizes for men. A 38mm diameter, which I have here, but also a larger 40mm version. That means you can opt for whichever size suits your wrist the best. This 38mm model has a lug to lug of 41.6mm and as such it sits really well on my small wrist. One of my biggest frustrations with the similarly designed Orient Bambino is the lack of an option at this sort of size, with Junkers, I don’t have that issue.
Overall, the stainless steel used feels good quality, though I’ll have to test this watch for longer to be a full judge of that. The case has a high-shine finish throughout, which I suppose suits the dress purpose of this piece. The crown is relatively small, though is perfectly functional, with enough grippy grooves. I think for this style of watch it is just the right size.
The case-back has 4 screws holding it in place, the seal providing a surprising 50m water resistance, which I think is quite good for a watch of this style. This will cover you for day-to-day regular usage.
Watch Movement
Within the case and powering this watch is no aircraft engine, unfortunately, it’s just a basic Miyota 2035 quartz movement. While this movement is okay, it’s nothing special, considering the cost of the watch. These are a really popular choice these days among microbrands and they’re accurate enough, if not underwhelming. Overall, this one hits the second markers more consistently than Miyotas I’ve reviewed in the past, though still misses a little more than I’d like.
You can get watches with automatic movements around this price point; though I’d imagine that would be pretty tricky to do so at this price point, whilst keeping the overall production in a European country. So, in this case, I can give it a bit of leeway. They do make other watches with different movements inside, including a few mechanical options, but unfortunately not this one.
For practicality’s sake, I like having a quartz movement inside a dress watch that I might not wear so often. If I’m only wearing this occasionally, it’s easy to just grab this and go; no time changing or anything like that to worry about.
Strap
The 18mm strap included with this watch is constructed of some form of unidentified leather. The best word to describe this is ‘average’. The leather feels fine but it’s not the best I’ve tried. Unfortunately, there are no quick release tabs on this, so you’ll need a tool to change it. I imagine this will serve its purpose well enough though, just don’t expect anything particularly plush.
The watch arrived beautifully presented in this box, which I thought was worth showing too.
Are Junkers Watches Any Good?
To summarise then, this watch looks great, has a strong level of finishing and some history behind it. I think for a dress watch, it ticks all of the boxes that it needs to. The specifications on paper aren’t the best, but I think the design more than counters its shortcomings. If you can’t afford a Junghans or don’t want to splash the extra cash, this watch does offer a similar look with German build quality for a fraction of the price.
I’m not saying it’s as good as a Junghans, but it is certainly more affordable, coming in at around or below £200. This particular model I nabbed on offer for a measly £130, which I was really pleased with.
