While not a watchmaking powerhouse on par with its southern neighbor, Switzerland, Germany still knows its way around a good watch.
There aren’t nearly as many notable German watch brands as there are Swiss, but those that are internationally known tend to fall into one of three camps.
You’ve got the high-end traditional watchmakers like A. Lange & Söhne and Glashütte Original, the rugged, purpose-built tool watches from Sinn and Tutima, and the Bauhaus-inspired, minimalist designs of Nomos and Junghans.
But sometimes, you’ll get a bit of crossover between those unofficial categories, and that’s exactly what we have with Junghans’ surprising new dive watch collection, the Aquaris.
Age of Aquaris
Junghans is referring to the Aquaris as its “first diving collection,” but the German brand has made dive watches before. From colorful skin divers in the 1970s to the Navy Quartz Diver of the 1980s to some ill-advised Rolex Submariner homages in the 1990s, Junghans seems to have produced dive watches — mostly quartz-powered — for at least a couple of decades.
But it has certainly been a long time since the brand has made a dive watch, probably another couple of decades, and the Aquaris is by far the most capable and purpose-built diver Junghans has ever produced.
