The Bauhaus watch myth

The end of World War I marked a new beginning in German history and therefore a new, custom-made style needed to be created, which reflects this new modern era. But the avant-garde Bauhaus was born into a world, which wasn't ready and simply not open minded enough for so much modernity. It existed for only 14 years in form of the “State Bauhaus” in Weimar (1919-25), as a “school of design” in Dessau (1925-32) and as a "private education institute" in Berlin (1932-33). 

Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar (1919-25)

The teachers at the Bauhaus like Josef Albers taught their students the work-wise, aesthetically and materially equally economical use of the most diverse materials, in particular glass and metal. While the architecture of the 1920s / 30s was dominated by gabled roofs, ornamental stucco and wooden shutters, the Bauhaus propagated the exact opposite, which met with incomprehension among conservatives architects and politicians. All things must be built out of simplest forms, using logic and focussing on functionality alone. This approach was extremely controversial during the early 20s and caused a lot of commotion.

In 1924 the right-wing party Thüringer Ordnungsbund gained a majority in the states parliament. Some of the first actions of the new government was it to discard the modern-age back in form of budget cuts for the Bauhaus and cancellation of the the teachers’ contracts. The director Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus masters resigned their posts and various cities expressed interest in providing a new home for the Bauhaus. 

Bauhaus Dessau (1925-32)

The selection finally came down to the city of Dessau, but 160 km weren't enough to escape from the dangers during these times. In September 1932 the Bauhaus Dessau was forced by the resolution passed by the national socialist city council to close. 

Bauhaus Berlin (1932-33)

In October 1932 the Bauhaus masters and students resumed their work in an abandoned telephone factory in Berlin-Steglitz Repressions by the dictatorship regime and drastic cutbacks in funding made it almost impossible to work at the Bauhaus in Berlin.  

After world war II in 1951, the "College of Architecture and Civil Engineering" was highly integrated in the political system of the GDR. The former avant-garde research activities were largely instructed by the communist government now, which limited the creative potential of the Bauhaus students and their professors.

The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 initiated a radical process of restructuring at the college. In 1996 the Bauhaus was finally re-born in form of the "Bauhaus-University Weimar" and quickly the college adapted to the basic principles of freedom and democracy of the Bauhaus tradition and integrate it into the international community of higher education institutions.

Conclusion

After World War I and the fall of the German monarchy, Germanys new and liberal Weimar Republic created growing awareness of the importance of industrialization and the desire of modernization among its people. The search for the modern age and the modern way of living  was drafted in many places and of course one of the most famous place was the Bauhaus school: Extremely modern and controversial designs and architecture, drafted too early for the politically still too divided country. The conservative world was not ready for the Bauhaus modernism and was put to an early end by right-wing extremists. Now 100 years later, architecture and product design are still influenced by it.

Today, 100 years later, the term "Bauhaus" is associated with everything possible; Companies name themselves after it, shrewd marketers and architects connect the term "Bauhaus style" to every minimalistic product or cubic architecture you can think of. 

On the one hand, the principles of the Bauhaus are exactly defined, but on the other hand, they let a huge room for interpretation. Let us have a look at them, by put together the most important principles in summary.

5 principles of the Bauhaus style:

1. "Form follows Function" - It means that a design should follow the the form shaped by the function instead of its aesthetic appeal. The quote was characterized by the American architect Louis Sullivan.
2. True Materials - Object and architecture is always defined by its materials; Leaving them unmodified/-covered should prevent a distortion of the design and should reflect the true nature of objects and buildings. Bauhaus architects didn’t hide even brutal- and rough materials.
3. "Less is more" - A quote, if not the most famous one, by the Bauhaus architect and former director of the School Mies van der Rohe. It stands for one of the main principles of the Bauhaus style like no other and reflects the principles of "form follows function" and "true materials", in the meaning that there is no need for additional ornamenting (less), to crate a great and aesthetic design (more).
4. Unification of Craftmanship and Art - The Bauhaus teaching methodology was based on interdisciplinarity
5. Typography Matters - Typography has an essential role in an effective visual communication and was one of the most important classes at the Bauhaus school. The Bauhaus focused on simplified fonts and avoided the much heavier fonts of the standard German typography of the time.
6. Gesamtkunstwerk - The German word stands for the ‘complete work of art’, which means, that multiple forms of art and craftmanship result in a synthesis and create the final Gesamtkunstwerk.
7. Affordability and Mass-Producibility - The Bauhaus promoted impersonal and classless modern design, that should be affordable for everyone and thus be suitable for mass production, during the time of the rising popularity of socialism.

Decisive for the Bauhaus design is the that aesthetics and artistic expression should be determined by the function of the product. As Mies van der Rohe, the final director of the last Bauhaus School, said: “honesty of construction, death to decoration”.

"The artist works with the highest level of feeling. The technician works with the highest level of logic." - Marcel Breuer, architect, and furniture designer at the Bauhaus

"So let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen, free of the divisive class pretensions that endeavoured to raise a prideful barrier between craftsmen and artists! Let us strive for, conceive and create the new building of the future that will unite every discipline, architecture and sculpture and painting, and which will one day rise heavenwards from the million hands of craftsmen as a clear symbol of a new belief to come." - Walter Gropius in the "Manifesto of the Staatliches Bauhaus", Weimar, Germany, 1919.

Conclusion

The Bauhaus has been a revolutionary movement, changing art, design and architecture forever, but where have been the watches during all these years? Among the many items and buildings that were shaped and redesigned by teachers and students at the Bauhaus were neither a wristwatch, nor a pocket watch or wall clock. Even though a new watch design would have suited so well into the principles of the Bauhaus, to combine art and craftmanship and reduce it to a minimum for the sake of its function and design, obviously, the inventors of the new Zeitgeist were not interested in the "Zeitmesser" (time keeping instruments) itself.

As we already know, neither a watch-design, nor an actual watch left the class rooms of the  Bauhaus during its time of existence. Furthermore there is no known evidence for a connection between the Bauhaus school and the then existing watch- or dial manufacturers and yet we are talking about "Bauhaus Watches" a hundred years later. 

The burning question now is, if the dials of the 1930s were inspired by the Bauhaus or not?

Many German watch- and watch-parts manufacturers were active at the time of the Bauhaus and created watches in the new modern design, leaving behind the heavy art-deco style of the 1920s. The fashion of the new modern era of the 1930s was dedicated to simplicity and rational thought in design and production. Probably the dial designs of the 1930s were nevertheless influenced by the shocking waves of modernism, sent into Germany and the world from the Bauhaus School in Weimar.

The German company Weber & Baral from Pforzheim was the largest dial manufacturer in Germany during this time and delivered many watch manufacturers with their dials. 

The design inspirations came from none other than the founder Arthur Weber himself, for example the design of the famous Lange watch from 1937. Besides Lange & Söhne Weber & Baral also supplied STOWA, whose watches from 1937 show a very similar design language. 

These dial designs from 1937 may have been one of the first watches influenced by the design principles of the Bauhaus and have been carried almost a century into the present, where it's still appreciated as modern design. It proves, that simpler and modern watch dial designs were already used during the operative time of the Bauhaus. If Arthur Weber was directly inspired by the Bauhaus remains an open question, but you can be sure, that he didn't miss the new approach of design of this new movement from Weimar.

Conclusion

No watches from Weimar, Dessau or Berlin; Consequently the term "Bauhaus watch" is questionable, but sure has its reason for being. During the 1920/30s a new language of modern design was shaped and especially influenced by the spirit and principles of the Bauhaus school. 

Let us try to analyze and interpret some brands, which refer their watches to the Bauhaus and the "Bauhaus Stil". 

The bestseller of NOMOS is the Tangente and it is often described as the “Bauhaus watch” by its fans, but why is that so and does it deserve to be adorned with this honorable reference?

In 1990 Roland Schwertner, the founder of NOMOS Glashütte SA, was looking for sources of inspiration for slender and functional designs in history books of German watchmaking. The goal was to combine the old and the new streams of watch design from Glashütte. During his research, he discovered images in old books and magazines of some Lange models from the 1930s with a clear Bauhaus influence (as already shown before in this article). 

Mr. Schwertner recognized the typography’s potential: Inspired by it, he and the graphic designer Susanne Günther modernized the numerals and created the watch to go with it — which was a long process. Even the smallest changes of a design can either better, or ruin it. The first hand-wound model was ready for the market in 1992 and went on to become the best-selling NOMOS model. The relatively young company can be seen as the real mastermind of the trend for clean and minimalistic watch designs in accordance with the principles of the Bauhaus.

In the interview with NOMOS Watch Club Thomas Höhnel, NOMOS product designer at Berlinerblau (the Berlin-based subsidiary of the Glashütte manufactory, responsible for design and marketing of the brand), said:

"We believe that the watches that we make are what members of the Bauhaus movement would create and wear today. Just like back then, we are concentrating on the essentials in our work — from the design of our watches to R&D and caliber production — leaving aside everything unnecessary and refining the elements that remain. So Bauhaus principles can still be found with us today. NOMOS Glashütte is a member of the Werkbund, a precursor to the Bauhaus movement. This association was already focusing on making good design affordable for many."

To celebrate the 100. birthday of the Bauhaus movement in 2019, NOMOS Glashütte created a limited edition Tangente model: three different colors, each available in three sizes (33, 35, or 38 millimeters), each limited to 100 pieces. Inspired by the primary color theory of Wassily Kadinsky, the dials feature a ring of blue, yellow, or red on a dial with the color of vintage sketch paper.

Conclusion

Looking back on the now acquired comprehensible knowledge about the history of the traditional Bauhaus and its style, we can come to the following conclusion and hypothesis: Even though the design wasn't completely newly invented by NOMOS, the NOMOS Tangente can be with no doubt considered as a "Bauhaus watch"; It carries the heritage of the design of the 1930's and combines art and craftsmanship, in form of useful, minimalist aesthetic, which offers a good readability and is free of ornamentation. It features modern watch technology with its in-house movements and is genuinely "Made in Germany".

The German manufacturer Junghans has the closest relation to the original Bauhaus, because of the design of an alumnus of the Bauhaus: Max Bill. He is one of the most famous former student of the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he studied during the years 1927-28. After the closing of the Bauhaus Dessau in 1932 he moved back to his home country Switzerland and continued his work with the Bauhaus ideals as architect, painter, typeface-, industrial- and graphic designer. With the end of the second World War he became rector of the well known Academy of Design in Ulm. In 1997 the company rediscovered the value of design itself and reissued it under the name of its creator "Max Bill".

The case design of the Junghans watch by Max Bill aims for flatness and absolute minimalism. It can be considered even more minimalistic than the NOMOS Tangente and here is the crucial point for the differences in design of the two most known Bauhaus inspired watches of our time; The NOMOS Tangente picks up on the cubic design language of the Bauhaus, while the Junghans Max Bill has a rather organic- and reduced design.

The name printed on the dial of Max Bill watches "Junghans Design" can undoubtedly attributed to its designer, as no Junghans pieces that were not designed by the Swiss artist bear that insignia.  Original Max Bill watches from the 1960's had the following words printed on the face: "Junghans", "Junghans design", "Junghans Automatic" or "Junghans Meister". The watch company keeps this tradition with its current collection of the "Max Bill" since its reissuing in 1997.

"The design of Max Bill distinguishes itself through its clarity and reduction. Concerning the wristwatches, which Bill designed for Junghans in the early 1960s, it is the good clearness of display. Especially outstanding is the typography of the watches with numbered dials, clearly rounded and without embellishment that displays the typical handwriting of the Bauhaus trained artist - this is even more evident, when you take a close look at the number 4" says Matthias Stotz, director of Uhrenfabrik Junghans GmbH & Co. KG. 

Conclusion

The Junghans Max Bill collection can be with no doubt referred to the Bauhaus and it might be the one and only "Bauhaus watch", due its undeniable connection to the Bauhaus school. Straightforward design, reduced to a minimum with keeping a good readability and last but not least it was created by a designer, who once learned at the Bauhaus from the famous founding fathers. 

The Bauhaus designer has put his signature in a very special place, that most people wouldn't even notice: The number 4 on the dial of watches was always been special, especially when roman numerals were used. It was wirtten as "IIII" instead of "IV" to create a balance between the "IIII" and the "IIIV", the so called watchmakers 4. Max Bill designed a 4 with an unique softly drawn sweep, which reflects the straightforward clarity and the tribute to the importance of typography at the Bauhaus doctrine.

Since STOWA was active at the time of the Bauhaus (from 1927) and also produced clocks in the largely so-called Bauhaus style, in recent years it has repeatedly tried to gather more information about it. 

It is now clear that the watches, which are today called Bauhaus style, all date from about 1937. 

1937. STOWA.

STOWA also bought dials at Weber & Baral. Many different models - partly in real gold - round or square, were built with it. From the mid-thirties, the models of today’s Antea series are created. In the STOWA Museum, some of the classics from that era can be seen.

https://www.stowa.de/Antea/?utm_source=nomoswatchclub.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Review_Antea_nomoswatchclub.com_2019_12

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The brand STERNGLAS was founded in 2016 and is the youngest brand that tries to catch up on the Bauhaus style. It was yet another watch crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, which met with greater interest than expected. More than 100 supporters contributed to the crowdfunding of STERNGLAS to make the project a reality. 

"Good design and high-quality timepieces should be affordable and accessible to everyone, according to the traditional Bauhaus concept. [...] These principles are the be-all and end-all for us at Sternglas.”

The founder had the mission, to create an affordable watch". The mission to create an affordable watch is clearly accomplished, but is it an affordable Bauhaus watch? I own a STERNGLAS Zirkel automatic myself, so I allow myself to write down my critical opinion about it. As there is not much to say about the company history, I come straight to the point.

Taking a first look to the watches it is noticeable here very clearly, that the case designs are, except the lugs, extremely close to the benchmarks of NOMOS and Junghans. The Case of the model "Zirkel" resembles the case of the NOMOS Tangente, and the case of the "Naos" resembles the case of the Junghans Max Bill. 

My watch is one of the first models that uses a Japanese Miyota 8217 caliber, which is an extremely high movement (Pic.4: Height comparison of my NOMOS Ahoi and STERNGLAS Zirkel). Luckily they've switched to a Miyota 9015, which makes the new model much slimmer.

The overall built quality of the watches is great, no doubt. 

Conclusion

Trying to write a conclusion on STERNGLAS watches turns out to be a quandary and I can just try to reflect my personal opinion without sounding too harsh; Of course I'm influenced by the “Haute Horlogerie”, the "fine art of watchmaking", that comes with a high price tag and absolute perfectionism. In addition to that, being an alumnus of the Bauhaus University myself, I look very critically at any new product, which is referred to the Bauhaus. 

Being a perfectionist when it comes to aesthetics, the dial designs of the STERNGLAS watches seem unimaginative and the typography (which is one of the principles of the Bauhaus principles) is very similar to the most standard font in the world "Arial". Especially the model Topograph (picture in gallery) doesn't offer good readability with its quite overloaded dial. Neither case designs, with their similarities to existing brands, nor the cost-effective Japanese automatic movements reflects the combination of art and engineering in my opinion. 

Talking about shrewd marketing, the German homepage is littered with German words, for example "Zeitmesser" (timekeeper) instead of "Uhr" (watch) and they describe the movement as a piece of "Uhrmacherkunst" which means "watchmaking art". At all honors, a Japanese Miyota automatic movement is a good movement, but clearly not "a piece of watchmaking art" as they claim. If you know a little about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you know that this is the way to rank high in the search for the used words and for example "Bauhaus Uhr".

In my opinion it is misleading, if you're not aware of real German watchmaking and the principles of the Bauhaus doctrine. Maybe I would be more modest in this conclusion about STERNGLAS, if I wouldn't have been targeted by STERNGLAS Ads screaming "Bauhaus watch" on every social media feed possible and if they wouldn't not skip any opportunity to refer themselves to the Bauhaus.

Having said the above, I'd also like to say something positive about STERNGLAS watches. On the other hand, the choice if the movement guarantees affordability, which was a goal of the founder.

I pay tribute to the honesty of STERNGLAS, that they don't print "Made in Germany" on their dials, even though "Made in Germany" is not controlled by a central regulatory body and even the packaging in Germany alone is reason enough for some brands to call their products made in Germany.

The ambitions of the founder in all honor, for me the reference to the Bauhaus reflects solely in the price tag and the minimalism. It uses too much of existing designs and presents too less of originality and no real aesthetics. Still, the Naos for 299€ and Zirkel for 399€ are more than affordable automatic watches and are good minimalistic watches for the buck, that try to catch up with the established Bauhaus style.

After this analysis 

"Why is good design for wristwatches, mainly in Bauhaus design, no longer affordable for everyone today?" We could ask us the same question with furniture or lamps designed 

As students at the Bauhaus Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Carl Jakob Jucker designed a table lamp in 1923, which is is often called the "Bauhaus lamp" . The original  is now offered in the MoMa shop for $995. 

But even when the lamp was first offered by Schwintzer & Graff in industrial production in 1928, the Bauhaus lamp costed 55 Reichsmark and was thus unaffordable for large sections of the population in Germany during this time.

Good design, combined with demanding development and finest craftmanship comes with a price. It is a bit utopian to believe, that good design and fine watchmaking can be easily affordable.