Junghans
From a Schramberg workshop making clock parts to the biggest timepiece maker on earth by 1903, Junghans shows how the Black Forest learned to mass-produce time.
From clock parts to the world's biggest clockmaker
Junghans says it was founded on 14 April 1861 in Schramberg, a town in Germany's Black Forest, when Erhard Junghans went into business with his brother-in-law, Jakob Zeller-Tobler. The firm did not start out making clocks. It supplied parts to other makers, such as wooden cases, hands, hinges, glass doors and pendulum discs, according to the Banco de España's collection notes.
Sources describe the early partnership differently. The company and the Banco de España call the firm Zeller & Junghans. The Neue Deutsche Biographie, Germany's national biographical reference, instead stresses Erhard's brother Xaver, who had emigrated to the United States in 1847 and was asked to find suitable American machines, and gives the trading name as Gebrüder Junghans, a factory for clocks on the American system.
The company says its first clocks of its own followed in 1866. They were designed from the start to be built with machines and division of labor, and the biography counts about 100 workers turning out roughly 20,000 clocks a year by 1870.
Arthur Junghans and the American method
Erhard Junghans died in 1870. In 1872 his son Arthur, trained as a clock and watchmaker, was sent to the United States, where, according to the Schramberg town museum, he traveled under his fiancée's surname to study how American factories worked. Back home he set up production on the American pattern, with mass production, assembly lines and division of labor.
The strategy worked. The museum notes that experts at first criticized the very basic design of Schramberg clocks, but low prices won buyers over. The firm became a stock company in 1900, and by 1903 it had about 3,000 employees and sold more than three million clocks and watches a year, which the Banco de España describes as the largest output of any timepiece maker in the world.
What Junghans made
Alarm clocks were the backbone of the business. Around 1900 they made up about 70 percent of Junghans production, and of one movement, known as Weckerwerk 10, the company was making 20,000 a day by the end of the 1920s, according to the Schramberg museum.
The firm also made wall and shelf clocks and later wristwatches. In the 1950s it began a long collaboration with the Bauhaus-trained designer Max Bill, whose name is still used for one of its watch lines. Later it moved into radio-controlled and solar-powered timepieces, which the company museum shows alongside its older clocks.
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How to identify a Junghans clock
The star is the main clue. According to the Banco de España, Junghans adopted a five-pointed star with a central J in 1888, then registered its trademark in 1890 with an eight-pointed star, a stylized pinion gear, and added the company name.
A wall clock of about 1930 in the bank's collection shows what to look for in practice: an eight-pointed star enclosing a J, with the letters UNGHANS arranged around it on the dial, and a paper label inside reading ORIGINAL JUNGHANS MADE IN GERMANY. Check the dial, the back of the movement and any surviving labels inside the case for these marks.
What became of the company
At its peak Junghans employed about 10,000 people, according to the architects who designed its museum; the Neue Deutsche Biographie gives about 4,000 in 1972. The Diehl group took control in 1956. After an insolvency, the Steim family took over the company in 2009.
The Junghans Terrassenbau Museum opened in June 2018 inside a stepped factory building constructed between 1916 and 1918 to plans by the Stuttgart architect Philipp Jakob Manz. It covers the family and company history alongside a large collection of Black Forest clocks. As of 2026 the company still designs and makes timepieces in Schramberg, although its current range is mainly wristwatches.
Questions people ask
How do I tell how old my Junghans clock is?
Start with the trademark. According to the Banco de España, the five-pointed star with a J was adopted in 1888 and the registered eight-pointed star dates from 1890 onward. Labels, the case style and the movement type narrow it further, and a clock museum or specialist can help with the rest.
Is Junghans still in business?
Yes. Junghans is still based in Schramberg, Germany, though today it mostly makes wristwatches. The Steim family has owned the company since 2009, after it went through insolvency.
Where is the Junghans museum?
The Junghans Terrassenbau Museum is in Schramberg, in a stepped factory building from 1916 to 1918. It opened in June 2018.