Rare Important Collectible: Early Junghans Quartz-DeskClock Astro-Chron, Vienna
Junghans Electronic Astro-Chron: EarlyQuartz Desk Clock w/ Sweep Second, Vienna
- Time (Hour, Minute, Central Second)
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EmailWHY WE LOVE IT: Because it is the first quartz livingroom-clock -- something that decorates a room even today and has a story for anyone interested in technical & horological history. It has a visible movement with a 12'800Hz-quartz-crystal in a glas-tube (wrapped in isolating foam) and 10 divider-steps built in discrete elements (ten circuit-boards + oscillator).
One of the most beautiful early quartz-clocks, 1967: Die Deutsche Neue Sachlichkeit aus dem Schwarzwald (Junghans, Schramberg).
Sachlich und präzise: an avg deviation of less than 0.1s per day.
The cuckoo-clock was a thing from the past and the future started in 1967: clear design, heavy weight rhodium-plated case (serialnumber: 1'6XX, size: 205*115*60mm), super-precise quartz-movement and a valuable appearance made it a beauty in any living-room or office of the late 1960s and 1970s and a characteristic horological artefact and retro-object today and tomorrow.
The clock was initially sold in Vienna, Austria as indicated by the sticker on the case back: Rudolf Hübner Uhrmachermeister, Graben 28, Wien, Austria.
The sweeping seconds-hand over the sunburst dial is a joy to watch. Powered by the Junghans-caliber W610 and running reliable and precise -- historical. And indeed, an important electronic clock and horological history: From a time when the race to quartz was on between Japan, Switzerland and Germany -- and the latter was a hot aspirant of presenting the first quartz-watch. The technology was there, already as indicated by this Junghans living-room quartz-clock. But in clock-format and without IC and without stepper-motor -- but as you know: watchmaking is foremost about miniaturization and any other complication is derivative to that.
The ten divisions by two were done in the ten flip-flops visible on the left (above the oscillator-circuitboard), consisting of silicon-transistors and -diodes. The first two high frequencies (12.8 + 6,4kHz) are handled by low-resistance flip-flops and the following 8 flip-flops divide the signal further down to 12.5Hz, which is used by for the balance-wheel to move the hands.
