Junghans Meister Chronoscope Terrassenbau
For years now, one of my personal highlights of BaselWorld is to visit my friends from Junghans for lunch. Their HQ for the week is just a stone throw away from the BaselWorld location in a nearby hotel. Junghans releases great watches year after year – just take a look at their last year’s lineup. As you know, design plays a key part in their product line, especially in their Max Bill line. This how however I’ll take a closer at the Meister Chronoscope Terrassenbau. An equally interesting new novelty from Junghans.
Meister Chronoscope Terrassenbau
The name Terrassenbau (Terrace Building) comes from the old Junghans building that they opened in 1918 and considered an architectural wonder of the time. It is a nine-stepped terrace building built on the slope of a valley in the Black Forrest. As time flew by Junghans built bigger and more modern buildings and the old Terrassenbau became obsolete. Until 2015 when the company decided that it is time refurbish the old place. We visited the sites before the construction started during the presentation of the – then new – Junghans Meister Pilot. It seems that the project is soon reaching its end and later this year the building will be opened to the public after so many years of negligence. To commemorate this special occasion Junghans released the Meister Chronoscope Terrasenbau in 2 metals. Let’s take a closer look.
The original Junghans Terrace Building in 2015 before the renovations started
Similar features
Both the steel and the gold versions share the same external features (and movement) aside from the dial. They are 40.7mm wide and just under 14mm thick with 5 screws holding the case back to the case. The watch back has an engraving of the terrace building. A plexi crystal domes over the dial of the gold, sapphire for the steel version. J880.1 is the caliber for both timepieces which has an ETA 7750 base, 48 hours of power reserve, day-date function and a beat rate of 28800 with 25 Jewels. this is the same caliber you’d find in every Meister Chronoscope models. Green alligator strap equips both models, where the texture of the leather is a nod to the wall tile decor of the inside of the terrace building. The watches are water resistant up to 30m and the hands have Super-LumiNova paint.
You can see the original tile covered staircase on the bottom left of the photo. These tiles were the inspiration for the strap and the minute track patterns.
100 pieces of gold
The true star of the two Meister Chronoscope Terrassenbaus is clearly the gold model. The case on that is 18kt rose gold and only comes in 100 pieces. Other than the case the buckle is also rose gold. The dial on the gold Meister Chronoscope Terrassenbau has a champagne tone, the subdials of the chronograph are concave. As a matter of fact, the while dial is a bit concave. The minute track framing the dial on both watches symbolizes the meandering design of the wall decoration of the old building. The steel version is also limited, this time to 1000 pieces. Its dial is not champagne color but matt silver. Other features are all identical even the alligator strap. Though this version obviously has a steel buckle.The price of the gold Junghans Meister Chronoscope Terrassenbau is €7,950 (German retail price) while the steel version sets you back €2,140.
If you are interested in these or any other Junghans watches please visit their website, here.
