New independent watchmaker from Dresden Junge Uhrmacher presents the Prestige

New independent Junge, established in 2021, releases their first watch – the Prestige, with their own movement from their atelier in Dresden.

Press Release information with commentary in italics.

New independent watchmaker from Dresden Junge Uhrmacher presents the Prestige

The new Junge Prestige retails for EUR 16,750 before taxes. Limited edition of 24 pieces in grey and 24 pieces in blue.

Commentary

We received the pre-release information for the announcement of the Junge Prestige last week for release today on Jan 31, 2023 at noon Dresden time. The watch was first revealed on the dial side in December as a sneak preview, and today is the first presentation of the complete watch, together with the movement JU26-01.

The novelty is named Prestige, and is available in two dial variants – a Nachtgrau or night grey, and a Nachtblau or night blue. We presume this means that the grey and blue are dark, but the photographs we received showed a mid tone for both the grey and blue models.

The case is 40mm in diameter and is a stainless steel construction with polished bezel, back and lugs and satin finished case middle. The case is water resistant to 50m

The photographs do reveal a nicely nuanced dial with appliqué dagger markers and javelin styled hands with a large center sweep seconds hand. The dial is in aluminium, and made in-house.

The movement side is rather spectacular. The Caliber JU26-01 looks like a smallish caliber within a movemenent ring which is engraved and nicely finished. The movement is a three quarter plate styled movement, with a large plate holding the flying barrel. The wheel train is held up by a separate bridge, with raised portions to carry the wheels. This is a bit unusual, as the train is usually placed lower than the barrel. The balance wheel has its own cock, and is an inertia style wheel with eccentric weights for regulation and adjustment.

The movement finish looks rather spectacular, and the literature describe that it is finished by hand. We do note that the curves on the bridges have nice and wide anglage, but the inward points are smooth curves instead of ending in sharp angles. On the plus side, the screw heads are polished and sit in polished chamfered openings.

Pricing seems to be quite reasonable, just shy of EUR17k, and we think quite appropriate for a hand built watch with in-house designed and constructed movement. We look forward to being able to handle and photograph this watch soon.

A peek into the photo exif reveals that the photographs were taken with a Fujifilm XT30 with the 50mm f2 Carl Zeiss lens. Most of the images are Helicon stacks of upwards of 80 frames, each exposed at f/5 at ISO80. It appears that no flash is used, the watch was probably lighted with LED panels.

Release Information

Our team
Josef Bresan und Lukas Pöhlmann

Josef Bresan

• Born in 1990
• Apprenticeship as watchmaker at Wempe Glashütte
• Watchmaker at Wempe
• Watchmaker at Lang & Heyne
• Study of mechanical engineering

Lukas Pöhlmann

• Geboren 1990
• Apprenticeship as watchmaker at Lang & Heyne Dresden
• Watchmaker at Lang & Heyne

Emergence of JUNGE Uhrmacher

• 2019 Establishment of private watchmaker’s workshop
• Restoration work in own workshop
• First ideas and designs for own movement
• December 2021 Foundation of JUNGE Uhrmacher GbR
• Move to new Atelier in Dresden
• Development of hand-wound calibre JU26-01
• Documentation of the development process on Instagram (junge.uhrmacher)
• December 2022 preview of the front view model Prestige night grey, night blue
• 31 January 2023 public presentation of the JU26-01 calibre

Specifications of the JUNGE Prestige

• JUNGE modell Prestige
• Color variations: nachtgrau (nightgray) or nachtblau (nightblue)
• Each color version is limited to 24 pieces
• Case – stainless steel, polished bezel, back and lugs, satin finished sides, 5 bar waterresistance, diameter 40 mm, height 12.2 mm, lug to lug 48.8 mm
• Crown – stainless steel, engraved logo, satin finished
• Crystals – saphire, front (slightly curved), back (flat)
• Hands – steel, handpolished
• Dial – in house made, aluminiumbase, 13 polished indexes, special color-coating
• Movement – Cal. JU26-01, handwound, central second, second hacking, 39 h powerreserve
• Strap – calf, black
• Buckle – stainless steel, polished with satin finished sides
• All parts are finished by hand to the highest quality standards