JUNGHANS: WATCHPRO RISING STAR OF THE YEAR 2015

Watch brands that make it into the Rising Star category are on the ascendancy whether that’s through the work being done at HQ, more locally through a distributor or agent or a combination of both. The ten brands listed here don’t know the meaning of the word plateau.

When someone thinks about German watch brand Junghans, the chances are that the name Max Bill will spring to mind. This is the showpiece collection from the brand, which combines Bauhaus minimalist design with unique colourways and domed dials. But a lot of Junghan’s success in the UK has also been down to another name: Monica Porracin.

Porracin’s own distribution business, the Blue Company, took Junghans on in 2014, and has grown it impressively since. This year Porracin put Junghans in The Wonder Room in Selfridges, to add to other impressive retailers, such as CS Bedford, Stewarts, Wempe and The Watch Gallery. The brand’s Meister Chronoscope won the best entry level watch of the year at the recent GQ Time Awards 2015 in Germany, while it also unveiled its Spektrum model earlier in the year, which sets its time using radio waves and is powered by the sun.

Porracin’s diligence, hard work and bloody-mindedness, combined with the unique and largely brilliant German design of Junghans, has proven to be a potent and powerful combination in their first year of working together. With retailers, journalists and, crucially, members of the public seemingly all in agreement about the quality of Junghans’ designs and price point – barely believably you can pick up an entry level Max Bill for just over £400 – the future and present are extremely bright for the German brand, which was a sleeping giant for so long.