Today is about Junghans’ revival of their Mega Futura. Released in 2011 to mark the company’s sesquicentenary, even though it shared a name with its 1990 ‘Mega 1’ radio-controlled predecessor, it had a ‘futuristic’ design inspiration, featuring an asymmetrical shape compared to the original – one side was rounded and the other flat-edged.

In 1990 Junghans launched the Mega 1, the world’s first radio-controlled wristwatch that operated through an antenna in its strap that received a long-wave radio signal every morning broadcast on 77.5 KHz (call-sign DCF) from Mainflingen, Frankfurt, carrying time information from Germany’s national atomic clocks at Braunschweig. It was designed by Harmut Esslinger at the Frog Design agency, but there were a number of different case designs, including classically round cases with white dials and both an LC display and traditional hands.

The Mega Futura released in 2011 updated the design, with the core asymmetry maintained. Now, Junghans marks thirty-five years since the original Mega 1 with three limited edition Mega Futura models.

Each of these new three 80-piece limited edition models has the a large LCD display. They are powered by the Junghans radio-controlled Calibre J604.90 which displays the time in either a 12-hour or 24-hour format, the week number, day, and date.

The new Mega Futura limited edition synchronises its time display at least once a day.For most of Europe, the updating of the time and date is synced with the radio transmitter DCF-77 at the Physikalisch- Technische Bundesanstalt in Germany. It also receives signals from the US WWVB transmitter and the two Japanese time signals – JJY40 and JJY60.

Of the three new limited edition models whose case dimentions are 38.5mm x 44mm, two feature matte brushed stainless steel cases with either a light grey or black display. The third variant has a black PVD-coated stainless steel case, a black display, and green numerals. All three have a black leather strap with a stainless steel or PVD-treated buckle.

The Junghans Mega Futura Limited Edition 2025 is EUR 490 in stainless steel and EUR 590 for the black PVD version.

An original Mega 1 features as a part of the collection at the Greenwich Observatory, which you can see here, and they also have a Junghans Mega desktop clock in their holdings.

[Photo credit: Junghans]

Categories: German watches, Junghans, Limited Editions, Watch movements, Watch Profile, watches, Women's watches