Museum. Historical watchcollection.
"Zukunft braucht Herkunft" (the future needs a background), as Odo Marquard (a german philosopher) has already said. STOWA's in-house museum proves this impressively. More than 70 (out of a total of several hundred old watches in stock) show a cross-section of STOWA's creative power. Step by step these watches are shown and described here in the virtual museum. Some texts are linked with additional information. Often you get another , bigger picture after clicking on the small picture. Be inspired by the historical STOWA watches. At that time as well as today the watches convince by a nice, balanced and simple design and a great love of detail. Beautiful. Good. True.
1927
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STOWA foundingIn 1927, STOWA is founded in Hornberg, Black Forest by Walter Storz.
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PocketwatchHere you see a pocket watch converted to a wristwatch from the early beginnings of STOWA. The blued steel hands and the dial were covered with luminous material. It is a real enamel dial, but it has some small cracks. Nevertheless a very nice watch. To enlarge the picture please click on the small picture.
1928
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Rose gold. White gold. Diamonds. Rubis.
1932
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Goldwatch. Stamped dial.
1934
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Rectangular. Art Deco numbers.
1935
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Pocket watch with Art Deco engraving.This historical pocket watch has an elaborate dial with a complex construction process. The base of the dial is polished and then partially covered with the printed color (numbers and all the markings). It is then dyed black and printing varnish is removed from the dial. Upon completion of this process, the polished numbers and case markings have a perfect sheen, especially when the light reflects on the dial. The pocket watch case has a beautiful Art Deco style engraving.
1936
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Military watch with illuminating hands and numbers, around 1936.The movement of this watch was made in Pforzheim: PUW 560, a form movement from the early years of Pforzheimer movement production. Built from 1933. (visible by clicking on the picture of the watch)
1937
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Antea. Inspired from the German Bauhaus.Since 1937, STOWA produces watches in the style of Bauhaus. The small number of watches existing from that period prove that not many companies realized this, by the standards of the time, new design. However, this plain and timeless design is well established today.
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Bauhaus style. Simple. -
Bauhaus styleMore interesting watches from that period can be seen at the STOWA museum in Engelsbrand. May it be a small, solid gold watch for women with Roman numbers or a rectangular gold watch with Arabic ones. Collectors’ hearts leap for joy regarding the two watches depicted above. The rectangular watch is made of a so called desk case (Pultgehäuse), which means the watch case is thicker at 12 o’clock than at 6 o’clock – to better meet the eye of the beholder. The round shaped watch features a rare color combination: a Roman dial made of copper in a chromed watch case.
1938
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Partitio. Functional.1938. The design of this historical watch that we show here dates back to 1938 and was - as was customary - created in Pforzheim / Germany. It combines a simple design using a straightforward font with the practical night readability by occupying with luminous color on numbers and hands. The high-quality mechanical movement has an indirectly driven center seconds, a screwbalance and gold-plated stone bearings. Even then, this quality of work underscored STOWA's quality standards.
1940
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The Original.
1942
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Precision movementA very precise movement is ticking inside the STOWA Marine pocketwatch. -
STOWA Marine watch. Alignment on the oceans.Without B-Uhr (Marine watch) no alignment on the oceans. The beginnings of these watches, also called B-Uhren, Marine watches or Captains watches, go back to the british marines. To locate the exact position of their many ships on the oceans, they needed instruments to determine the time exactly. The famous, british watchmaker John Harrison constructed the first sea chronometers in the early 18th century. -
Fliegeruhren (Pilot watches)The most famous STOWA watches are the big Pilot watches with the Baumuster "A" dial (see below, since 1940) and the Baumuster "B". The big cases (55mm) enabled carrying the watch above the leather jacket. From 1942 onwards there was the second version. The so-called Baumuster "B" dial. A big external minute scale and a small internal hour scale marked this design. -
PrecisionThe movement of the large pilotwatch was very precise. It has to pass the elaborate tests of the chronometer checkpoint.
1951
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STOWA. PrecisionSTOWA has always labeled "high-precision" watches with the addition "Precision" under the logo. They therefore document the use of particularly good movements using the latest technology or materiality. (In the context of time!) The name "Nivaflex" calls a new aloy for the winding spring of the movement. This is very important for a „Precision“ watch. -
Nivaflex. A new materialThe mainsprings of mechanical watches were made of pure, susceptible to rust and fragile carbon steel. Then, structure- and cold-rolled alloy alternate the susceptible mainsprings.
1953
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Illuminating hands and dots.This massive gold watch has an embossed dial with small luminous dots behind the numbers and skeletized luminescent hands. This means that the hands are not fully covered with fluorescent color but only a part inside the hand is filled.
1958
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Worldtimer, very rare!This very rare worldtime watch has a manual wind movement and a rotating disc with printed world map under a transparent dial.
1962
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Small Pocket watchSimple designed handwinding pocket watch. Case goldplated. Silver coated dial and diamond cutter hour indications.
1964
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Sixties. Simple dialdesign
1968
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MinustopStarting from 1968 STOWA built several models of the model Minustop, also called Parktimer or Memotimer. There are many different versions. Here in the gold-plated case with a red disc. The watch is powered by a Durowe (Deutsche Uhrenrohwerke) movement from the 1960s. -
Traveler's watch ConvertibleTraveler´s watch from 1968. STOWA has made many of these reliable travel watches. The case was partly made of very high quality, sometimes in leather. The sliding mechanism of the case was very innovative at the time. -
Seatime orangeIn this very rare Seatime sports watch the numbers were covered with orange luminescent mass. The basic dial has a fine cut and was coated dark gray. The typical case of this era was made of stainless steel and the rotating bezel was made of aluminum. -
Seatime turquoiseAnother very rare and beautiful STOWA Seatime. The dial is embossed turquoise with a very fine pattern. The incisive luminous numbers stand out particularly. Stainless steel case and rotating aluminum bezel.
1972
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Gold watches Made in PforzheimPforzheims traditional industry was known worldwide. The goldsmiths, engravers and watchmakers worked together on very elaborate watches. A lot of special golden watches has arisen from this time. -
Seventies. New casedesigns. -
ChronographThe 70s. Bigger cases and colorful hands. STOWA chronographs have been typical for these crazy times. The watches from this period are popular as the bigger sizes allow the collector to wear them also nowadays. -
DigitalMechanical "digital watches" were developed around 1970 in response to the electronic digital watches. Since the mechanical watches were very thick and expensive because of the "digital design and mechanical parts", they could not get through. These watches were built only about 3-4 years. The triumph of the electronic watches was unstoppable from then on. -
Ladies digital watchThis small "digital" ladies watch has a blue fabric strap and a chromed housing. The watch is in a very good condition - like new.
1974
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Metall bracelet. Solid gold.
1976
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Curved. A new case shape.
1984
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Whitegold. Ladies watch. -
"Girls best friends". Diamonds. White gold.
1996
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Pocketwatch. Gold 750/000.
1997
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Limited Pilot watch for the 70th AnniversarySTOWA Pilot watch, former limited serie for our 70th Anniversary in 1997, called „Jubiläumsmodell", old stock movement with central second, calibre Unitas 6300N, very fine finish, only 70 pieces worldwide, the basic design is still the actual design in our 40 mm case. Worth in this "like new" condition around 2.000.- EUR
2008
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Partitio. Fine dial scalingA remake of another historic STOWA watch is created in 2008. The special feature of this model from the 1930s is the fine dial scaling. The model name Partitio (lat.: division) has been derived from that. The original features luminous hands and numbers and a mechanical handwinding movement. Although we have modernized the casing of the watch, the dial and the hands remained true to the original.
Partitio. Historical and remakeThe historical Partitio next to the current black dial version.2013-
TESTAF. New standard for pilot watchesTESTAF (technical standard for pilot watches), the standard for pilot watches since 2012. Developed by the FH Aachen. For the first time, a clear technical and functional requirement catalog is presented, which determines what requirements pilot wristwatches must meet today. In the picture you see the current STOWA TESTAF TO1 which got the certification in 2013.
2015-
Antea. back to bauhausSTOWAs' desire for a modernization of the classic bauhaus watch inspired the designer Hartmut Esslinger to take a look back at the history of Bauhaus. He himself says about the Antea back to bauhaus design: “It had to be a cool interpretation of both the original design of Lange & Söhne (1937) and also the Antea by STOWA (1937). I kept the stainless steel case of the Antea Classic. The dial with the modern Bauhaus STD type from Ed Benguiat and Victor Caruso, creates a historical original with its sensitive aesthetics. The colors offered by STOWA are a tribute to Josef Albers and Johannes Itten, because Bauhaus should not only be seen as black or white.”2016-
Flieger Professional DINSince Friday June 24th it is certain: STOWAs' Flieger DIN Professional will be in no way affected by any physical stresses and strains in air traffic. Our new Flieger watch passed all tests straight away! STOWA was actively involved in developing this new standard with the work group Flieger DIN.
2017-
Rose gold watch 750/000 with blue dial.
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