The Junge Uhrmacher Prestige, The First Watch By Two Talented Youngsters

Today we are again showing you a brand new watch and introducing you to a new name in the independent watchmaking scene. Two young men have found a mutual interest while working for German high-end watch manufacture Lang & Heyne and have been developing their first prototype for a couple of years and have just unveiled it. Under the name of Junge Uhrmacher, Josef Bresan and Lukas Pöhlmann present the Prestige, a meticulously crafted watch with an exciting mix of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary touches.

Both Josef and Lukas are just 32 years of age and have already spent a number of years working in the industry. Josef started his career with an apprenticeship at Wempe Glashütte before joining the company as a watchmaker, while Lukas began as a watchmaker at Lange & Heyne following his apprenticeship at the high-end manufacture based in Dresden. It is at Lang & Heyne where both men first met and found a mutual interest. Soon, thoughts of branching out on their own emerged and by 2019 the two men established a workshop together.

Initially, they did restoration work for clients while developing their ideas of a first watch after hours. Two years later, and lots of design work on the break-out watch done, Junge Uhrmacher GbR was established and the two men moved into a new atelier in Dresden. Following the development of an in-house movement on paper, work was started in late 2021 on building a prototype. Through a vast number of Instagram posts people were invited to see what Josef and Lukas had in store, which is also how we first stumbled upon their work. Towards the end of 2022, a first teaser was released of what was to become the Prestige, as the design of the dial and case were first shown.

And now, early on in 2023, the Junge Uhrmacher Prestige is here! It’s always a joyous moment when new watches are launched, but even more so when it’s from new and upcoming talented watchmakers. Just think of the work by Kallinich Claeys, Minhoon Yoo or any of the other debutants we’ve shown you. The Prestige has a stainless steel case that is polished and satin-finished for a touch of contrast. The design is clean and fresh, with a restrained contemporary touch. The polished bezel holds a slightly curved sapphire crystal, while a second one reveals the movement (but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet). The knurled crown befits the case nicely, with a simple yet sturdy shape, finished with Junge Uhrmacher’s logo.

It’s quite often we see such new watches with a sub-seconds dial somewhere on the dial, but this time around we have a more sporty central seconds hand revolving over the dial instead. And speaking of the dial, two variants are available upon first release; Nachtgrau or Nachtbleu, translating to night-grey or night-blue. The dial has an aluminium base and is finished with a special coating treatment in an anthracite or deep blue tone. It has a stepped design with applied polished indices all around, and a double index at 12 o’clock. The centre section of the dial has a grained texture by the looks of it. The hand-polished steel hands for the hours and minutes have a bold sword-like shape to them.

The aforementioned sapphire crystal caseback reveals the in-house made Calibre JU26.01. If you look closely at the positioning of gears and pinions in the movement, you might recognize this is in fact a LIP 26 base movement, yet heavily reworked. There’s absolutely no shame in that, it’s something frequently done in the independent watchmaking scene. The small seconds indication has been rerouted to the central axis with an additional set of gears and a newly designed and constructed bridge. The newly constructed balance wheel bridge shows an openworked design, with a double raised arm. The finishing looks to be very nice, with a mix of frosting, bevelled edges, circular graining and more, all done by hand.

The Junge Uhrmacher Prestige is limited to 24 pieces per colour variant and is worn on a black calfskin leather strap fitted with a stainless steel brushed and polished buckle. It costs EUR 16,750 before taxes, which doesn’t sound too bad considering the amount of work that goes into the movement, case and dial. It’s an absolute pleasure to see watches like this, come from young men and women and learn the craft of traditional watchmaking still has a future. Now let’s wish these two young men a cracking start and inspire more young watchmakers to step into the spotlight!

For more information, please visit Junge Uhrmacher on Instagram (there’s no website live yet).

Editorial Note (6-6-2023): The name Junge Uhrmacher has been changed to Pöhlmann-Bresan recently, and as a result the Instagram page we have linked to is not active anymore. This is the brand’s new Instagram account. Future publications on the watches by Lukas Pöhlmann and Josef Bresan will also be listed under the new name.