Recently I rediscovered two watches «in my drawer», a Dugena and a Precimax. After I restrapped them –  I started to wear again. The reason why I didn’t wear these watches for a long time: they both only have 34mm cases, which I regard as too small. (They do however wear more like 34.45 on the wrist , the black one due to it’s nearly non-existent bezel even 34.6.)

I review them here as a pair, I also regard them somehow as twins. This is not only because of them being the same size, they are also roughly from the same time and both are gold plated (which I normally hate). On the other hand they came to me in two ways that could not be more different. The Dugena was bought by my father, probably in a department store, the Precimax I purchased myself in a small flea market for next to nothing. Both are kids of the 60s and are quite slim, featuring hand wound movements.

The Dugena’s movement is labelled Dugena 3803, which is actually an ETA 7001 (10,5’’\’), the calibre of the Precimax is the remarkably larger Unitas 6325 (13’’’). While the diameter is with 34mm identical for both watches, the Dugena is slightly higher at 8 mm compared to 7,5 mm of the Precimax; which is strange, as the 6325 is a thicker movement. But the Dugena has a clever case design, which makes it appear slimmer. With it’s clean white dial (no second) and roman numerals it really is quite elegant, whereas the 08/15 is more “military style” with arabic (once) lumed numerals and hands.

Dugena got – together with it’s sister at the time Junghans – in financial trouble, as the mother company EganaGoldpfeil went bust. It was later brought back to life though in 2009 by Hans W. Pfeifer, the man, who also bought and restarted Glashütte Original after the reunion of Germany and subsequently sold the company to the Swatch Group in 2000. Dugena now produces quartz and to a lesser extent mechanical watches at the lower end of the price range. You can find them again in department stores.

Precimax however, despite their cool name, disappeared in the quartz crisis and you don’t find a lot information on the web about them. I know nothing more about them than what Google tells us. If you think Precimax is a funny name, let me tell you about the name of my Precimax, “8/15” :in the German language area (mainly Germany, Austria but also Liechtenstein, plus parts of Switzerland, Nothern Italy, Luxembourg and Belgium) 08/15 means «quite ordinary», «not special», «mediocre». This is thought to be derived from a simple machine gun from the First World War, called 08/15. Open your drawers, you may find something like these: nothing special, but still fun! (And write about it!)