Junghans J97/2

Description

In the midst of the turmoil of World War II, the form movement J97 (here in the seven jewel version with suffix /2) appeared on the market.

As you can easily see, it is a very simple pillar construction with stamped plates.

You cannot expect many bearing jewels here, only the balance wheel bearing contains rubies (4 of them). Together with the ellipsis of the balance and the two lever pallets it totals to seven jewels.

The other bearings are brass bushings, other versions of this movement with more jewels simply replaced then with rubies.

The gear train follows the usual standard with directly driven center minute wheel, third wheel, decentral seconds wheel at 6 o’clock and finally the steel escape wheel.

It’s a bit astonishing, that this movement, although made to cheap, uses a true pallet lever escapement.

The J97/2 already uses a screw-less anular balance with a small diameter. Of course, it is not yet shock protected.

The balance beats with 18000 A/h and can be regulated with a long regulator arm on the balance wheel cock.

It’s a bit dissatisfying, that on the dial side, only a simple rocking bar winding system is used, but at least the ratchet, which is located on the inner side of the base plate, is pretty well executed.

A nice detail are the four large screws: They attach the four pillars of this pillar movement to the base plate.