Nav B-Uhr

The abbreviation "B-Uhr" refers to the Beobachtungsuhren, the observation watches made for the navigation officers of the German military air force between the late 1930s and the early 1940s: large pieces (often around 55 mm), with an "onion" crown designed to be operated even with flight gloves and extremely legible dials, produced at the time by manufacturers such as A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, Laco, Stowa and Wempe. Steinhart describes its own Nav B-Uhr line as designed in-house and "inspired by its historic model": a declared tribute, not a license or direct continuation of one of those brands.

Compared to the originals — which used movements derived from pocket-watch calibers and sizeable cases also meant for use with flight gear — the Steinhart version brings the dimensions down to more contemporary sizes, generally between 42 and 47 mm, and replaces the historic calibers with Swiss automatic movements of ETA or Sellita base. Some distinctive elements of the originals remain faithful, however: the dial devoid of the brand logo, the inner hour scale with numbers from 1 to 12, and the large winding crown.

Over time the line has expanded with "Type A" or "Type B" dial variants — the two historic graphic configurations of German B-Uhr watches, which differ in the position of the numerals and minute scales — with manually wound and automatic versions, with and without a date, and with titanium executions. The sources consulted do not report a precise launch year for the line's introduction into the Steinhart catalog: we note this explicitly, as it was not possible to verify it with certainty.