Marine Original

The Marine Original descends from the Marine-Beobachtungsuhren, the observation pocket watches Stowa produced from 1939 for the German Navy (Kriegsmarine): instruments designed for precision in nautical observations, with highly legible dials and a small seconds for checking the rate.

With the halt of wartime production and the brand's post-war reconstruction, this design remained an archive chapter for decades. It was under Jörg Schauer, who took over Stowa in 1996, that the dial and layout of the Beobachtungsuhren were transferred to a civilian wristwatch, the Marine Original: the sources consulted unanimously confirm its derivation from the Navy observation instruments of the 1940s, but it has not been possible to establish with certainty, from the available sources, the exact year the Marine Original wristwatch was first presented; this information should therefore be considered unverified.

The result is a watch with an instrument-like, distinctly vintage language: a glossy white dial with Arabic numerals in a geometric font, "railway" markers around the edge, flame-blued "Poires"-style hands and small seconds at 6 o'clock. Over time the line has expanded with dial variants (white, black) and limited editions, such as the "Marine Original Red", while keeping the original layout intact.