Dugena
Dugena Digital
A compact 1970s Dugena jumping hour with an unusually narrow horizontal display.
- Movement
- Swiss manual-wind mechanical
- Year
- 1970s
- Case
- Steel-tone
- Gender
- Men / Unisex
Condition
The case shows normal signs of age and use. The display remains clear and the watch retains its period-style strap.
Why I bought it
I was attracted by the unusual proportions. Instead of the large cases normally associated with 1970s jumping hours, Dugena placed the mechanical digital display inside a very narrow rectangular watch.
This Dugena is quite different from most of the 1970s jumping hours in my collection. The case is long and narrow, with the entire time display compressed into the left side and the Dugena signature occupying the otherwise empty right side.
The hour and minutes are read from rotating discs, with a red horizontal line acting as the reading marker. It is a simple arrangement, but the proportions make the watch immediately recognizable.
I particularly like the contrast between this restrained case and the oversized, sometimes extravagant cases used for many other mechanical digital watches of the same period. It shows just how many different approaches manufacturers tried with essentially the same idea.