Circula Takes Old Movements and Makes them New Again in the Heritage Hand-Wound Series

Circula is a German brand with roots in the 1950s. Like many brands, it shuttered for a period of time during the quartz crisis, but has recently been revived. This is a common enough story – we’ve covered a lot of brands with real watchmaking history that disappear for one reason or another, and are then brought back to life with hopes of capitalizing on the current boom we’re seeing in the watch space. In some ways, Circula is no different, but they do have a unique ace up their sleeve: they use recently discovered vintage movements from the 1970s.

Circula Heritage Hand-Wound

• Case Material: Stainless steel
• Dial: Black, blue, white
• Dimensions: 39mm  
• Crystal: Sapphire     
• Water Resistance: 5 ATM
• Crown: Push/pull            
• Movement: P.U.W. 561 
• Strap/bracelet: Leather 
• Price: ~$860-$925
• Reference Number: n/a
• Expected Release: Available now 

The recently introduced Heritage Hand-Wound series is a pretty example of what you’re getting with Circula. The aesthetics will appeal to fans of vintage watches – these are traditionally styled dress watches, coming in at 39mm in diameter, with dials in black, blue, and white. There’s also a red gold plated version with a white dial that has definite Mad Men vibes. The Circula logo is a bit curious, and could prove to be a love-it or hate-it proposition, but I appreciate the unique script used and like that they’re unafraid to go in a untraditional direction. 

On to the movements, the key feature of the Circula. These calibers were acquired by Circula from a collector who had stores of them, mostly disassembled, in boxes filled with various movement components. The movement parts date from the late 70s, and were manufactured by Pforzheimer Uhren-Rohwerke GmbH, better known as P.U.W. Circula builds these movements by hand in Pforzheim (after a thorough cleaning), and although they’re limited just by virtue of being vintage, the brand claims to have replacement parts at the ready when servicing the movement becomes necessary. 

This is ultimately a simple, three-hand, hand-wound dress watch. While that has a definite old-school charm, there’s nothing revolutionary about it, and with a lot of watch brands out there fighting for your hard earned watch dollars (all ultimately making a product that’s anything but a necessity), it takes a little something extra to break through. Circula may or may not be your cup of tea, but they deserve credit for trying something just a bit different, and also for being resourceful and finding a way to make use of these old movements, a legitimate piece of German watchmaking history. Circula