It is with great pleasure that I present to you Circula’s latest addition
to their collection, the ProFlight. It is also the first time that the German watch manufacturer Circula gets mentioned here on FliegerFriday.Com.
Why is that?That’s easy to explain: Circula has been in business for a couple of years now, but it’s only since today, 2024, June 20th, that Circula has added a pilot’s watch its the collection.
Reason enough for an introduction to Circula and the ProFlight.
First of all, I would like to give you some information about the history of Circula.
The more recent history of Circula was written by Cornelius Huber, who, some years ago, decided to revive a brand his grandfather founded in the Pforzheim area in the 1950ties as the „HUBER & Co. Circula Uhrenfabrik“.
To my surprise I found the brand mentioned in the „Lexikon der Deutschen Uhrenindustrie 1850-1980“, written by Hans-Heinrich Schmid, published by „Deutsche Gesellschaft for Chronometrie“ (ISBN 978-3-941538-92-1).
Huber & Co operated as a wholesaler in watches and jewelry in Pforzheim since 1926, thus forming part of the successful story of the „Goldstadt Pforzheim“.
After World War II company founder Heinz Huber rebuilt the family business again, ten years later he also decided to make and sell his own watches – „Circula“ was born. The name Circula reflects the circulation of the balance.
In the early days of Circula, most parts were sourced from manufacturers in the Pforzheim area. However, as a result of the quartz crisis in the 1970s, Heinz Huber’s son Klaus-Dieter had to seek help from partners and moved production to Villers-le-Lac, a French village near the Swiss border, not far from Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds.
This partnership lasted until the late 1980s – however, the Huber family changed course and from then on focused again on wholesale. Over one million parts – from the spring bars to crowns, winding stems, blanks to complete watches and alarm clocks were stored at Huber & Co.
Around 500 addresses were listed in Huber & Co’s customer files. It used to be a lot more – many companies have disappeared from the market these times and so, unfortunately, this chapter ended in 2017: The traditional Pforzheim-based company closed its doors on 31.12.2017.
However, I did not take long and Circula was brought back to live by Cornelius. Circula started with a kickstarter project and offered affordable Swiss made watches in vintage design.
Since then a lot of models were added to the collection, heritage watches, dive watches, outdoor watches, GMT watches, compressor watches, some of them in limited editions, using stainless steel and titanium cases. But until today there was no Flieger watches.
Those who are familiar with Flieger watches, especially Baumuster A and Baumuster B observer watches will notice at first glance that the new ProFlight does not follow the traditional pattern, neither does the ProFlight have the identifying feature of the triangle with dots on 12 o’clock, nor is the font of the ProFlight comparable to the font of the old B-watches from IWC, Laco, Stowa, Wempe and Lange.
OK, what is the ProFlight then?
When I received the first drafts/pics of the ProFlight my email back to Cornelius was of the following content. „ Well done Cornelius, well done. You have surpassed yourself, building a very impressive bridge between contemporary design and the historical patterns without neglecting the Cicula DNA. Chapeau.“
And indeed, the ProFlight is a very unique Flieger themed watch combining modern design with historic pilot’s watch features.
The ProFlight was designed in collaboration with Swiss star designer Guy Bove, who worked as Creative Director for TAG Heuer and IWC, among others. This, of course, speaks volumes.
The modern „interpretation“ of the 12h-marker plays with the traditional Flieger triangle and make the dial look lighter and more dynamic. The 12 hour dots are located exactly at the 59 / 1 minute positions.
The faceted stainless steel is hand-sandblasted, antimagnetic up to 80,000 A/m, protecting the Swiss made movement with a soft iron cage.
Sapphire crystal and a surface hardened martensitic steel case (robustness up to 1,200 Vickers) ensure maximum robustness.
The numerals are individually designed for perfect legibility and tie in with the design codes of the case through a subtle mix of hard edges and precise curves. The circular structure on the inside mirrors the rotation of the “propeller” second hand.
The ProFlight will be available with a grey or blue dial. The blue dial ProFlight would be my first choice, just because it looks liveIier thanks to the orange color splashes.
Last but not least, let me summarize the specs of the ProFlight
Movement: Swiss automatic Sellita SW-200-1, Elaboré Grade (-5/+7 sec), no-date (to not compromise the anti-magnetic characteristic)
Case: 316L stainless steel 40 mm diameter, 46 mm L2L, height: 12mm, 20mm lug width, solid steel case back, scratch-resistant through surface hardening up to 1,200 Vickers, 150m water-resistant, screw down crown with BGW9 filled logo engraving, case flanks with etched recess for a flatter appearance of the case
Anti-magnetic up to 80,000 A/m with a soft iron cage
Crystal: Slightly domed sapphire crystal, multi anti-reflective coating on the inside
Dial: Blue or grey, hands and numerals filled with Swiss Super-LumiNova® BGW9 (blue) or C3 X1 (grey dial), individually designed numerals which tie in with the design codes of the case through a subtle mix of hard edges and precise curves, circular structure on the inside mirrors the rotation of the “propeller” second hand
Solid embossed caseback with propeller
Sailcloth strap with pin buckle, quick release spring bars
A hardened stainless steel bracelet (quick release spring bars) and milled safety clasp with three micro adjustments is available optionally
Retail:
€1,029 with sailcloth textile strap
€1,199 with scratch resistant bracelet
There’s a lot of “understanding“ and “knowledge“ being put into the ProFlight. If you are looking for a contemporary Flieger with excellent features for under €1200 – stop searching, you found it.