The Circula Heritage 1955 Handaufzug LE, A Week on the Wrist Review.

Who doesn’t love a reason to wear a “cocktail” watch?

I don’t know about you, but the COVID-19 pandemic and all the unhappily associated political and economic unrest found us looking for small things to celebrate in the last year or so. You know? Stable employment, the recovery of your friends and family who contracted the disease, babies that were born damn the torpedoes, friendships that proved durable, and autocratic demagogues that were shown the door. Even though some months we felt pretty unhappy, we were always glad to just be. Small reasons to hold a happy hour and celebrate any success became our raison d'être for most of 2020 and into 2021.

The Circula Heritage 1955 LE.

I’m not even sure I buy into the notion of a cocktail or dinner hour watch, but regular readers will know I’ve been in a white-dialed watch mood for a while now. I first scratched the itch with the very jazzy and affordable Hamilton Jazzmaster Viewmatic, then moved up the Swatch Group ladder to the amazing Omega Aqua Terra GoodPlanet, and finally picked up a Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical White. (Because I already had its black-dialed sibling. And because they’re such an amazing value. And because small reasons to celebrate.)

Champagne in a beer glass; everything works with the Circula Heritage 1955 LE.

The Circula Brand.

While my ultimate classy white-dialed grail remains the JLC Master Control Date, a fun, affordable temptation appeared in Pforzheim, Germany, about a year ago and caught my eye: the Circula Heritage 1955 Handaufzug LE. Like most folks who aren’t from Germany and aren’t younger than about 69, I had never heard of this brand. Turns out it has been a thing from its founding in 1955 right up to the present day.

Circula is a family business. Cornelius Huber is rebooting the brand with his father, Klaus-Dieter Huber. Image compliments of circulawatches.com.

When the bottom fell out of the mechanical watch industry and so many small Swiss and German brands went under, founder Heinz Huber transitioned the business to a successful jewelry and watch wholesale concern. Some watches continued to be brought in and sold under the Circula name, but primarily the company became a distributor of jewelry and other watch brands like Junghans and Casio. But in 2017, and apparently inheriting the family entrepreneurial streak, Heinz’s grandson Cornelius made a bold move and re-booted the Circula name as an independent brand producing some really cool and beautifully made watches.

A vintage Circula dress watch. Image compliments of circulawatches.com.

The 1955 Handaufzug LE.

The new Circula catalog is growing, and along the way some charming references from its past are being reintroduced. The first new watch to grab my attention was the Heritage 1955 Handaufzug LE, which has a fun phoenix story of its own to tell. The watch is a revisit of Circula’s original offering from 1955 (hence its name), tastefully modernized size-wise but still presenting original and classic mid-century German design cues. And in a beautifully executed happy ending only a watch lover could fully appreciate, the 1955 LE has been built with a new old stock Pforzheim movement, freshly assembled by a watchmaker familiar with the movement from its Pforzheim origins. It reminds me a little of the Precista PRS-82 from Eddie Platts’ Time Factors brand, except in the case of Circula the brand never really died or changed business hands in the first place.

The Circula Heritage 1955 LE on Mahogany shell cordovan.

The PUW caliber 561.

The Circula 1955’s movement is a Pforzheim-made PUW caliber 561, which the new Circula company assembled from carefully stored-away parts, parts only recently discovered in Pforzheim. We’re not talking about oil-stained, completely assembled movements wrapped in cosmoline-saturated gauze that had to be disassembled and cleaned before they could be rebuilt. Nothing of the sort. Rather, these hand-winding movements were assembled from brand new parts that were deliberately stored separately, in small bins, in a private collection in Pforzheim. They had never been assembled as completed movements before. It gives new meaning to the term “new old stock.”

The PUW caliber 561.

The caliber 561 was the penultimate platform of the Pforzheimer Uhrenwerke before it closed, and was designed to also be built as an automatic, the caliber 1561. It utilizes 17 jewel bearings, incabloc shock protection, and beats at 21,600 vph. The assembled movements aren’t really what an enthusiast might call beautiful to behold, but they do have a great personality, and would also seem robust and reliable. Mine runs at +15 sec/day, which is within the original specification of the movement, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t prefer it kept time closer to +5 sec/day. Circula says they have adjusted the movement in 5 positions, so I have a feeling this is probably just as good as it gets with this caliber. And you know what? This totally works for me as an occasional watch I wear for dinner, drinks, or just to provide variety to the day. I observed a power reserve of about 39 hours with my Circula Heritage 1955.

The 9.9 mm height case is easily accommodated under coat sleeves and glove cuffs.

On the Wrist.

The 39 mm case is pretty much perfectly sized, and at 9.9 mm in height offers a cocktail-friendly profile. And its water resistance rating of 50 m should be fine if you spill your second martini on it, another cocktail hour win. The brushing on the sides is of the highest quality, and contrasts nicely with the polished top surfaces of the thin, dressy lugs and the bezel. The see-through window of the caseback offers a view of the movement, and I dig the “matching numbers” serial edition engraved onto both the caseback and the movement.

That Circula logo! My Heritage 1955 LE has settled on a Horween Bourbon color strap.

The bridge on my watch has had its “17 Jewels” engraving ground out, and when I asked Cornelius Huber about this, he told me that the answer to this riddle was lost to time. Some of the bridges in that Aladdin’s cave of parts in Pforzheim retained it; some did not. As I alluded to above, if you aren’t immediately attracted to the movement, pour yourself a drink, flip the watch over, and get to know each other a little before you decide not to trade phone numbers.

The “17 Jewels” engraving has been removed for mysterious reasons.

The dial is a beautiful and pure white, and the applied silver indices and 6 & 12 numerals are minimalistic perfection itself. I guess you could call it Bauhaus-inspired, but honestly I think the term is overused these days, and I’m not an expert anyway. Moreover, I have no idea who the original Circula designer was and whether they were originally influenced by the Bauhaus school. But what I can tell you is that it’s very German and very well executed in a less-is-more mid-century modern kind of way.

I love the Circula logo and blued hands.

The sky blue minute indices are a treat, and even though the hands are probably lacquered and not thermally blued, they’re beautifully done and it’s hard to complain at this price point. And speaking of the Circula’s hands, I find their length to be utter perfection. You’d think this would be the easiest thing to get right on a watch design, but it’s amazing how many times you see watches that get this totally wrong.

The requisite hand-in-pocket wrist shot.

A favorite feature of mine has got to be the Circula logo, reproduced here in its original 1955 form. I absolutely love the playful cursive script, and would even go so far as to say it was the detail that originally drew my eye and then subsequently compelled me to buy the watch. However, even if you don’t feel the same, don’t form your final judgment yet…

The very unique crown with balance wheel impression on top. I mean, it’s almost Georgia O’Keefe-like.

…because just when you think you’ve gotten to know this watch and you’re feeling that certain undeniable chemistry, and maybe you’re even thinking about how it will go when you introduce it to your parents, it reveals its most subtly beautiful detail: the crown. Most reviewers of this lovely watch struggle to describe its shape, which is understandable since it's totally unique in my experience. I’ve seen “onion” (totally wrong), “modified diamond” (kinda, I guess), and “tulip-shaped” (the closest). But what it reminded me of, and the reason a science nerd like me loves it so much, is the king’s crown water drop effect.

The king’s crown water drop effect. Thank you, Wikipedia.

It takes a special high speed camera to capture this effect, which itself has become a commercially viable subject of artsy print sellers. So much so, in fact, that I struggled to find a free picture. I finally found a good one on Wikipedia, less artsy and more sciencey, which I am sharing unmodified and under license (I am required to state that).

Although Circula says they have enough movement parts to be able to service the watches into the future, it does appear that Circula is very close to selling out of the 499 production pieces of the Heritage 1955 LE. I bought mine from the Michigan-based authorized dealer WatchMann, who told me I got the last white-dialed specimen. The fraternal twin automatics are also available, and they are truly lovely watches with their 41 x 11.8 mm cases and all-numeral dials, but for me just not quite as special as the manual winding watches.

Like everyone else I know, I’m counting on 2021 being better than 2020. For now, though, I count myself lucky to be in a position in life where I can enjoy coming home from a good job that I love, winding and setting my Circula Heritage 1955 LE, putting on Paul Desmond’s “Glad to be Unhappy,” and pouring a dram of something special to ease myself into a different state of mind.

Do you have a Circula? I always enjoy hearing from other enthusiasts and collectors and welcome your comments or factual corrections.