Guinand is a watch manufacturer, that was founded in 1865 and has been producing watches since. The company now resides in Frankfurt and specializes on pilot watches.
Being founded in 1865 Guinand is one of a few historic and long existing brands with a lot of rich history. Originally founded by the Guinand family in Les Brennets, a french speaking part of switzerland, their main focus has always been mechanical chronographs.
For many years the company worked together with the watch pioneer Helmut Sinn. Their relationship started in the 1960s and went on for many years. They produced many watches from their catalogue for Sinn, which is part of the reason you can find many similarities within their designs nowadays.
In the mid 90s Helmut Sinn sold his company, looking to go into retirement. However not much later he then took over his long time watch manufacturer Guinand. He brought out many new watches, moved the company to Frankfurt and formed the company to what it is today.
In 2016 Mathias Klüh, a german engineer, took over the company from the then almost 100 year old Helmut Sinn. He further embraces the spirit of the company and has brought out many new and innovative watches.
PRESENT DAY
Their catalogue currently hosts a total of 42 different watches. Most watches are pilot watches. However there are also exceptions such as the “deepwave”, which is one of the companies newest releases. It’s their first dive watch that they have brought out in recent years. And it offers many new technologies and innovative ideas.
One of the new and innovative technologies is to be found on the dial. Here you can find a very legible and functional dial with applied indices. However these applied indices are not normal. They are made out of ceramic, that is mixed with lume. That means that the lume on this watch is a lot stronger than usual and shines three-dimensionally.
Most of Guinands watches house Sellita movements, which are made in Switzerland and over the years have proven to be very reliable. They have a few exceptions, such as their “Instrument 91”, which houses an UNITAS movement, or their newly released HS108, which houses a Valjoux movement.
Their watches also have great build quality. Most of them have a water resistance of 20 bar and all of them utilize sapphire crystals on both sides of the watch. They are also well known for their thorough quality control, regulating their watches in 5 positions and running detailed tests over the course of a few weeks.
CONCLUSION
With your watch you also get a very detailed test certificate of the final testing of the watch. There you can see the results of the final water resistance test and the final results of the watch on a time grapher. In addition to that you get an average estimate of the accuracy of the watch.
It’s definitely a fun and small detail that seperates them from others and makes their watches a tad more special than they already are.
Owning a Guinand myself and also having handled multiple others, I truly believe Guinand is a heavily underrated brand. Their watches are simply great, displaying Helmut Sinns roots and classic design, but also introducing new and innovative models such as the “deepwave”.
They are definitely worth considering, if you’re looking for a well built german pilot watch, that comes at a very fair price point. I’d definitely recommend a visit to their website or their store in Frankfurt to get more information or experience their watches in person. They are very welcoming and happy to answer most questions.