My Junghans Mega Clock is 25 Years Old

In the Autumn of 1995 I purchased my first radio controlled clock which set itself to the correct time by receiving the long-range broadcast of WWVB in Fort Collins, Colorado. Since then I’ve purchased dozens more radio controlled clocks in different styles from different manufacturers. Today I celebrate 25 years by showing you that very clock I bought in 1995. It’s the Junghans Mega Clock.

[@julievega7576]

I have this clock and it is in perfect condition, no scratches at all. It was my parents and they probably bought it when they first came out. It's a cool clock.

[@ferraridriver2685]

Magnificent video and a big thanks for making it.

[@ferraridriver2685]

Mr. Anderson, I will add that I do own and operate the alternate version with the black hands on the Mega wall clock and have had it for a great many years. I do own a considerable number of clocks and watches. While I don't consider myself a collector by any means, it may appear otherwise to certain other people. I also have a couple of beautifully crafted grandfather clocks with a beautiful set of chimes which keep me abreast of the proper hour. Thanks again.

[@ElderPinto254]

i found the mega 1 watch a week ago for 45 euro a steal !!!! i like the clock !! junghans max bill great history i love junghans but i am dutch and we love things from germany !!

[@mosfet500]

Thanks Greg, I just fixed my 60 year old Junghans Meister mechanical desk clock. I just love this clock, with all the clocks I have here this is the one I keep on my work desk and the one I look at for the time.

[@ericfreutel8240]

I have the wall clock version of this Junghans. Extremely reliable and excellent receiver. Very sensitive reception. Love the atomic green hands. Great review. Many thanks.

[@robertmyers6141]

I own one of these clocks. How do I get a manual for operation. I have lost mine. Thanks

[@Andi.S....]

a nice clock. i'm a great fan of Junghans. Greetings from Germany :-)

[@vibrantsource]

Would you like to purchase one havd listed ebay also a Louis 16 Ormolu cherubs and bird large bronze gilt clock

[@johngustavsen8712]

Hey Greg, terrific comments about the Junghans Mega. I have had mine about 26 years and recently moved it to a different room. It started acting strangely and now I know why. Thanks!

[@smartiechuco]

You seem like a happy guy, I hope I’m half as cool as you when I get to be your age

[@BarnOwl61]

Thanks for the video Greg! Junghans was, and still is, a quality factory in Germany. I love this Bauhaus design, simple and highly functional. I'll wait for the next video in 25 years.( I hope to get so old)..

[@mosfet500]

Yes, Bauhaus is elegant simplicity!

[@peterbyford8845]

Hi Greg. Great informative video. I have 3 Junghans Mega radio-controlled watches from 1990 that you make mention of . These Mega have analogue hands with a small lcd display for calendar & seconds, & the Mega 1 had all lcd display. The only pdf instructions I could find on the internet was for you guys in the US Junghans watches receiving from Colorado & of course covering your 4 time zones. I've often wondered how if you travelled from the east coast to the west coast how they handled the time zone & other adjustments in them. Here in UK the time data is transmitted from Germany, so after a battery change the hands will park up at the 12 position ( just like your clock ) & rotate round the dial to GMT + 1 hour, being European time ( Paris, Berlin ) Using a pusher ( it has + & - ) you take the hour off. This gives a time zone capability for anywhere else in Europe within the transmitter range of 1500 kilometres. Unlike your clock the hour hand can not move independently & both minute & hour hand do the dance around the dial. Germany observes British Summer Time so will make the hour on hour off adjustment overnight. As you allude to, no backlighting or chronograph functions to deplete the battery, so there's literally nothing else to do till next battery change. So 31 years old now , still going strong ! BTW, I gather you are a fan of Casio as a brand, I have a few of the classic models amongst my collections. My go to radio controlled one, as a reference for all my watches, is a Wave Ceptor model WVQ-200HE.

[@Alias_Anybody]

That's surprisingly fascinating. My atomic alarm clock really doesn't like to sync, but fortunately it has a manual set.

[@jimjones5644]

When the pandemic hit instead of buying or using cloth masks I went on Amazon and bought a grinding Shield for use as a face mask. I found an excellent cleaner for it is called Nous 2 There is also a Novus1 and a Novus 3 I have all three but Novus 2 definitely is the best scratch remover for plastic. rub on lightly with a paper towel or cloth and then let it dry wipe it off and it's amazing the way it conditions plastic for the scratches if you use it on your clock face I'm sure you'll be happy with the performance.

[@asnothe]

Fascinating. And also very interesting, the slice of web history. If I may say, I don't like the look of the Junghans clock. The low contrast as you said, also the material, and the short hour indices. The watches however are something else... beautiful. As you say, can't justify spending that much, but maybe someday.

[@John-P]

Hi Greg I certainly hope it wont 25yrs. to the next video, I wont be here to watch it, but a really interesting video of some cool clocks, just wondering, if you have an appointment, with so many time pieces are you ever late? and hope you're still enjoying your Bulova, stay safe

[@loringchien7053]

I have a Junghans table model Mega 308.0100 which my parents bought in the late 1980/1990s maybe? Looks like your but with black hands. Quite working for a while then started working again. I had it on the mantle with my other analog radio clock and they kept perfect time. Now the Junghans is malfunctioning again... running very fast continuously. Don't know what I am going to do with it. Otherwise its pristine like yours.

[@jimjones5644]

I just bought another one of these so mantal Clocks exactly like the one you have had one like 25 years ago or better now I think the calibrate themselves once a day or night at 11 p.m. central time if I'm not mistaken

[@Hamish_Whitehaven]

Hey Greg, i think the Perfect Watch for you would be a Casio Oceanus (T200)

[@lennartb7303]

Nice video! I did'nt know Junghans made an US -version of this clock. I only know the german DCF-77 version.

[@teamhonn]

I think you got a good deal. Keep the batteries from leaking it will probably run for ever

[@gregor9136]

Greg, the Mega Model is called RC 3 here in Gernany.

[@gregor9136]

RCL3

[@idletime]

Evening Greg' 😎 although I don't own one the atomic clocks certainly are interesting. I don't remember the model number off the top of my head but have you by chance seen the new Casio colorway I believe they refer to as the volcano?. I think it looks really cool and I like it and I'd love to have one but not with the price tag that was on the one I seen, however it did give me some good modding ideas 😁

[@valeriebatty7575]

Mine was bought around 1988 and still going strong. Not that pretty for the kitchen but certainly worth it's weight in gold. I think at the time it was around £50.

[@markkuvahatalo8340]

I have Junghans Mega Alarm clock, I bought it 20.sept. 1996. It has a battery that has leaked a bit, let's see if it will sync the time again. I am inside an atomic transmitter that is in Germany (the clock is in Finland).

[@lindalyon6607]

My clock has right date, but hands just keep spinning around, without setting right time. Any suggestions????

[@MrPleers]

Ok. Putting it in my agenda. 10-10-2045. The Good Timekeeper-Braun clock 50 years.

[@mariojr377]

Gorgeous clock, the second hand hits exactly the seconds marks. In Brazil does not exist this signal. Don't use Duracell they leak, Panasonic are reliable. Best regards, Mário

[@JustinWillisDevil240Z]

I'm only a FEW years older than your clock.

[@kieranhoward4211]

I have a Junghans Mega 364/6101 clock that I have just brought from Germany to the UK. Does anyone know if it is possible for the clock to display British time? I can't find a setting to change the time zone: I assume that the same clock produced for the American market was designed with all 4 time zones in mind. I'd really like to be able to show the British time zone but I'm sadly not sure it's possible. Any tips appreciated!

[@sergemargarita4515]

Hi Greg, thanks for your nice video. I have a many years old Junghans RCL 3 like yours which is very nice. Recently the second hand has come off. I tried but I was unable to open the clock and access the hands. Do you know how to do it? Can someone help me?

[@GoodTimekeeper]

It’s a very clean-looking design and there aren’t many clues about how to open up one of these clocks. However, if I look closely I can see some small tabs on the front, clear, plastic piece. I believe that with a little care and some thin tools which won’t scratch the plastic you could pry those tabs in a little and remove the front. But I haven’t tried it myself on this clock so I can’t tell you much more than to say that it SEEMS possible.

[@sergemargarita4515]

@@GoodTimekeeper Hi Greg, thank you for your answer. I took your advice and was able to fix the second hand. When I press the button, the three hands go to their starting position (12 o'clock) but only the second and the minute hands start going round. The hour hand doesn't move. I think there is another serious problem that I am not able to repair. Thanks anyway.

[@janbottorff4642]

Does anybody know how to enable/disable daylight saving time on my Junghans Mega? I did notice some behavior if you hold down the time zone button and the front button at the same time. When you release the front button, it seems to say U10 and then rapidly cycles through all the digits on the LCD.

[@RealKangarooFlu]

For anyone wondering, the rubber feet do not contain screws under them. Unfortunately the second hand has fallen off of mine. I can't find any manuals or guides on taking the fact off, and haven't been able to figure it out myself. If anyone knows, let me know!

[@Wolf-dh6sh]

how do you change the time zone?

[@GoodTimekeeper]

This one has a button on the back near the battery to change the time zone.

[@BK-sn3gk]

Can I have the alarm clock

[@bobadams1997]

On this Leap Day, the 29th of February, 2024, I celebrate my Junghans Mega Clock. I will tell you why I celebrate it on this date every four years ... in a moment. My Mega Clock was purchased in 1985 from some long-forgotten catalog. The ID tag indicates "308/0100.00 WWVB 03 204". Anyone else out there with a Mega Clock that goes back to 1985? It is in great shape, with one wonderful programming glitch that endears it to me forever: Today's date on the clock should read "2. 29." but does not. The display has hopped to March, reading "3. 1." Anyone else with that glitch on your Mega Clock? My clock has done this every leap year since 1985. Somewhere in Germany, there may still be a programmer who is kicking himself for not catching this flaw back in the early 1980s. If your Mega does not have this flaw, it would mean Junghans caught the flaw and corrected it for clocks made sometime after 1985.

[@GoodTimekeeper]

My two Mega Clocks (wall version and mantle version) were each showing the correct date on February 29th.

[@bobadams1997]

Very interesting. They must have found the glitch and fixed it. I did press the front Update tab during the day and the updated time/date still read "3. 1." A day later now (March 1), after the overnight automatic updating, the clock read "3. 2.", still incorrect. Thinking I needed stronger medicine to cure the problem, I pulled the battery. After re-insertion and re-acquisition, the date is now synced correctly at "3. 1." This leads me to conclude that the overnight updating is only interested in checking the TIME while syncing. The clock only determines the DATE at battery-insertion cold starts. Unrelated to the Junghans clock, I noticed you displayed that black arched clock which I recognized as a Zeit (or Arcron) serial-port WWVB clock. I had one of those with great documentation and used it for several years as a computer clock synchronizer. Very happy here to have found your KZbin presence. I'm a time-and-frequency freak here. Lots of NTP, WWVB, WWV, GPS clocks within view at all times.

[@intergalacticmailbox]

I also have this clock but no longer the manual. I thought there was a way to manually set the time and date but don’t remember how. Regardless, if the clock synchronizes on March 1st then the one day date error should be corrected. My problem is that I can rarely EVER get my clock to synchronize to WWVB. Any suggestions?

[@bobadams1997]

As Greg pointed out at about 17:06 in the video above, there is no built-in, easy way to manually set the time and date on this Junghans clock. You might reset it by inserting batteries, with the hands all at 12 o'clock, at the instant of local midnight (or noon). The clock would start searching for a time signal, and if never found, the clock would just keep running in a pseudo-synchronized manner, matching the real time ... at least until the internal quartz crystal drifted away from accurate atomic time. If I were you, however, I would keep searching for a better spot to locate the clock. Maybe it's outside your home. Maybe it's in your garage. It's definitely in an electrically-quiet location somewhere, as Greg has mentioned. And remember to point the face of the clock (or the back) squarely at Fort Collins, Colorado. Not the edge of the clock, but the front or back. Height above ground is not necessarily a factor. (A WWVB antenna I once mounted on my roof was a disaster; talk about neighborhood electrical noise drowning out a signal.) Even a basement location is sometimes a good spot. And like it or not, the overnight hours provide the best signal. That means lots of one-night-at-a-time location changes. Good luck!

[@jimjones5644]

Most of them are all made in China now big change in quality much lower