Glashütte Original

Ornatus-Mundi
[Zenith]
7136

• Show profile
• Show other posts

BaselWorld 2017: Glashütte Original Senator Chronograph Panorama Date: Modernism in Stainless Steel

Glashütte Original's Senator Chronograph Panorama Date has been an immensely fascinating chronograph, with outstanding detailing and an - obligatory! - in-house automatic movement. During BaselWorld 2017, the manufacture added a very contemporary, and for the brand almost avantgarde, colour option: stainless steel with a varnished black dial:



And I think this is a successful one!



GO kept all which made the existing Senator Chronograph Panorama Date, available in red gold and platinum, respectively, so attractive (particularly the movement), and then rejuvenated the peripheral elements with a view to make it more aligned to the tastes of a younger, presumably more cost-conscious, audience:



The all-too-obvious difference between new and old, 'mundane' vs. precious case materials lies in the dial design. The latter comes in all the Germanic restrained 'baroque' (or at least formal) scheme many of us appreciate at Glashütte Original, with the finely grained (and in the platinum version even hand-crafted in a silver friction-applied technique) silvery dial with precise (laser-engraved and painted) indices and very noble (heat-blued) poire shaped hands.

The new entrant does away with all this: steel case, lacquered black dial, elongated sword hands. So far, there are a lot of details that allow them to keep the price down. But the combination of a very clever dial design and bold colour choices create another loveable, autonomous watch.



If you turn off the light, however, be prepared for some really mystery going on:



GO never was that adventurous* with a dial colour (if we disregard the Sixties Iconic series as vintage inspired watches...) than they are with this one. It really works, is legible (small quibble: why not also colour-code the chronograph counters?), and perfectly executed.



Case shape and dimensions (42mm wide and height: 14,6mm) were (almost, the gold versions have 0.6mm less height) kept, which is a good thing, because the in my view the current iteration of the Senator case is the most refined and characteristic so far. Furthermore, GO also kept the quality of the finishing on the case at the same flawless plateau, just look at the brushing on the intersection between lugs and case, or at the insertion points of the pushers:



Moreover, the engine at its back is the same as well, which of course is a major driver for this piece: the Glashütte Original calibre 37-01, which epitomises (and in fact started even!), the recent philospophy of movement design at GO back to (true) 3/4 plates, long power reserve (70h here), central automatic winding, robust construction and superior timekeeping thanks to the introduction of watchmaking delicacies such as regulating screws on the balance.



The Cal. 37 series strikes a middle ground between the Cal. 39-based modular chronographs, and the brand's high-end Cal. 6x used in PanoGraphs. Of note, the movement is of course a column wheel-operated classical chronograph (with a horizontal clutch!) with the added value of a flyback function for instant stop-reset-restart time measurement. It's very close to its sister Cal. 37.02 used in the Seventies chronograph. Both share a specific Glashütte original solution to the activation and stopping of the chronograph which is different to the two usual mechanisms (vertical vs. lateral clutch). The manufacture opted for a tilting pinion system (a pinion with gear that is fixed at one end and free at the other, conecting the chronograph once the pushers is pressed), This is actually quite similar to a Valjoux 7750 mechanism - and we all know that beast simply works!

Now, I think its wrist time, and this means serious business:

Thanks for reading,
Magnus

_____
*) Apropos adventurous: GO offers even a rubber strap with this watch: