Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
11295
GO Basel preview - first pics
Yesterday the new issue of the German watchmag 'Uhrenmagazin' hit the shelves, and there were the first impressions of the new movements and watches that will be shown by GO at the Basel show. The actual pics are very small, but there are good drawings of both the new handwinding movement and the new chrono movement. Here is the first pic:
Pic ? Uhrenmagazin, printed in vol. 4/2002, page 64
Here we see the new movement cal. 65 (46 jewels), featuring two swan-neck adjustments. One is for the adjustment of the balance, the other serves to adjust the amplitude's symetry. The pic shows a dial layout similar to the famous PanoRetroGraph, with the time display being located eccentric on the left side, the designation of the new watch seems to be 'PanoReserve', due to the power reserve hand at two o'clock. Additionally, the typical GO panorama date is featured at four o'clock.
Pic ? Uhrenmagazin, printed in vol. 4/2002, page 64
The second pic shows the new chrono movement cal. 61 (41 jewels, column wheel). Contrary to our speculations, this movement is not selfwinding, however, there is a large space left (framed red in the pic) which could later serve to house an autowinding mechanism. The new 'PanoGraph' looks at first sight like its big cousin, the PanoRetroGraph. Yet the most exclusive features of this haven been omitted: No flyback, no countdown, no striking mechanisms.
What does this mean for the famous 1845 line and the automatic GO chronographs, which currently are based on the modular cal. 39-xx movement? Until now I have no information whatever that GO is planning to present a whole new line of handwinding watches with different complications. If the 'PanoReserve' shown here indeed is the preliminarily only model with the new movement, it would be rather unwise to drop a whole line with moonphase, perpetual calendar etc in favour for this one model. Therefore I think that the 1845 line will be kept in production for at least another year.
And the chronograph? As long as there is no selfwinding mechanism, the automatic chronos will surely be kept, too. However, I think that next year we will see other models based on the new cal. 61 movement, which would make the modular chrono movement free to be used in the Union watches exclusively.
Marcus