Glashütte Original

Downing
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My Seattle adventure

I wanted to report back on my trip to Seattle earlier this week to visit the Glashütte Original Authorized Dealer.

First of all, I wasn't able to persuade my wife to let me break my promise not to buy a watch before Christmas. So here's hoping there's an after Christmas sale beginning December 26th!

Simply put, I had a wonderful time. I examined and tried on a number of watches. Unfortunately, the watch I'm most interested in, the Sport Evolution GMT, is not available in the US yet. The AD was kind enough to call the GO rep while I was there to confirm this. They're thinking it may be here within the month, though.

The watches I spent the most time putting on and off my wrist were both the date and non-date Navigators, a SS black dial SE Chronograph, a white dial Senator Panorama Date With Moon Phase and a silver dial Senator Perpetual Calendar.

A couple of thoughts: it's a tough call between the two Navigators. I like the look of both of them. A watch with Arabic numbers would be a nice contrast to my two Rolexes. And the blue hands are very cool. Having just turned 50, I appreciate watches that are big and easy to read. And though I love the big date feature, I'm not wild about it banging into the 4 o'clock position on the dial.

The SS bracelet on the Chronograph is uh, well...sorry, I don't know where to begin. I thought the SS bracelets on my Sea-Dweller and Explorer II were pretty good, but now having tried on GO's bracelet my Rolex bracelets feel rather inadequate. So it turns out that everything I've been reading about GO's SS bracelet is true. Wow.

I love the heft and feel of this watch. I love the look of this watch. The only problem is that I don't need this watch. I have absolutely no use for a watch with sub dials so small I can't see them at a glance very well and complications I would never need nor use. It's not a knock on the watch. For the money, it was probably the best watch in the entire store. It's a knock on my aging eyes. Plus, I need a date feature, not a sub dials feature.

I was very impressed with both the Moon Phase and Perpetual Calendar watches. There's absolutely nothing I would change about either of them. They are drop dead gorgeous. I hope to have one someday, probably sooner rather than later.

But what I'm looking for right now is a watch with a GO SS bracelet that is easy to read, that has a panorama date and that is sufficiently different from my present watches. What I need is the SE GMT. What I may get in the meantime, however, is the Navigator Panorama Date as it has everything I'm looking for except the bracelet. In fact, the Navigator may even be a better watch for my "land, sea and air" collection than the GMT. But I sure fell in love with GO's bracelet.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Downing