Harper
28
the watch of a thousand faces
Hello gents--thought it was about time I chime in with my 3 month review of my Senator Panodate SS. This is my first real foray into the ultra fine NEW watch experience, ( had a Heur GMT and '62 Ingenieur) so I was a bit mental in the beginning--constantly timing my GO, constantly scrutinizing the dial to be absolutely sure it was the watch for me. Well, in the beginning, it was about 6+ sec's fast. Now it's 3-4 sec's fast and has been that way since about 7 weeks. It's staying at that. ( I noticed that if I rest it on the crown at night, it keeps better time by maybe a half sec., so maybe it woulde be 4+ if I layed it flat.) I wear it daily. Well, after relaxing a little, I began to really feel the watch was mine. I stoppped timing it, and stopped scrutinizing, and then it would just catch my eye in an unexpected light, and I would see something I hadn't before--like one night, by the moon, the gorgeous ring of polished SS atop the stepped bezel. So classic! So elegant, understated, beautiful... I love the case! From any angle, but especially from the view with an arm extended, say, driving. Any chance to take in the stepped bezel is a continuing pleasure. But I wanted to talk about the dial, the face, as it were... in the beginning, I wasn't sure if it had enough character. I wrote here about "disappearing hands", some may recall--and I wondered if it was an oversight on GO's part. But no. Not at all. Having become accustomed to the dial, I see now what these silver hands afford the watch, visually. And that is, a thousand faces. The hands may appear pewter. May appear silver. May appear like white gold. The dial may appear almost white. Sometimes gun metal gray. Sometimes silver. And the perceptions multiply in different light, times of day. The watch, in a fine restaurant, almost always appears to have been especially designed for muted lighting, appearing utterly elegant, strongly masculine, stealth. Other times, walking around a backyard bar be que, the watch almost becomes casual-looking, but never losing its weighty presence. I began to notice it's wonderful versatilility, enjoying its many faces. Now, do the hands still sometimes "disappear?" Yes! Call me crazy, but it's yet another face of it--a kind of ultra modern looking dial, emphasizing the case again, which I simply enjoy more and more. I never have to do more than turn my wrist a few millimeters to see the time. Who cares? I look at my watch sometimes to see the time, then get caught up in the dial's enigmatic aspects, and forget to check the time, and have to look again--and love it! I thought I'd share all this because we're all koo-koo in the first few weeks with our very expensive and much ballyhooed timepieces. I've gone to several fine watch stores, just enjoying looking at all the watches, Langes, Blancpains, Pateks, etc. But I always leave feeling that I made the right choice. This GO will never be out of style--or trendy. It can be worn to the ballgame or to a 200 dollar dinner for two. It has a thousand faces, and counting... And then there's the movement.
Having really lingered over the Pateks, the Blancs, the AP's whatever--I am so pleased at the, I think, superior beauty of the GO movement. But I already knew that. Hey, yeah, I'd like a Lange 1815 Stars and Moon one day.... but I could never wear it everyday. This GO is it.