Glashütte Original

Last week I had the chance to attend the G.O. Press Cocktail at Munich which was held at the ephimeral "THE LOVELACE" Hotel. A very stylish place. A little too stylish if you ask me.

I was told that at this time of the year the press corps is already planning for their Christmas issues and that is was now the right time to remind them of the G.O. brand and their new products.

So let's dive right into it and start - just because they are often almost forgotten - with the Ladies:

This new iteration of the PanoMatic Luna (no r) comes set with diamonds and rubies, but in stainless steel. It was released very recently to at the occasion of the "International day of the kiss". God, I did not know that something like this even exists. But the design worked nicely. Not too blingy in reality, more like modern elegant. It is limited to 50 pieces.

For the Gents let's start with a heavyweight: After G.O. had released the Senator Cosmopolite initially in white and red gold with a very classic dial design this year saw the launch of the stainless steel version.

But not only the case material was changed. Also the dial rfeceived a facelift: Arabic numerals, blued applied hour markers and a more graphic design of the day night indicator without any aditional colors.

As the result we get a much more modern, subdued design. Which is a good thing as far as I am concerned. As impressive as the movement with its ability to display ALL time zones on the planet may be, my concern with the gold versions of the Senator Cosmopolite has always been that they were full featuired travel watches which at the same time looked so obviously expensive that taking it to many places in the world seemed like no good idea. The steel version now addresses this issue (not because of me, of course).

The movement is the same cal. 89 as in the gold version. Finished like we would expect from G.O. The "fake" double swan neck serves only the one purpose of adjusting the beat error here while in the Pano series the two index fingers adjust beat and rate. So the second index pointer and swan neck are there only for design reasons.

With 44mm the watch is large. And with the narrow bezel and the relatively open dial there is no hiding that fact on the wrist. Even if the lugs are kept very short. For my meager wrist it felt too much.

But that is only me and for those with more substantial wrists the Senator Cosmopolite is certainly a very easy to operate and to read travel watch that does not fail as soon as you travel to India or other countries with 1/2 or 1/4 hour offsets.

Designwise the stainless steel Cosmopolite has not been the only novelty that points into a more modern design direction.

Also the Senator Excellence line received a new design variation next to the more classic designs with their blued poirée hands and Roman numerals.

It is not intended to replace the classic designs but to add choices and to expand the base of possible customer. Choices are good  me thinks.

Very white. Good to have the moon phase indicator on the dial here.

They definitely know how to make blue dials at the G.O. dial manufactory in Pforzheim. What do you think about the combo with the steel bracelet?

As much as you may like or dislike this brushed steel dial, I cannot not help but see the "At work" series from across the road in Glashütte when I look at this watch. What do you you think?

Another wath that looks like it is targeting a new audience is the white dialled Senator Chronograph in stainless steel.

While the black/dark grey version with the light blue lume was quite daring last year and certainly not for everyone the white dial seems to be much easier to choose and to wear.

I was suprised to hear that some are not happy with the black lume on the hands and the indexes. Personally I found the black lume quite cool.

And now for something completely different

After the success of the Sixties Iconic limited editions G.O. chose to continue that but with a  twist: Now the limitation is not in the production number but in the time frame. This year saw the first Sixties Annual edition which comes with a dark green embossed dials with a nice degradee effect.

They will be available for about one year which sounds reasonable to me. I can easily imagine that some will need a moment to make up their minds regading these models. And then with normal accessibility at the ADs it is not automatically too late to get one.

The sapphire dome spanning the movement (cal. 39) of the Sixties is spectacular. As far a I remember G.O. had real trouble to find a supplier able or willing to produce these cristals. Given that today entire watch cases are made (grown?)  from sapphire I would assume that production technology has evolved a bit since then.

On the wrist I was enchanted by the charm of the Sixties and also of the green dial. The watch was airy, refined and elegant in a way that I had not expected.

Compared to my original "Sixties" one can clearly see how much more elaborate today's version is. Back then in the 60ies it was just one design for an every day watch among many others.

But pleeeease, no date for me on the Sixties. Again, choices are good.

Talking about choices, I have spared the watch for the end that would be my coice if I played in its league: The Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar in WG with an open worked dial:

Generally speaking it seems to bear a risk to open up the dial of an originally elegant watch. The outcome is not necessarily always tasteful. But I would say that the G.O. designers avoided this pitfall carefully.

Not  to skeletonize the bottom plate behind the dial but  to decorate it insted with a "basic" Guilloche feels like a very clever move. It would have betrayed the clear and legible layout of the G.O. PC dials if legebility had sufferd from skeletonizing the movement.

With the frames that are still present around the display windows I would say that this trap was effectively avoided. The outcome looks still serious but at the same time modern and light.

Inside we find the expected cal. 36 working horse presented in 2016 with its distinctive winding train wheels.

Under daylight the dial came to shine. Very much my taste

As a nice habit G.O. brought a watchmaker who demonstrated his skills, patiently answered any kind of questions and invited everybody to try to fiddle a weight screw into a balance wheel.

The latter being always a real challenge.

Open movements on a watchmaker's table somehow look so much smaller than seen through a watch caseback. Always a nice reminder how complicated and delicate these little treasures are.

Thank you to the people from Glashütte for the invitation and the chance to spent some quality time with you and your watches!

So what do you think about the 2018 novelties?

Best, Martin

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