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Four Recent Favorites From Glashütte Original

Four Recent Favorites From Glashütte Original

Green is the color of the year. You know it, we know it, and Glashütte Original certainly knows it.

Originally published by Logan Baker on HODINKEE, April 10th 2021

 

Today, we have four new watches from the German company landing in the HODINKEE Shop. Three are green, and the last draws on a galvanized blue hue to underscore its hyper-complicated travel-time display. All four watches are some of the newest we’ve seen from the company. And we’re excited to add them to our selection of Glashütte Original watches available in the HODINKEE Shop.

SeaQ 39.5mm Reed Green Dial In Steel On Bracelet

The Glashütte Original Sixties Chronograph Annual Edition 2021

A few years ago, Glashütte Original started a new tradition. It involved creating one or two watches within its vintage-inspired Sixties range, and exclusively producing them within that year’s timeframe. This year, the brand has crafted a version of its in-house chronograph with a lovely dégradé dial in radiant bright green.

Glashütte Original is the rare watch company to produce all of its dials in-house, at the manufactory it owns in Pforzheim, Germany. Here, the brand has created an impossibly alluring green dial with an intentionally distressed surface, featuring a radial pattern that casts light and shadow in an endlessly dazzling manner.

Sixties Chronograph Annual Edition 2021

We’re also rather fond of the size and proportions of this watch, which is entirely unabashed when announcing itself. At 42mm with no significant bezel, there’s enough of that glorious dial to radiate the bold pop of 1960’s style, but also enough real estate to house the large concentrically-engraved sub-dials. Running seconds are tracked at the three o’clock position, while a 30-minute totalizer travels on the sub0dial at nine o’clock. Though the hands appear to be standard batons, there is actually luminescent material tucked into them, quite subtly, which, together with the luminescent markers at the hour positions around the dial makes for a useful watch in low-light conditions.

Sixties Chronograph Annual Edition 2021

While the funky style of this watch may steal the show, the mechanical prowess of this in-house caliber 39-34 chronograph movement is just as impressive. Glashütte Original’s three-quarter plate resounds with confidence and stability. The works below feature the swan-neck fine adjustment, which adds a bit of horological muscle and beauty. Beveled edges, polished steel parts, a skeletonized rotor with 21-carat gold oscillation weight all add up to unabashed and unmitigated high horology. Yes, all of that mechanical prowess in traditionally high German form is available at the listed price, which we also love.

 

The Glashütte Original SeaQ 39.5mm Reed Green Dial

The most recent addition to Glashütte Original’s catalog, the SeaQ series is the company’s revival of the Spezimatic Type RP TS 200, a dive watch released in 1969 by the GUB. Announced in 2019 for the vintage model’s 50th anniversary and meant to serve as the first entry in a broader collection of sport watches under the new Spezialist banner, the SeaQ (the Q stands for quality) has quickly become a serious contender in the luxury dive watch category. Perfect for 2021, the new “Reed Green” dial variant was revealed earlier this year, with a stainless steel bracelet.

SeaQ 39.5mm Reed Green Dial In Steel On Bracelet

A skin diver through and through, the SeaQ is tested to achieve both ISO 6425 and DIN 8306 diving standards. What should attract even more people, however, is its sweet-spot size of 39.5mm × 12.50mm that should fit a huge variety of wrists. Aesthetically, the SeaQ feels both new and familiar, a testament to the original design. The combination of sword, arrow, and lollipop hands with the funky Arabic even numerals, the ceramic bezel insert that precisely matches the color of the galvanized black and blue dials, and the half-barrel profile of the case all bring out an element that is keenly inspired by vintage design but entirely fresh through our contemporary lens.

 

The Glashütte Original PanoMaticLunar Forest Green Dial

Easily recognizable for its off-centered timekeeping displays and asymmetrical design, the Pano series was first introduced by Glashütte Original in 2001. In 2003, the PanoMaticLunar joined the early Pano series, and the rest is history. Although the design is purposefully off-balanced, there’s something about the way the slight moon-phase aperture stabilizes the dial orientation and provides equal weight opposite the overlapping timekeeping sub-dials.

PanoMaticLunar Forest Green Dial In Steel On Leather Strap

The PanoMaticLunar’s 40mm stainless steel case, its accompanying reasonable price, and its subtle yet impactful lack of gold (or really any warm colors), make the stainless steel PanoMaticLunar a rather rare breed among dress watches. Even the moon and stars are rendered in silver, rather than the typical gilt accents frequently deployed on moon-phase discs, a choice which results in a wholeness of design that feels quite elevated.

PanoMaticLunar Forest Green Dial In Steel On Leather Strap

Behind the clear caseback window is one of Germany’s best finished in-house movements, caliber 90-02. While this movement produces exceptionally precise timekeeping, it is the design and finishing that have stolen our hearts. The large three-quarter plate is hand-engraved, as is the very handsome mustache-style balance bridge. A “duplex-swan-neck” regulator provides the fine adjustment, while the eccentrically mounted skeletonized rotor with its 21-carat gold oscillation weight keeps the watch wound autonomously. Additionally, steel surfaces are brightly polished, screws are blued, and edges are bevelled, the latter a feature lacking on many comparably priced watches, and more than a few exceedingly expensive ones.

 

The Glashütte Original Senator Cosmopolite Midnight Blue Dial

Our lone blue-dial addition to the HODINKEE Shop today, the Glashütte Original Senator Cosmopolite, is an underrated beast of a timepiece. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s one of the most complex and intriguing travel watches available today – bar none.

Senator Cosmopolite Midnight Blue Dial In Steel On Bracelet

Though the Cosmopolite doesn’t draw undue attention to itself, a closer investigation of the dial reveals that there is a serious machine below. Your local time is tracked via the centrally-mounted main hands, while home time is kept steadily on the large sub-dial at the 12-o’clock position, along with a power-reserve gauge and a Daylight Savings indicator. Running seconds are displayed clearly on the large sub-dial at six o’clock, and at nine o’clock is an AM/PM indicator that is sync’d with the home time for those often confusing journeys across the international date line. A large date display is thoughtfully aligned with the crown at  four o’clock, and at eight o’clock we find the Cosmopolite’s most intriguing complications: a full-suite of standardized hourly time zones plus adjustments for half-hour and quarter-hour difference for those places around the world that don’t embrace UTC. If that weren’t enough, this watch will also account for Summer/Standard (a.k.a. Daylight Saving) time.

Senator Cosmopolite Midnight Blue Dial In Steel On Bracelet

All of these complications are driven by a gorgeously finished in-house movement, the Calibre 89-02. From the polished and blued screws to the beveled edges and highly polished steel parts, this movement begs you to grab a loupe magnifier and spend some time exploring the machinery. The three-quarter plate, with its striped finishing, creates a solid mounting surface for the complicated works below, while the skeletonized off-center rotor with a 21-carat gold oscillating weight creates notable dynamism. Power reserve is an impressive 72-hours, and that is at the industry standard beat rate of 28,800vph. All told, this is a serious piece of horology, and as we said already, offered at an incredible price, as is typical of Glashütte Original.

Senator Cosmopolite Midnight Blue Dial In Steel On Bracelet

We love how the Cosmopolite from Glashütte Original brings the complexity and nuance of the world’s time zones onto the wrist with a quiet confidence. The latest addition of the watch pairs a midnight blue dial with a three-link stainless steel bracelet for the ultimate in sporty – and worldly – elegance.

You can discover all of the latest Glashütte Original releases in the HODINKEE Shop.

Cara Roux

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