Glashütte Original

TonyR
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Glashutte Panoreserve XL in white gold review ...........

So I got this watch the other day and was thrilled to finally get my hands on a Pano XL. This particular model was released a couple of years ago at Basel and I really wanted it after I saw all the amazing photos posted during the Basel fair. I thought the color combination on this piece was / is outstanding and after a few days of owing it I wanted share my thoughts seeing that not much has been written about this watch previously.  First and foremost, it’s a very difficult watch to photograph as there is no anti-reflective coating on the crystal. You really have to shift the watch around to get photos without the camera in the picture as well. I would have preferred that GO coat the crystal with anti-reflective material but what can you do. I have owned a Panomatic Lunar before and like the 39mm case size but I will say that the 42mm case size of the XL line works really well too. Unlike the dial of the Grand Lange 1 which looks unbalanced at times, this particular model doesn't suffer from an unbalanced look IMO as there is not much free space on the dial. 

The red power reserve indicator attached to the hour ring along with the integrated seconds ring really balances this dial out.

The other interesting thing that I would note is that this piece is definitely a hard watch to classify. Is it sport or dress? The case is made of white gold so you wouldn't think of it as a sport watch at first, but all the red accents on the dial and the sporty nylon strap deny it of ever being a dress watch IMO.

I thought a black strap may switch it over to the dressier side but it just didn't look right when I had the strap on. There was no contrast at all between the dial and the black strap it kind of resembles a stealth watch which is not the look I'm trying to go for.  On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the OEM nylon strap that comes with the watch. It’s not very comfortable on my wrist for one and two a white gold watch on a nylon strap just looks out of place to me so I was able to get a leather racing strap which does the trick!

I did order a nice black leather strap with red stitching which hopefully will look even better but having said that I very happy with this one. I will reiterate an all black strap just doesn't work on this watch.

This is my BIG pet peeve with GO, the deployant!  IMO a watch of this caliber should not use a deployant that resembles one that can be bought online for about 20 bucks. It’s not just this model but many other GO's have this type of deployant as well. Hopefully we'll see an upgrade soon.

Of course like all Glashutte's the movement is to die for!

 Here are some wrist shots.  I will say that this model makes a real nice complement in a mature watch collection, meaning that it wouldn't be your only watch if you had to choose just one but it does make a great number 3 or 4. All in all I'm very impressed with it!

A review of my other recent GO purchase will follow soon, here's a side by side shot of the two.

Also, when I have some more free time I'm going to do a Lange / GO comparison. I've seen lots of questions about which to buy in the past so hopefully a comparison post will help make the decision easier in the future.

I hope you enjoyed the review!

Tony

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