Marcus Hanke[PuristSPro Moderator]
11515
Baselworld 2011: The big PuristSPro report --- Glashütte Original
Apr 19, 2011,01:39 AM
Basel 2011 Novelty report
Glashütte Original
by Marcus Hanke
The
new models by the Glashütte Original manufacture are more a
consolidation of past years’ innovations, partially with new design.
Rather
spectacular is the "Sixties Square Tourbillon": while the combination
of a selfwinding movement with flying tourbillon and panorama date is
not really new at GO, the cushion-shaped Sixties case offers an unusual,
and highly attractive coat for the great movement.
Already
shown last year, the "Senator Diary" is a really innovative watch,
permitting to preset an appointment up to 30 days in advance, to be then
reminded by beats on a chime spring. This interesting mechanism was not
completely ready for series production last year, and as fate sometimes
strikes, massive problems arose thereafter, delaying the project for a
full year. Finally, the Diary will be delivered to the dealers.
The
next piece is the "Senator Perpetual". With full justification, GO’s
perpetual calendars have developed a status of classics. Barely any
other perpetual mechanism on the market offers such a good legibility,
while keeping a rather decent price level. Since that movement has been
presented already with all kinds of cases and dials, GO now shows a
specially beautiful variant: With a black dial, white printed Roman
numerals, and of course the delicate hands in pink gold, this perpetual
is certainly among the most attractive watches in the full line. This
good impression is compromised by the weird rubber strap attached to it,
though. But straps can be easily replaced, fortunately.
This
is not possible with the next watch, which - I am sure - has the
potential to become a true best seller: The "Seventies Panorama Date"
has an integrated steel bracelet and its design quotes some aspects of
the Seventies; thankfully, only of the more tasteful ones ...
The
rectangular case is very distinctive, and the well-known cal. 39 with
panorama date at 6 a good engine. The Seventies is available with three
dial colours: dark grey, silver-white and a very interesting blue tone
with varying density.
Another watch that will certainly become popular
is the new pilot’s watch “Senator Navigator WorldView”. It is a
technically rather simple construction, featuring a manually operated
turning ring under the sapphire crystal. Moved by means of a separate
crown at 5, this ring shows the names of cities, standing for the 24
time zones of the world. Since it does not move together with the watch
movement, any calculations for the reference time in another city or
time zone have to be executed by adjusting the city ring by hand.
Anyway, this watch is a very attractive specimen among the pilot
watches, and the location of the panorama date at 6 is also a bit more
harmonious than the placement at 4, like it is on the cal. 100-equipped
Senator Navigator.
Fans
of decent watches will like the "Senator Automatic" with three hands
hands and without date. It has a very classy silver dial with slim Roman
numerals, and perfectly matching blued steel hands “poire corps
renflé”. This model reminds me of the successful Senator Meissen
edition, but is a lot more friendly to the purse. Not only the dial, but
also the cal. 39 movement oldtimer is responsible for a low entrance
price into the world of Glashütte Original. Abandoning the panorama date
further keeps the watch slim and elegant.
The cal. 39 movement appears a bit small in the case ...
Especially beautiful is the 18k pink gold version.
A variant in 18k pink gold and diamond bezel is
offered for either gentlemen with a bias to precious stones, and for
ladies with a bias to large watches ...
Staying
with the ladies, GO presented a new "PanoMatic Luna", a PanoMatic with
moonphase display. Its dials made from either white or black
mother-of-pearl, combined with diamonds on the bezel make it a nice and
feminine piece. The matching rubber strap has an interesting decorative
pattern on the top.
Changing illumination intensity and angles bring the black mother-of-pearl alive, letting it shine in vibrant colours:
Finally, a very attractive of the "Sixties Panorama Date" with 18k pikg gold case and black dial was shown:
This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2011-04-19 01:39:24 This message has been edited by Dr No on 2011-04-27 11:04:18