GERMAN PRECISION
Glashutte Original’s Senator Excellence line offers understated elegance
Precision is paramount to Glashutte Original, whose swan-neck fine adjustment has been used to regulate the rate of a watch since 1888 while its roots in watchmaking date back to 1845. Traditional hallmarks are combined with modern micro-engineering in crafting 21st century timepieces at Glashutte, in Saxony — the birthplace of German watchmaking.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the business was revived with the Saxonian brand releasing Pano, Senator, Vintage and Ladies collections to put itself back on the map of the watch world.
Last spring, Glashutte Original launched Calibre 36 as the heart of the new Senator Excellence line offering understated elegant timepieces with typical German functionality.
The movement has been redefined in terms of precision, stability, running time and beauty for the new 42mm Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar promising a correct constellation of date, weekday and leap year up to the year 2100.
The mechanism involves an innovative silicon spiral enabling the precision while a single spring barrel ensures a power reserve of more than 100 hours, at a frequency of 4 Hertz (28,800 half oscillations per hour).
The stability is achieved in two ways in terms of rate precision — due to its compact construction and the use of an innovative bayonet mount securing the movement within the case.
The movement’s beauty is enhanced by refined decorative finishing and characteristic construction features revealed through the sapphire crystal of the case back.
Since the complication will be functioning for many years to come, the face of the watch has a timeless design with easy-to-read displays laid out against a silver-grained dial.
The characteristic Panorama Date at 4 o’clock opposes a moon phase at 8 o’clock, apertures on the dial’s upper part show the day and month, and a subdial at 12 o’clock indicates the leap year.
The dials are also made in-house in Pforzheim in southwest Germany.
Previously-launched models include 40mm Senator Excellence Panorama Date and Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase, the latter its moon phase located between 10 and 11 o’clock.
Due to its fine-toothed gear, the moon phase scores high in terms of precision. In theory, 122 years will pass before it needs a correction by one
day in order to achieve a renewed conformance with the synodic (lunar) month of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.9 seconds.
The user-friendly model allows setting the date and moon phase with the crown when set in position 2, whereas position 1 serves to wind the watch and position 3 to set the time of day.
Senator Excellence timepieces are available in stainless steel and red gold variations. Their precision and quality are guaranteed by a certificate, an engraving on the case back and even an online portal providing owner access to results of rigorous tests — under conditions extending even beyond a chronometer test — carried out on each model for over a period of 24 days.
Glashutte Original timepieces are available at S.T. Dimension watch boutique, Siam Paragon. Call 02-610-9678.