Watch & Jewelry
March 19, 2015
Glashütte Original | Senator Automatic
Glashütte Original
Senator Automatic
Text by OPENERS
The Senator Collection from Glashütte Original is brimming with functional beauty, embodying the watchmaking traditions passed down through generations in the town of Glashütte, Germany. Among them, the two-hand automatic stands out as a superb piece, simple yet revealing the company's high level of craftsmanship.
The meticulously polished applied indices and hour/minute hands, along with the sunray-finished dial, exude elegance while offering excellent legibility, captivating the eye.
Inside beats the Cal. 100, a flagship movement newly designed in 2005. Despite its slim 4.3mm thickness, making it the thinnest in-house movement the company produces, it features a twin barrel for approximately 55 hours of power reserve.
Furthermore, it incorporates the traditional Glashütte three-quarter plate, even with an automatic winding rotor, and employs a classic swan-neck regulator, exuding a timeless elegance.
The beautifully mirror-polished, gleaming case is available in stainless steel with either a silver or grey dial, or in rose gold with either a silver or anthracite dial. A new blue dial option was added in 2007.
Automatic winding. 28,800 vibrations per hour. Approximately 55-hour power reserve. Case diameter 40mm. Case thickness 9.8mm. 5 ATM water resistance. Louisiana alligator strap. Stainless steel case (¥766,500). 18K RG case (¥1,732,500).
BRAND HISTORY
Since Ferdinand Adolph Lange established his watchmaking workshop in 1845, Glashütte, Germany, has become the heart of the German watch industry. After World War II, the town's state-owned factory, G.U.B., under East German administration, produced watches as industrial goods. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, brands gradually emerged to revive the traditional watchmaking inherited from former court watchmakers. Glashütte Original was one of the first to begin this endeavor.
In 1994, former CEO Heinz W. Pfeiffer acquired the privatized G.U.B. and fundamentally reformed the previous mass-production system. He shifted to a low-volume production system focused on quality, and debuted as Glashütte Original at the Baselworld exhibition the following year.
The brand's products feature the Glashütte region's distinctive three-quarter plate finish and swan-neck regulator, imbued with the warmth of handmade craftsmanship. They also incorporate functional, robust German watch design elements such as off-center dials and panorama date displays.
Since 2000, the brand has been part of the Swatch Group, and its Japanese operations began in '02. Offering a wide range of products from sports models to complex timepieces, and developing its own split-seconds chronograph mechanism in '07, the company continues to demonstrate its outstanding technical prowess rooted in the traditional watchmaking of Saxony.
FOUNDING YEAR: 1845
FOUNDING LOCATION: Glashütte, Germany
MAIN COLLECTION NAMES: Panodate, Senator, Sport Evolution
INQUIRIES: Swatch Group Japan Glashütte Original 03-6245-7160
Official Website: http://www.glashuette-original.com/