Much of the appeal is on the inside, so take a moment to appreciate what makes this watch so different. On the surface you have an 18k rose gold (available in white gold) case with an alligator strap (in black or brown), and a classy white dial that epitomizes many Teutonic luxury watches. The tricks you’ll find in the watch are all thanks to the in-house made in German caliber 58-01 manually wound movement, which has 45 hours of power reserve. Functions include the time, big panorama date, day/night indicator window (6:00 am to 6:00pm the small circular window located in the lower part of the power reserve indicator is light, while during the other half of the day the indicator is black), upper dial mounted power reserve indicator, and a subsidiary seconds dial.
For serious watch lovers, the magic is revealed when operating the watch and setting the time. The Senator Chronometer is all about precision. As a COSC certified Chronometer watch, the timepiece is meant to be accurate, so the idea is to give you ample means to set it accurately. Pull the crow out and the seconds counter hand jumps back to zero resetting itself. This way you start at the beginning of the minute. Then, when you adjust the time, the minute hand moves in full one-second increments. This combined with the “zero reset” seconds hand allows you to easily, and precisely set the time. The concept is simple, though mechanically complex, and a sign of the brand’s dedication to functional excellence, along with having a luxury demeanor.
The light colored dial is made of special frosted silver plating over brass – resulting in an easy to read (and appreciate) face with Roman numeral hour markers and properly sized, blued steel hands. The sapphire crystal is anti-reflective coated to enhance reading comfort and remove glare. Flip the watch over find another sapphire crystal through which you can view the highly decorated movement. Note the characteristic hand engraved and decorated balance wheel bridge – found in the highest end of German luxury watches. As classic looking timepieces go, the Glashütte Original Senator Chronometer has more than just retro looks – giving lovers of conservative looking watches a satisfying degree of mechanical rarity and complication that is worth bragging about. Priced at $26,900 (rose gold) – $28,000 (white gold). www.glashuette-original.com.
Ariel Adams is the Haute Living Watch Editor and also publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.
