Page 71 - SHARP September 2022

WATCH
process — a method that is now standard practice for all high-end watchmakers. Watchmaking flourished in Glashütte and continued there following WW2, when the watch industry was nationalized under communist rule. In the 1990s, following German reunification, Glashütte Original’s modern life began.
The new PanoMaticCalendar, an annual calendar available in red gold or platinum, reveals Glashütte Original’s commitment to craft in its design, details, and fabrication. Featuring a new in-house movement with 100 hours of power reserve, the PanoMaticCalendar indicates the time, date, and phases of the moon across five highly legible displays. The large subdial is dedicated to hours and minutes, with seconds in an offset subdial just below, a moon phase display, a retrograde month, and a large “digital” date window. Produced in highly limited numbers — just 150 in the case of the platinum version with its black skeleton dial — the PanoMaticCalendar re- veals attention to detail at every turn, from its German-made silver opaline dial to its hand-engraved balance bridge. The closer you look, however, the more unique detail you’ll discover. Not only is the PanoMaticCalendar unlike other watches, it’s a watch that could only have been made in Glashütte.
(RED GOLD, $35,500; PLATINUM, $47,900)
A TRUE ORIGINAL
FOUNDED IN THE 19TH CENTURY AND REBORN IN THE 1990S, GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL IS KEEPING THE SPIRIT OF GERMAN WATCHMAKING ALIVE
By Jeremy Freed
F ROM ITS UNIQUE DESIGN TO ITS UNUSUAL PROVENANCE
to its triple-portmanteau name, the Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar is not your average luxury watch. Of course, Glashütte Original is no ordinary watchmaker. With a history stretch- ing back more than 175 years, this German brand is proudly dedicated to doing things its own way, blending traditional European aesthetics with high-quality movements and top-tier finishing, and producing only around 10,000 timepieces per year. The PanoMaticCalendar, with its annual calendar movement, asymmetric dial, and handcrafted components, makes for a perfect introduction to their oeuvre.
The company now known as Glashütte Original traces its roots back to the 1840s, when Ferdinand Adolph Lange, the father of modern German watchmaking, petitioned the government to open a watch factory in Glashütte, a small town near the Czech border. Inspired by the latest Swiss innovations in production, watches here were made by specialists, each of whom focused on one part of the
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