Glashütte Original: The name you need to know

Written by: Poppy Skinner Created: 17 September 2018

Sleek, stylish and understated –why you need to add Glashütte Original to your timepiece arsenal.

There are many things we are famous for in Singapore. Being the food capital of Asia, having one of the cleanest cities and most definitely for being a nation obsessed with watches. Name any brand under the sun and you are sure to find them nestled in one of the marvellous medley of boutiques littering our small island and for true watch aficionados, the name not to be missed has got to be Glashütte Original. With over 170 years of watchmaking history, this German brand is celebrated amongst those that know for their innovative design, sublime aesthetic and luxurious precision – in part thanks to the fact that 95% of their parts are made in house – somewhat of a rarity in watchmaking these days.

Taking the lead in understated elegance is the Senator Excellence. Classic, chic and clean, the Senator Excellence has the look of a dress watch with the technicalities of something quite different. The line has been given a facelift, unveiled at Basel this year, with changes to the Senator Excellence Panorama Date and the Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase lines.

With each model still keeping the brand’s famed dial competencies, three new models have been added to each line in blue, silver- grey, and white and find themselves mounted on a larger, 42mm stainless steel case.

Introduced in 1997, the Panorama Date is based on two concentrically arranged display discs positioned on the same plane, making it easy to read both at the same time. Furthermore, the superb craftsmanship over at Glashütte Original allows for the integration of both the Panorama Date disc and moon phase disc into the dial. When it comes to the moon phase disc, the moon and the starry night sky are both created thanks to a labour-intensive, highly skilled process at the Glashütte Original dial manufactory in Pforzheim and is made from either bronze or German silver.

Another classic from Glashütte Original is the Senator Cosmopolite. Best described as a globetrotter’s dream, this stunning watch has also had a superb update for 2018. While the original Senator Cosmopolite was cased in gold, the new editions come in swathed in stainless steel. When it comes to the bells and whistles of the watch, this beauty blows its competition out of the water thanks to the fact that not only can two time zones be read at once, but a whopping 35 time zones can be read on the dial, each identified by the International Air and Transport Association 3-letter location identifier, or airport code for short.

When it comes to design, you would think that with so many functions it would be crowded, but not so thanks to the stunning white face and dark blue Arabic numerals. Once again Glashütte Original look to their exceptional manufacturing team to allow the wearer to set their watch in not one standard time zone, but also lets you view in Daylight Saving and Standard Time as well.

Practical, luxurious and technical are just three words to describe Glashütte Original, and for their full range of watches, see here.

Written by: Poppy Skinner

Poppy covers a wide range of topics at Billionaire, having spent the past 13 years at companies including Singapore Tatler, Her World Plus and Harpers Bazaar UK. She has a passion for fashion, jewellery and travel as well as an avaricious fascination with crime novels. Follow her at poppypskinner on Instagram.