Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
11582
In the flesh, pt. 7: Senator "Meissen"
If I had to assign a "Marcus' Pick" award to any of the GO novelties this year, this watch would get it: the Senator Meissen in all its classic, even old-fashioned simplicity is for me one of the nicest watches shown on the whole Basel fair. At first glimpse, it might be unspectacular, but one has to know a little bit about the production of the dial, and about the fascination behind the legendary name of "Meissen", in order to really value it.
When I showed that timepiece to watch enthusaists during the fair, these would frequently confuse the porcelain of the Meissen dial with enamel, often used by other manufacturers, and compared these two materials. But there is a huge difference: enamel is a ceramic on a metal base, while porcelain is self-supporting. Since dials cannot be very thick, porcelain dials are extremely fragile during their manufacturing. It happens more than once that a finished porcelain dial, after a long process of handpainting and multiple firing, has to be thrown away, because it broke when lifted off its base support. Even when installed in a watch, a porcelain dial would always need more care and awareness of its fragile nature, than any other dial.
GO has a long-standing tradition to cooperate with the famous Meissen porcelain manufactory. What makes the new Senator "Meissen" so special is the fact that it is unlimited. Up to now, handpainted porcelain dials were limited to very small editions, which also had a very high price tag. Now comes a simple, highly elegant porcelain dial in an unlimited edition, and with an - in my opinion - incredibly sharp calculated price.
Every plain dial receives hand-painted Roman numerals, remembering old traditions of sign paintings. Currently, only one master painter at Meissen is able to paint the highly delicate, long-stretched Roman numerals (Arabian numerals are so much easier to paint!), with the assistance of nothing more than a few pencil-drawn guiding lines to make sure every numerals is centered on the correct location.
Then, the Glashütte Original logo, the crossed swords from the Meissen manufactory trademark, and the individual number of every dial are added. Two layers of paint, each of them fired individually, are necessary to achieve that unique impression of depth and lightness.
The perfectly finished, thin hands in "Poire corps renflé" style further complement the dial, and due to the lack of a date and a second hand, the case could be well proportioned, with a thickness of less than 10 millimeters,and a diameter of 40 millimeters.
How many of these exclusive watches can be made per year, depends not only on the demand - which, I am sure, will be very high! - , but on the energy of the one master painter at the Meissen factory.
Senator Meissen, 18k pink gold
Marcus
