A wonderful evening: 2nd Salzburg TicTac Talk with GO and Martin Braun - the pics!!

Jun 07, 2005,07:07 AM
 

It was a warm (better: hot) evening, one of these rare days in Salzburg when the sky did not even allow a single cloud to compromise its perfect blue-ness. In spite of the weather, which invited to sit in the garden, enjoying an ice-cold beer, Purists travelled several hundred miles to attend the

Second Salzburg TicTac Talk
on June 3rd


Like the first "TTT", this small and cosy event, too, took place in the charming restaurant of the Hotel "Friesacher" in Anif, only some minutes away from Salzburg.

While we sipped the cooled Prosecco, we already talked about the central topic of the evening: watches.







After a short while, the "talk" started with no less a person than Dr. Frank M?ller, president of Glash?tte Orignal.



With a well-laid out visual presentation, he presented the GO manufactory in Glash?tte, which has an extreme high depth of production. Assisted by many pictures, Dr. M?ller presented the massive effort in handcraft, necessary to produce tinyest parts, as screws and pins, and to give them a finish appropriate for a state-of-the-art watch. Every individual screw gets is heatblued finish individually, with only the employee's experience being the guarantee for the correct tone of blue. The "blueing expert" exactly knows how long to keep the screw on the heated metal base; too long, and the blue colour would be too dark; too short, and the tone would not be saturated enough. Even when all screws have the right tine, they are assorted, to make sure that every watch gets only screws with the identical blue colour. This care for details is really astonishing!

But this was only one of many examples Dr. M?ller presented to the astonished listeners: He also explained the "black polishing" of tiny steel parts, such as swan-neck regulators, which are polished by rubbing it on a tin base with the fingertip, until its surface is so smooth that from most angles, it reflects "black" only. Aside from the surface finish, strict measurements make sure that each anglage, even where it is deeply hidden within the movement, has an angle of exactly 45 degrees.



This high level of accuracy is also stretched to the few parts that are supplied by specialized companies. Dr. M?ller told us that GO would reject 75% of the dials produced by the dial manufacturer, and keep only those 25% that really meet their stringent quality criteria.

Following the different stages of movement production with schematical graphics of the manufacture building, Dr. M?ller showed us how pins are produced, the wheels are poised, the tools are made, the bridge and plate finish is applied by hand, he introduced us into the secrets and difficulties of ensuring a high and steady quality during galvanization, and finally explained, how difficult it sometimes is for one of the masters in the atelier, to assemble a PanoMaticChrono and afterwards realize that the timing results are not that perfect. In that case, they have to disassemble many parts, sometimes even nearly everything, and start from scratch again, until they found the part responsible for the unsatisfactory timing result. Thus weeks can pass until the watch is finally finished.



After Dr. M?ller had ended, Martin Braun confronted us with a completely different approach to watches "made in Germany":



Being a single person, his financial ressources never would have permitted a complete development and production of an own movement. Instead, he decided to use a standard and tried Swiss base movement (mostly ETA 2892A2) and develop some truly unique complications for it. In a very lively speech, he narrated how he wanted to build the very first sunrise and-set displays for waristwatches. However, he had to study the astronomy and its mathematics first, and when he was ready to build working modules, he was shocked to hear that Audemars Piguet had presented a new watch with exactly such a display.



At first, he was very depressed. But strangely, the fact that before him, only a highly renowned company as AP realized a sunrise and-set display, even gave Martin much competence and credibility in the eyes of the watch enthusiasts, and the "Eos" was an instant success. After it followed the "Boreas", combining the sun with the indication of the equation of time.



While the Equation of time was nothing really new in the history of wristwatches, Martin's next development was: The "Heliocentric" was the first watch showing the elliptical orbit of the Earth around the Sun, together with the different distances the Earth travels through the months. To realize this display, Martin had to overcome many difficulties, among which the reliable co-operation of teethed wheels with a thickness of less than a human hair was but one. With some illustrations, he explained to the visitors the planetary gearing he used for the display.



His most recent complication is the "Astraios", combining the orbit display with the sunrise and -set of the "Eos". Finally, he gave a hint that he has several new projects in the pipeline, with the next one unfortunately sharing a similar mishap with the "Eos": While working on his innovation, which was thought to be a "first", Martin learnt that Harry Winston's "Opus V" (you can read everything about it in our Harry Winston forum) beats him - and is the first watch with a service display, indicating the time when the watch has to be serviced. Well, maybe the exclusiveness of the Opus V will result in the same lucky consequence as Audemar Piguet's sunrise and -set watch?

After the "lectures" were finished, the eagerly waiting enthuasiasts finally got their hands onto the real watches.

In the centre of the attention were of course the new Glash?tte Original watches, which were presented at this year's Basel fair. The various versions of the new "Senator" series with the marvelous cal. 100 movement were specifically admired.


Senator with panorama date, 18k yellow gold and chamgagne dial, and Senator moonphase, steel case, grey dial


Senator perpetual, steel case, silver dial


Senator Auf und Ab (power reserve), 18k pink gold, grey dial, and Senator date, steel case, silver dial


The new cal. 100 movement


Also the new grey dials for the Pano-series were shown, here the PanoReserve in steel


The PanoMatic Tourbillon found its admirers, although this particular Purist had difficulties to let the PanoMaticChrono out of his hands again


The ladies discussed the new Star Collection


But after Martin Braun's introduction, we were also happy to handle his timepieces, and to discuss them with Martin. Unfortunately, the lighting at that late time was very poor (we were in a restaurant, not a watchmaker's workshop!), so I was not able to get any satisfactory picture. Therefore, I add these pictures cordially supplied by Martin Braun:


The "Eos" with grey guilloche dial


"Eos" with white gold case and blue dial


The "Boreas" in steel with silver dial. Note the hand indicating the equation of time


One of the evening's favourites: "Heliocentric", steel case and blue dial. Note the diamonds on the dial, set to depict the stellar constellations of Orion (right) and Ursa Major (left). The axis of the hour and minute hands is in the place of the North Star.


Novelty at this year's Basel fair: The "Astraios", combining the Earth locator of the "Heliocentric" with the sunrise and -set times of the "Eos"




These ladies were very fond of the Heliocentric


The closing hour had passed already, when the guests started to leave, some of them had apparent difficulties leaving the horlogical beauties behind!

All visitors thoroughly enjoyed the Second Salzburg TicTac Talk, and maybe some of you will have the time to attend the next one, and pay a visit to the beautiful city of Salzburg! Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. My sincerest thanks go to Dr. M?ller and Martin Braun for this wonderful evening and their support to the PuristS community!

With best regards,
Marcus

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Comments: view entire thread

 

Thank you for that excellent report Marcus.

 
 By: IanS : June 7th, 2005-08:08
I did not realise that GO would go to all the trouble to sort and grade the the blue screws. It is great to hear of that attention to detail. I will bet Martin tries to get his ideas in production faster in future! Imagine being beaten in both the EoT and... 

Glad you liked it! - nt

 
 By: Marcus Hanke : June 8th, 2005-07:07

Thanks for this marvelous report and the awesome pics!

 
 By: M&G Pfeifle : June 7th, 2005-11:11
Hi Marcus, thank you very much for letting us sneak a peek. It must have been a wonderful TicTac Talk night, and we wish we had been there. Maybe, next time ... Thanks again! Martina & Gerd

thanks for the lovely and extremely interesting evening Marcus

 
 By: Lutz : June 7th, 2005-11:11
Mr.Braun's watches are extremely charming astronomical complications,it was the first time I saw them in person and the Heliocentric is just wonderful,the planet earth in person moving through the cycle of 12 months so poetical. Many exciting news,that GO... 

The different base movements ....

 
 By: Marcus Hanke : June 8th, 2005-02:02
It is true that in the somewhat fifteen years of its existence as fully privately operated company, GO has released an astonishing number of beautiful and very well-made movements. However, not every reference in the catalogue has its own totally independ... 

Thanks Marcus for another splendid evening. The different approachs by -

 
 By: Jim Rothbarth : June 7th, 2005-10:22
Glashutte and Martin Braun show how intersting and significant watches all come from creative minds. For me its always neat to see the 2892A2 become the foundation of something new and unique.

You're welcome! - nt

 
 By: Marcus Hanke : June 8th, 2005-07:07

Thank you for the report.....

 
 By: Bluekutus : June 8th, 2005-03:03
Looks like everyone enjoyed themselves.

Gotta salsa down to Salzburg >>

 
 By: MTF : June 8th, 2005-10:22
Thanks for the report. I have never been to Salzburg; a fact that the current Mrs MTF frequently gloats about, because she has ..... I spent a night in Wein too but it doesn't count because it was in a bunk bed at the airport waiting for the connecting fl... 

You made a funny typo ...

 
 By: Marcus Hanke : June 9th, 2005-07:07
You wrote: "I spent a night in Wein" ... I assume you meant "Wien", aka Vienna. "Wein" is German for wine, and when you really spent a full night in a cask of wine, I can image that you have no memories whatever of the city you were in .... Anyway, I real... 

Thanks Marcus for the report...

 
 By: -=EHH=- : June 8th, 2005-11:23
That Senator Perpetual SS looks BIG; it must weigh a ton or two in PT. The new dials do look very nice (that new Argente dial on the Senator Perpetual is just what that watch needed compared to the old 'plain' and 'flat' silver dial), although the placeme... 

funnily, the new Senator looks considerably bigger without being so ...

 
 By: Marcus Hanke : June 9th, 2005-07:07
The case diameter has been increased by less than a millimetre. However, due to the different shape, the diametre of the dial itself could be increased, making the bezel thinner, and the optical presence of the watch a bit stronger. Since the case could a... 

Oops, I meant RG and grey...

 
 By: -=EHH=- : June 9th, 2005-11:11
...  

Great report.

 
 By: MaxH : June 10th, 2005-03:15