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The Glashütte Original Senator Observer - hands-on review of a masterpiece
Our own Marcus has already offered his personal view on this watch (see here for his excellent post ), but I still want to share with you my very own feelings. To make it short: I found the Glashütte Original Senator Observer a star of this year's vintage (as far as corporate watchmaking is concerned):
On paper, the Observer is far from being as exciting as the watch in reality really is: a pilot-styled watch in a 44mm steel case, with an in-house 55h automatic movement, small seconds, power reserve display and a large panorama data.
A compelling package, well done:
The Cal. 100-14, a nicely finsihed albeit a bit industrial-looking movement, the the typical swan-neck regulator, a three-quarter like bridge layout and the Glashütte finishings. It is a reliable and tough movement, very appropos for this kind of tool-watches.
But what realy sets this watch apart and above many I have seen in Basel is this outstaning dial:
I rarely come across badly done (setting of indices, finishing, printing) watch dials, thus quality in general is very high throughout the industry. But every once in a while something really outstanding appears in fron of my eyes, and this here is one such.
Glashütte Original has its own dial manufactoring subsidiary, and the result of this in-house expertise shows. Whatever aspect you want to look at, overall design, relationship between elements, use of layers, execution of base plate, indices, the quality of printing - this one here excels in every of these criteria.
First, let's look at the surface: it is a matte brushing painted in an almost anthracite black, and printed with sharply applied paint. Inspect the serifs on the 'h' of Glashütte, for exampple, or the dots over the 'ü' - perfection printing! Also, the large surfaces of the main dial area are absolutely even, in terms of flatness as well as finishing. Really well done!
The same impression holds when inspecting the subdials. These are drilled into the mainplate with impressingly sharp edges. Printing again is extremely precise, perfectly centered with the dial cuts. Note that the 3 o'clock indicator just barely tips the subdial.BTW, its the same at the corresponding 9 o'clock side - my experiences tells me that such perfect alignment is not always the case and a sign of skills, attention and care alike.
Just for completion, a detail view of the Panorama date. Absolutely at the same level as the remainder of the dial.
A remarkable specialty of the Observer is the use of strong luminous material throughout, inclusing not only the main time indications, but also the entire subdials ensuring legibility under any conditions (brightest sunlight is taken care of thanks to the matte dial surface).
After sundown, the lightshow ensues - wonderful, really wonderful!
Note how finely this is executed! The subdials show just enough information in the dark to be perfectly readible, e.g. with the 60 and the 30 fully luminous, at the 5 sec intervals the entire long indec, and finally at the 10, 20, 40 and 40, respectively, only a short limunous dot.
That's not all. The Senator Observer is not only well-desinged and tough, it is also versatile (as Marcus already mentioned). Here with a suit...
... and here more business casual:
Whichever way you look at it, this is an outstanding piece. I personally would have preferred a handwound movement, but this is a personal preference and not a criticism. You mileage may vary!
Congratulations to the Glashütte Original team, and to any owner as well (last image taken by Oliver)!
Thanks for looking,
Magnus
This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2015-09-20 09:10:22
On paper, the Observer is far from being as exciting as the watch in reality really is: a pilot-styled watch in a 44mm steel case, with an in-house 55h automatic movement, small seconds, power reserve display and a large panorama data.
A compelling package, well done:
The Cal. 100-14, a nicely finsihed albeit a bit industrial-looking movement, the the typical swan-neck regulator, a three-quarter like bridge layout and the Glashütte finishings. It is a reliable and tough movement, very appropos for this kind of tool-watches.
But what realy sets this watch apart and above many I have seen in Basel is this outstaning dial:
I rarely come across badly done (setting of indices, finishing, printing) watch dials, thus quality in general is very high throughout the industry. But every once in a while something really outstanding appears in fron of my eyes, and this here is one such.
Glashütte Original has its own dial manufactoring subsidiary, and the result of this in-house expertise shows. Whatever aspect you want to look at, overall design, relationship between elements, use of layers, execution of base plate, indices, the quality of printing - this one here excels in every of these criteria.
First, let's look at the surface: it is a matte brushing painted in an almost anthracite black, and printed with sharply applied paint. Inspect the serifs on the 'h' of Glashütte, for exampple, or the dots over the 'ü' - perfection printing! Also, the large surfaces of the main dial area are absolutely even, in terms of flatness as well as finishing. Really well done!
The same impression holds when inspecting the subdials. These are drilled into the mainplate with impressingly sharp edges. Printing again is extremely precise, perfectly centered with the dial cuts. Note that the 3 o'clock indicator just barely tips the subdial.BTW, its the same at the corresponding 9 o'clock side - my experiences tells me that such perfect alignment is not always the case and a sign of skills, attention and care alike.
Just for completion, a detail view of the Panorama date. Absolutely at the same level as the remainder of the dial.
A remarkable specialty of the Observer is the use of strong luminous material throughout, inclusing not only the main time indications, but also the entire subdials ensuring legibility under any conditions (brightest sunlight is taken care of thanks to the matte dial surface).
After sundown, the lightshow ensues - wonderful, really wonderful!
Note how finely this is executed! The subdials show just enough information in the dark to be perfectly readible, e.g. with the 60 and the 30 fully luminous, at the 5 sec intervals the entire long indec, and finally at the 10, 20, 40 and 40, respectively, only a short limunous dot.
That's not all. The Senator Observer is not only well-desinged and tough, it is also versatile (as Marcus already mentioned). Here with a suit...
... and here more business casual:
Whichever way you look at it, this is an outstanding piece. I personally would have preferred a handwound movement, but this is a personal preference and not a criticism. You mileage may vary!
Congratulations to the Glashütte Original team, and to any owner as well (last image taken by Oliver)!
Thanks for looking,
Magnus
This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2015-09-20 09:10:22
Thanks for the quick look at the Glashütte Original Senator Observer
I too love the look of this piece. Elegant and clean looking in my eyes.
Cheers,
Anthony
My favorite G.O.!
I put this at the top of my list as soon as I saw it on GO's video of new watches this year. Thanks for your comments. I'm hoping to see one in person soon. It hits everything I would like in my next dark dialed watch.
Well written article, Magnus.
I was thinking to myself " Hey, a pity this watch doesn't come with a manual movement, it would have been really great ", and I ended with reading your comment on that point.
Nice dial, for sure, but what I didn't know was the lume. Thanks for this interesting precision.
Yes, an interesting watch from G.O.
Best,
Nicolas.
Big Date: Not the classic one, but a date with two independant windows.
More elaborated than a simple date. There is more " thought " about it.
Best,
Nicolas
Insightful article
Of a very nicely executed watch. The pictures are a real treat, making sure one gets a good idea of how it looks and works in different light and environments - very helpful!