Words: Jonathan Wells
In association with:
The 1970s was a big decade. It had big hair, big cars, big films and big fashions. It was ten long, exciting, exaggerated years of flared trousers, platform boots, political movement and technological advancement. But, while the rest of the world thrived and thrashed out issues, it was a time of continuous trouble for watchmakers.
Most watchmakers, anyway. Despite the quartz crisis hitting the industry hard, German brand Glashütte Original stayed strong. Continuing an uninterrupted history that first began ticking in 1845, the Saxon town of Glashütte kept on creating its meticulous mechanical movements, honouring its illustrious heritage — and bypassing much of the crisis.
It was a decade of success for the brand; a time when Glashütte Original launched acclaimed watches that captured both the style and spirit of its contemporary customers. Today, the brand’s latest timepiece — from the Vintage collection — is the Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date. It takes on the boxy, bold character of these 1970s watches — with a striking 40 x 40mm stainless steel case and the same big presence that won the watchmaker the decade.
But its appeal reaches far beyond this bombast. Striking the watch may be, but Glashütte Original’s new vintage-tinged timepiece is also carefully created; nuanced and considered to create a watch worthy of wearing the German brand’s name.
It’s also young at heart — despite that retro styling. Ticking to the tune of Glashütte Original’s ‘Calibre 37-02’, the Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date benefits from a superior power reserve of up to 70 hours. It also features highly refined finishes; with bevelled and polished edges, blued screws, a skeletonised rotor and those famous Glashütte stripes finish on bridges.
And, while this delicate manufacturing may remain hidden for the most part, its tireless work translates onto the watch’s stylish blue dial. There’s a small second with a power reserve display, a 30-minute counter and a central stop-second — which, thanks to the flyback function, can be reset to zero and restarted with a single press of the pusher.
The dial itself, in a shade of elegant dark blue, is the product of painstaking craftsmanship. It owes that versatile, eye-catching colour to an elaborate, extensive process of galvanisation — a method that adds both defensive and decorative qualities to the timepiece.
Elsewhere, the Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date features rhodium-plated indexes and hands coated with SuperLumiNova — which were manually mounted, with great care, by the craftsmen at Glashütte Original’s dial manufacture. The signature, eponymous ‘Panorama Date’ sits at 6 o’clock, and the 12-hour chronograph counter can be found below 12 o’clock. Both are colour-matched, and boast highly legible white numerals against blue backgrounds.
Another fun feature of this new, old-style watch is the straps. Glashütte Original offer buyers the choice of four: a blue Louisiana alligator leather option; a brown-grey nubuck leather option; a black rubber option; and a sleek stainless steel option. Each demonstrates another flavour or feel of the experimental 1970s, and every durable choice chimes with the heavy duty metal of the case, hardy sapphire crystal case back and capable 100-metre water resistance.
And yet, the real appeal of Glashütte Original’s latest is its overall effect — that well-pitched, large-format throwback to a long-gone decade. It’s both a wrist-mounted time machine and a window onto the future; marrying vintage style cues with modern technologies — and offering wearers a piece of the coveted retro action.
The latest version of the Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date is now available from Glashütte Original dealers around the world. So go big, go for the best, and celebrate the substantial, square-cased decade in style.
Want more from the German brand? Glashütte Original’s PanoMaticLunar gets the green treatment…
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