By John Galt
Presented at BaselWorld 2015 and aimed at frequent travellers this is a very elegant piece, the Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite features the rare complication of being able to track your home time and current time simultaneously in any two of the world’s 37 times zones. Even though the piece looks complicated with its many dials and three crowns it is very simple as soon as you look at the piece as two different dials are actually within in one. Let me explain this further.
The home time is displayed on a sub-dial at 12 O’clock with blued steel hands, inside shown on an arc from 10-2 is the 72 hour power reserve indicator, directly below in perfect symmetry is a small sub seconds dial again with blued steel hands. Both dials are slightly off-white colour to really accentuate them against the lacquered silver-grained finish of the main dial. At 4 O’clock is the signature Panorama date display with large window with nice thick black on white numerals.
Now for the clever part of this piece, the destination time (you can set this watch so that the travel time is the main hands and small face is home time or vice versa, it makes no difference) is displayed on the main central hour and minute hands again keeping the blued hands. There’s a day/night indicator placed at 9 O’clock that shows a night sky on the lower half and a sun motif on the upper half. At 8 O’clock there are two small windows indicating whether daylight saving time or standard time is in effect in the destination time zone.
The time zone wheel displays a choice of 37 world time zones, each being indicated by the official code designating the key airport in the time zone. There is 24 time zones that are aligned at the full hour offset with Greenwich mean time (GMT) which are presented with a black airport code in either DST or STD window. 10 time zones that align with GMT at half-hour increments appear in the window as blue with the 3 remaining time zones that align at either a 1/4 or ¾ are coloured red, the three colour variations mean the wearer can easily identify the time offset at a glance.
Setting the time to new destinations is a very easy task, if your new destination is heading east (when you add hours to the local time) then you turn the crown at 4 O’clock clockwise until the correct code appears in the window, if travelling west (when you subtract hours from the local time) then the crown is turned anti-clockwise. Whether you are travelling east or west the central hours and minutes jump ahead or back in 15 minute intervals until the correct destination time zone appears in the window. Once the correct time zone appears in the window the hands will automatically show the correct time with the date and day/night indicator also showing exactly the correct display without the wearer having to intervene.
Turning the 44mm case over you are greeted, as expected, with a full exhibition case back showing the Glaschutte automatic movement with an off-set rotor. It’s easy to admire the typical finish of the Glashutte stripes, hand-engraved, galvanised balance cock, blued screws and Glashutte double G logo on the rotor.
The Glashutte original Senator Cosmopolite is available in two versions in either red gold or white gold and matched to a black or blue Louisiana alligator leather strap priced at $43,500 (for either one) respectively.
Conclusion
Glashutte have done one of the hardest things in watch-making, releasing something that is very complicated with so many times zones and dials and make it look so straight forward and easily readable, so I take my hat off to them and this stunning piece. Personally, I think the red gold works best as the warmth of the gold really makes the dial shine. For more info, please visit glashuette-original.com
JOHN GALT – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
John Galt caught thehorology bug back in 2010 on his first visit to a London watch show and has snowballed since; John has become an avid writer and blogger of timepieces of all kinds, from everyday timepieces to modern Luxury HauteHorology, his favorite brands being HYT and GreubelForsey that push the boundaries of modern watch-making. John keeps a keen interest in the UK watch scene with their many emerging brands and timepiece’s. John Galt currently contributes watch related articles for online publications in the UK and USA. You can follow John on Twitter @johng73 Read his articles here.
