BY JOVAN KRSTEVSKI
Union Glashütte was founded in 1893 by Johannes Dürrstein. To commemorate the 175th birth anniversary of its founder, the Teutonic brand recently introduced a trio of classically styled limited edition watches. The new 1893 anniversary edition collection comprises a Regulator, a large second, a petite second model.
While each of the new 1893 anniversary edition watches has a personality of its own, all of them have a lot in common. First and foremost is the stainless-steel housing that measures a modest 41mm in diameter, has a thickness of around 11.8mm, and is water-resistant to a healthy 100 meters, something that is not normally seen on a dress watch.
Furthermore, the trio comes equipped with silver dials that feature a nice mix of textured and smooth finishes and vibrant blue accents. What adds to the dressy vibe are the elegantly styled hands that have been thermally blued to offer a nice contrast against the light background. The watches are powered by nicely decorated automatic movements that offer a 42-hour power reserve and can be admired through the exhibition case back. Finally, all watches come mated to a blue leather strap and each model is limited to just 175 pieces. Let’s have a quick look at the individual references now.
1893 Regulator
Regular watches were conceived with the idea of creating a timekeeping instrument that could be used as a reference point to set other watches by segregating the hours, minutes, and seconds. The Union Glashütte sticks to the design DNA of historic regulator watches and provides the ability to track the hours, seconds, and minutes individually using the sub-dial at 12, the sub-dial at 6, and a printed minute track on the outer periphery of the dial. The watch is powered by the automatic calibre U 2899-0Z6. The retail price has been set at EUR 1,980.
1893 Large Second
As compared to the 1893 Regulator, the Large second model separates the hours and minutes from the running seconds through a visually intriguing arrangement. On the left of the dial is a circular display that can be used to indicate the hours and minutes using applied and polished hour indices and a printed blue minute track on the outer periphery. On the right of the dial is a relatively large overlapping running seconds sub-dial that also features a date window at the 3 o’clock position. The top and the bottom of the dial features the branding and the text “LIMITIERE EDITION’. Driving this watch is the calibre U 2899-993. The watch retails for EUR 1,820.
1893 Small Second
Last but not least we have the 1893 Small Second which is the most elegant of the three. The layout is reminiscent of historic pocket watches featuring centrally mounted hour and minute hands and a subsidiary second’s dial at 6. The hour index once again consists of applied batons and is supported by printed minutes and second’s track. While the hour and minute hands are well-proportioned, the minute hand does look quite diminutive. Ticking inside this watch is the calibre U 2899-ZZ6.
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