Baselworld 2017 Glashutte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar

Despite the recent smartwatch obsession among Swiss watchmakers, it’s heartening to see that for Baselworld 2017, smart mechanical watches like the Glashutte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar still sit a top a pyramid of desirable complications and watchmaking traditions.

While the Glashutte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar is not a first for the Glashutte manufacture, having previously launched a similarly named Senator Perpetual Calendar, the so-named Excellence in Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar refers to the new standards set by their latest manufacture Calibre 36 with innovative silicon spiral, considered to be emblematic of the watchmaker’s highest arts and craftsmanship.

Baselworld 2017 Glashutte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar

The new manufacture Calibre 36 driving the Baselworld 2017 Glashutte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar is everything we’ve come to expect from the realm of high horology – mechanical intellect taking into account precise presentation of the date, weekday, month, and leap years without the need for manual correction for over the next 100 years.

The Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar carries the design and technical characteristics of the Excellence line, demonstrating precision, stability, and importantly, user-friendliness: setting the date of a perpetual calendar has always been an exercise fraught with some danger due to the fragility of erroneous operation but on the Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar, discreet correctors on the case enable adjustments to weekday, month and moon phase displays. Most importantly, the Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar settles a fundamental issue plaguing owners of perpetual calendars since its invention – power reserve running out due a lack of winding necessitating a visit to the workshop for setting. On the Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar, exceptional power reserve of 100 hours (on a single barrel no less) ensures the correct interplay of the displays for many hours after its owner has set the watch aside.

In terms of design, artists at Glashutte Original’s own dial factory honed the dial to perfection. The curve of the moonphase and its aperture mirrors the sweeping lines of the case while the sculptural domed moon enjoys the contrasting bountiful backdrop of a starry blue sky. The Panorama Date at 4 o’clock as well as weekday and month windows are presented, as in a passe-partout, in a softly curved frame.

Another point of distinction between the Baselworld 2017 Glashutte Original Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar and the similarly named Senator Perpetual Calendar is the addition of leap year indication beneath hour 12: The hand moves counter-clockwise across a scale of 1 to 4, ensuring unmistakable clarity for every year, not just the clearly marked leap year.

Timelessly elegant, the 42mm Senator Excellence Perpetual Calendar enjoys a stately countenance with some measure of robustness, water resistant up 50 metres. Its classical aesthetics are further reinforced by the light hue of the silver-grained dial is echoed in the window displays and highlights in contrast the laser-cut, galvanic black indexes and railroad chapter ring. Conversely, the stainless steel model presents the leap year and minute numerals in black, in the red gold version these are printed in red, complemented by slim, blued-steel hands.

Further proof the the Senator Excellence’s Excellence is a certificate documenting exceptional results of 24 days extensive in-house testing even more demanding that the already challenging German Chronometer test. This test fufils Glashutte Original’s promise of the highest standards of quality across the entire Senator Excellence range regardless of model or complication. A special engraving on the case back serves as the seal of quality on every single watch. In addition, the owner of a Senator Excellence is provided with the key test results for his watch in the form of an individual Examination Certificate with access to Glashutte Original’s online database storing detailed information on the various testing procedures, along with the complete test results.