Glashutte Original Senator Manual Winding Skeletonized (1-49-18-01-05-30)

"Made in Germany" is perhaps the most important element behind the Saxon manufacture owned by the Swatch Group since 2003, which has deepened its ties to the cultural world with sponsorships like the Dresden Music Festival Award and the now-defunct house magazine "Momentum," which provided a highly cultural and cultured view of the world. The latest project revolves around Germany's international film festival - the Berlinale - which goes a long way toward supporting the arts, and particularly German arts.
One section of the 62nd edition of the brilliant international film festival is called Perspektive Deutsches Kino ("German cinema perspective"). Within this framework, this co-partner of the festival has created the Made in Germany Award, which not only singles out the outstanding work of a young German director, but also provides an extra 15,000 euros to this director for the research of a new project.
 

The physical award given to Annekatrin Hendel was created by a Glashutte Original apprentice who answered the call of an internal competition and proudly made his ticking contribution to what is perhaps Germany's most high-profile event. Hendel received the award for a documentary screenplay entitled "Disko," which focuses in on the terrorist attack of a West Berlin disco in the 1980s. At the award ceremony, the jury explained how impressed it was by Hendel's excellent research and the passionate, aesthetic structure of the project.
Glamour made in Germany
A first-class, well organized film festival like the Berlinale is actually a very glamorous affair. It is attended by all A-list German celebrities, many of whom have films in the running, and a surprisingly large number of international stars. Just as I was leaving after my three-day stint at the festival, Angelina Jolie was arriving to promote her directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey." The head of sponsoring for the Berlinale remarked to me that he had seldom seen such a mass of attention as her arrival warranted.
However, the Berlinale is also something else, something inherently European in nature. Outside the glitter, cameras and busy film industry chatter, it is something of a proving ground for documentaries and films outside the spotlight that mainstream audiences seldom get the chance to see. Bravo to Glashutte Original for promoting young, little-known filmmakers that may or may not shape our future world of entertainment and artistic expression. Either way, it is to be commended that a watch manufacture of this stature honors such expression, supporting young artists tackling difficult themes - which is simultaneously remains true to the concept "made in Germany."
 

Observation watch
With all the glamour and excitement going on around us in Berlin, it was at times hard to concentrate on the meat of the story: a new watch destined to launch at Baselworld. The Senator Observer looks very simple from the outside. Indeed, it was inspired by a century-old observation watch that turned up at an Oslo museum. This particular pocket watch made by Julius Assmann (the rights to whose name now belong to Glashutte Original) is believed to have accompanied Roald Amundsen on journeys to the North and South Poles - which is certainly possible. During this era, explorers often took chronometers and observation/deck watches with them on their journeys in order to navigate, map, and survey.
While the design of this 44 mm watch available in a limited edition of 25 pieces in gold and now unlimited stainless steel reflects the purity of the design of the Assmann pocket watch, it is not a direct copy. In addition to the time - including unusual positioning of subsidiary seconds at 9 o'clock - the Senator Observer's dial also boasts a balancing power reserve display at 3 o'clock and Glashutte Original's own take on the large date (called the Panorama Date) at 6 o'clock. It is available with a lacquered, silver, grained dial or a lacquered grey ruthenium dial.

The Senator Observer, outfitted with automatic Caliber 100-14, boasts Glashutte Original's own "intelligent winding," which adapts itself to the lifestyle of the wearer and only winds as much as is needed for sedentary or active people, and 55 hours of power reserve. Though original observation watches were obviously powered by hand-wound movements, the Saxon manufacture chose to provide the wearer with ultimate comfort and thus an automatic movement. Naturally, this movement is as finely finished as all movements from this company are and includes a 21-karat gold rotor and swan-neck fine adjustment.