Glashutte & The Meissen Porcelain Dial

Glashutte Original and the Meissen Porcelain company collaborated and made this White Dial Beauty.

Head on to the Deployant page for a full read. For now, enjoy the photos of the Meissen Porcelain dial which has more than 300 years of history under their belt. Combining expertise both companies possess, the result is the Senator Meissen dial.

This Meissen sample comes as a time only timepiece. Simple, elegant and very handsome. The classic Senator is aesthetically pleasing, proportionate and neat.

The blue hands compliments the dial and rose gold case. Why is the porcelain dial desired? For one, they are rather rare and secondly and more importantly, the dials are said to maintain its colouration for a decades.

Although this is not a limited edition, each dial is individually numbered. All the markers including the Meissen cross swords trademark and the Glashutte brand name are hand painted on the porcelain dials.

A porcelain dial is not easy to manufacture. Lots of skill goes into making one of these dials. For starters the liquid porcelain is applied to a disc and then fired at between 1,200 °C to 1,400 °C. Only milky white flawless discs that meet their stringent requirements are selected and hand painted.

To make one of these dials, the craftsmen takes between 8-10 hours hand painting each marker or logo using very fine brush. This requires dextrous hands with full on concentration too.

As with all hand painted markers, it is not "perfect". This macro shot clearly shows the outcome.

8 and 9 hand painted marker - again, a clear sign it is hand painted and not machine stamped.

As much as one expects the highest of quality from the Meissen manufacture, even the Glashutte logo is not perfectly drawn. But what is true about such hand crafted dials is that no two are alike which makes each dial unique.

The finishing on the inside of the case finishing - brushed interior.

The blued hands...

The complete package...

One last look at the symbol of the Meissen dial

It is sad to note that the collaboration has stopped and that Meissen Porcelain no longer makes these kinds of dials for Glashutte Original. Their short lived collaboration launches some very iconic pieces - the Singapore Edition commemorating 40 years of nationhood, the Senator Meissen Tourbillon, just to name few.

Perhaps the folks at Glashutte Original will find another partner or perhaps someone else will start noticing a missing segment in the luxury watch space and look at doing a series for themselves. These porcelain dials are awesome.

Glashütte Original Senator Chronometer - The Only One

Inside the Glashütte Original Senator Chronometer hides a complication no other brand has.

Glashütte Original is in good company when it comes to making timepieces that possesses the Zero Reset (second hand) function. A. Lange & Söhne, Montblanc (with a Minerva calibre), Akrivia and Jaeger LeCoultre are the other brands that I know how that has timepieces with the zero reset feature. What's the big deal you might say. Big deal if you are like me - one who waits till the second hand reached zero (sixty) before pulling the crown, setting the time and depressing the crown and hoping the minute hand does not advance forward beyond the marker. You will agree with me that when you start winding the watch and the seconds hand is at the 10 second marker that you have to wait 50 seconds till you pull the crown. The zero reset solves that problem.

Basically, what the zero reset does is exactly what it says - it resets to zero when you pull the crown. Very much like the flyback function in a chronograph when you depress the pusher. It surprised me that many brands do not consider this a useful feature or is it because it takes too much to even incorporate such a feature into a timepiece. So a few brands have done that but no more than one hand full in the watch industry and Glashütte Original is one of them.

Zero reset only addresses the first part of my pet peeve - what about the shifting minute hand when you depress the crown. Fact is many (general) automatic movements and even some in-house movements are well known to have the minute hands shift when the crown is depressed. And for many collectors, this is not acceptable. Enter Glashütte Original with the minute increment adjustment mechanism.

Notice in the picture above the second hand it at the zero position and how the minute hand sits nicely at the 11 minute position. When the crown is pulled, the zero reset mechanism returns the second hand to zero and the minute hand to the nearest minute marker. When the user turns the crown to adjust the minute, the minute hand ticks away, yes it ticks from one minute marker to the next and so on. The feeling is a smooth ticking sensation when you turn the crown. Ingenious!

What is even more amazing is the reset function - if the second hand is before the 30 second mark and you pull the crown, not only will the second hand reset to zero, the minute hand will retreat to the minute before. For instance, the minute hand could be between the 10 and 11 minute mark and the second hand is at the 20 second mark, when you pull the crown, the second hand advances (clockwise) to zero while the minute hand retreats to 10 (minute). The same is true when the second hand is at the 35 second mark and you pull the crown, the second hand advances to zero while the minute hand advances to the 11 minute mark. Impressive!

Technical features aside, the timepiece on the whole is well proportioned. Large date at three o'clock... notice how the dial is grainy rather than a smooth dial.

And the blued hands are pretty well finished too.

Power reserve is at the 12 and a day/night indicator window within the power reserve. The day/night indicator comes in the form of a black or white window that changes at 6 o'clock - 6 pm and it changes to a black window and at 6am, changes back to white. Picture below is showing as 2.24am with the day/night indicator being black.

And the movement side... Featuring the Calibre 58-01, the manual winding movement is all German - the three quarter plate construction, the ribbing...

...the hand engraved balance cock. All signature features of German watchmaking.

The finishing on the Senator Chronometer is industrial. Ok but not great. I had expected more on the finishing of the movement especially when this timepiece is one of their higher end pieces. Power reserve is also rather limited at 42 hours.

The movement is Chronometer certified by the Glashütte Observatory who provides the certification while working in conjunction with the offices of weights and measures in Thuringia (LMET) and Saxony (SLME). While the certification is similar to the Swiss standard, the main difference is that the movement is encased in the watch case when undergoing certification. For the Swiss COSC, the movement is encased in a temporary case.

The 42mm Senator Chronometer was unveiled some years ago and I first saw it at an exhibition in Bangkok. I recall the piece to be rose gold with the same white coloured dial. The first timepiece that is exacting in it time adjustment capabilities - zero reset second and actual minute adjustment.

For more information on the timepiece and its variations, please visit the Glashütte Original website. The website video shows all the features of the Senator Chronometer including the minute increment peculiarity.

Useful Features In a Timepiece

I am not sure about you but I have never really sat down to think what the useful features are in a timepiece.

Honestly, how often do you activate the chronograph function? What about that perpetual calendar especially those with the pushers? Even the date is something of a chore for some unless it is the big date.

Truth me told, I hardly use the chronograph feature on my chronographs. I know some say you could use it to time how long you park at a particular location etc., but really?

Enjoy the picture of the A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Chronograph.

The honest truth, at least for me, is the beauty of the 1815 Chronograph movement rather than the function itself. Now, how can you argue with a movement like that? I have to say, both the dial side and the movement side of the Lange 1815 Chronograph are gorgeous. But how often do I use the chronograph function?

Then again the perpetual calendar...

A nice feature to have and I believe that when they developed the Quantième Perpétuel, most owners had one watch to their name. So if that timepiece were with you all the time, it makes sense to keep it running and in order not to have to make those minor date changes (30 and 31), the perpetual calendar was invented. But today? Well, it really becomes a status symbol than any "useful" feature.

Don't get me wrong, I love the perpetual calendar watch. A great invention. But how often do you use the function especially when you need to hit those pushers to have the day, date, month and moonphase aligned? Well, doesn't really matter when the movement is as nice as the Moser Perpetual One.

What I really like - the Zero Reset...

What I would really like as a "regular" feature in a timepiece is the Zero Reset. When it comes to time setting, I am a stickler for accurate time setting i.e. having to wait till the seconds hand hits zero before pulling the crown to set the time. Some timepieces with this feature are the Lange Saxonia and the Glashutte Senator Chronometer.

Featured here is the Lange Saxonia belonging to a friend of mine. The Zero Reset is a patent belonging to manufacture A. Lange & Sohne.

And the case back showing off the automatic movement.

The Glashutte Original (GO) Senator Chronometer is also another timepiece featuring a reset seconds hand when the crown is pulled. But they go one step further in the attempt to improve accuracy during time setting. Not only does the second hand return to the zero position when the crown is pulled, the minute hand changes in full minute increments i.e. the minute hand progresses to the next minute index. And when one depresses the crown, both the seconds and minute hand move in tandem.

And the case back revealing a three quarter plate typical of German watchmaking...

With the Zero Reset feature, the seconds hand returns to the 60 second position when the crown is pulled. As far as I know, the two brands that has this feature are A. Lange & Soehne and Glashutte - both German brands. Is that a coincidence? And then the question of "How difficult is it to make?" Then again, is there an easier and more innovative way to develop this feature?

GMT or Two Time Zone

A more regular (and useful) feature is the GMT or two-time zone which of course is essential for the frequent traveller. The Reverso from Jaeger LeCoultre comes to mind...

With the two time zone, the timepieces allows the traveller to track local time (where he is) and his home time. With the Reverso, this is done with two dials on the same movement. But the more common variation is the GMT where the timepiece features another 24 hour bezel like in the Rolex GMT II featured here.

There is yet another variation - the World Timer. Featured here is the Patek 5131R...

And the Andersen Genève World Timer, 5th Edition.

One more thing before I sign off this post - hacking seconds... I like to be able to pull the crown and the seconds hand stops at 60. That allows me to set time more accurately. So what's your thoughts about useful (or not) features in a timepiece?

Glashutte Original Senator Perpetual - US Limited Edition

Several years ago, I was "forced" to let go of this timepiece to fund a dream watch I had wanted.

The Glashutte Original Senator Perpetual is one of the most affordable perpetual calendars around and the fact that they have windows instead of sub-dials made it a lot more attractive - at least to me.

An automatic piece in steel, this is a Limited Edition piece for the US market. It houses the Calibre 39 an in-house movement. If I recall correctly, it was limited to 200 pieces in steel. The platinum has a blue dial and limited to 100 pieces.

The salmon colored dial is a real beauty. I do not believe this is found in any other GO pieces. The dial layout is uncluttered unlike other perpetual calendars which thend to use sub-dials.

If another one would come by again, I'd GO for it. And this time, I won't let GO.