When I bought my first good wristwatch back in 2004 – a PAM111, one of the brands that was on the top of my list was Glashütte Original. The favourite was the Panoreserve, but it was twice the price of the Panerai and more of a dress watch than a daily wearer. I wasn’t ready to part with that much money at the time. There were several cheaper GO’s, but only one of them appealed to me and it was a bit difficult to get hold of, probably because it was going out of production. Secondly, there was no GO AD in Denmark at the time, so if I were to try the watch I’d have to find it at an AD one of my travels. I did look for it and asked in several places, but no luck, so I went with the Panerai.

3 years passed and on a summer vacation in London my wife suddenly stopped at a watchshop and asked if that was the Glashütte Original Senator I was looking for. It sure was and after some negotiation we left the shop with the Glashütte Original Senator on my arm and my son got the Panerai strapped to his arm.

The Senator with moon phase, power reserve and small date was a lovely watch. The dial was interesting, asymmetrical but still very harmonious. The small details like the GO logo on the back end of the seconds hand made it look so perfect. The dial was very legible even for someone like me who has far from 20/20 vision. All in all it was a close to perfect dresswatch.

The movement was another reason why I wanted this watch. The caliber 39 was the successor of the old Spezicron (Spezimatic) movement that was the automatic movement developed and used from approximately 1964 to 80 by GUB (The company that eventually became Clashütte Original after the German reunification. This gave the watch some history. I’ve read a bit about watchmaking in Glashütte after the war and find the history very interesting. I might have mentioned this before, but if you ever go to Glashütte, be sure to visit the watch museum.

I’ve had the Glashütte Original Senator for close to ten years and it was my preferred dresswatch throughout the years even as others were acquired. I was starting to consider giving it a service, but it still kept time very accurate. Unfortunately I lost the watch along with most of my other watches, but GO has a service where you can report the lost watch and if they get it in for service, you can get it back. I miss the watch and I still hope to see it again one day.