When FedEx delivered my Senator Cosmopolite, entrusted to me by Glashütte Original for a few precious weeks, I opened the parcel with a mixture of feverish excitement and respectful forbearance. Although its reputation had preceded it, I had only ever seen it in photos. In not much more than two years this timepiece, launched in 2015 with the stated aim of offering a simpler GMT watch than the 2012 Grande Cosmopolite Tourbillon (which has GMT, perpetual calendar and tourbillon), has built up a solid reputation. Opinion is virtually unanimous that the Senator Cosmopolite is functional, legible, intuitive, powerful and elegant.
The weight of gold
The initial impression I had as I took the watch out of its case was that it was heavy. The case of the Senator Cosmopolite is 44 mm in diameter and 14 mm deep, and it’s made of white gold (a red gold version also exists). While some of its heft obviously comes from the gold, the 400+ components of the calibre 89-02, which is superbly finished and includes a skeletonized rotor with 21-ct gold oscillation weight, are clearly also a factor. On the wrist, however, it looks less imposing than its dimensions might suggest. The reason is the relative simplicity of the slim-bezelled case, but above all the extremely clear and uncluttered way in which the elements are arranged on the dial.
36 time zones
Before strapping the watch on my wrist, I needed to find out how it worked, and adjust it, because despite its generous power reserve of 72 hours, it had stopped on its way from Glashütte to my office. The Senator Cosmopolite is a universal hour timepiece that shows two time zones simultaneously – home time or reference time, and local time at the traveller’s destination. Because the watch is designed primarily to be functional, local time (which is most relevant to the globe-trotter) is displayed on the two large hour and minute hands. Home time is shown on the subdial at 12 o’clock. These two traditional indications have the advantage of being readable at a glance. For the same reason of practicality, and in the interests of legibility, the other time zones are not permanently visible on the dial. But they are all there, and there’s even more of them than on most other GMT watches, since the Senator Cosmopolite covers not only the 24 time zones with a one-hour difference, but also the time zones with a difference of 30 and 45 minutes. And they sometimes change: although there were 37 when the watch came out, there are now 36. The time zones are denoted on the watch by the IATA airport codes, printed on a disc. Thanks to this simplified presentation, Glashütte Original was able to quickly correct the number of zones by simply modifying the disc. In addition to the time, the watch features a small seconds register at 6 o’clock, the date at 4 o’clock, a local day/night indicator at 9 o’clock plus a home time day/night indicator in the form of a black or white dot on the subdial.
1,2,3 adjustments
If all that seems rather complicated, it really isn’t. The watch is very intuitive, and it only takes a few minutes to learn exactly where to look on the dial to find the information you need. The same user-friendliness applies to adjusting the watch. In fact, it takes longer to explain than it does to actually do! Briefly, the watch has three crowns; this might sound a lot, but in fact it makes it less complex to operate. Each crown has its own function: the one at 2 o’clock winds the watch and sets the home time, and the one at 4 o’clock sets the local time. The crown at 8 o’clock governs the time zones. For operating the watch during travelling, the owner only needs to use the crown at 4 o’clock and turn it clockwise when heading to the East, and counter-clockwise when travelling to the West. The central minute hand jumps in 15-minute increments, and the IATA codes are displayed successively in the two apertures. Why two apertures? Because the watch is so complete that it also accounts for daylight saving time (DST window) and standard time (STD)
Travelling in style
On the wrist, the Senator Cosmopolite looks amazing, with its grained dial in the most stylish colour combination ever conceived – black and white – and it really captures the attention. Hold it up to the sunlight and admire the slender blued hands. Admittedly, its weight and size make it a stretch for smaller wrists, and a gold watch requires careful handling that would probably preclude everyday wear, particularly on an adventurous excursion. (When will we see a version in steel?) But this luxury watch with its meticulous finish and incredible mechanical heart is so easy to use that it’s not necessary to fly to exotic destinations to enjoy the time zones. After all, it’s fun to disorientate yourself every now and then, even while you’re at home, by imagining you’re with friends and relatives elsewhere in the world.
