When the night falls, our connection with space intensifies, as does the awareness of celestial movements – the foundation of timekeeping. And what material could possibly be more suitable to celebrate the night sky than sparkling, deep blue aventurine? Housed in a platinum case – a material that in the last few years has become a high-end trend – the PanoMaticLunar Anniversary Edition is Glashütte Original’s first watch ever to have a dial made entirely of aventurine. But how is this material made?
In the 17th century, it was discovered by the glass workers on the small islands of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. The home of the Venetian glass industry since 1291, this series of islands still holds a reputation of housing the world’s best glass industry. But let’s focus on aventurine. Legend has it that one of the workers accidentally dropped some copper shaving into a batch of molten glass – and aventurine was the result. An article in The New York Times states that aventurine was described in a 1614 letter from a German diplomat as “a sort of stone with golden stars inside”. This is the first known historical reference to aventurine. The method used today is more controlled than the accidental discovery, but the result is the same as in the past. Each batch is always unique, thus each and every dial has a unique expression.
The 40-millimetre PanoMaticLunar Anniversary Edition was released as part of the celebration of 180 years of Glashütte watchmaking tradition. On September 26, it was precisely 180 years ago that the Dresden court watchmaker Johann Friedrich Gutkaes provided the necessary funds securing the continuation of watchmaking in Glashütte.
With an asymmetric setup, the moon phase is placed to the right, and hours and minutes to the left, with an overlapping small seconds dial, time is read via white gold hands filled in with Super-LumiNova®. Around four o’clock you also have the brand’s signature large panorama date provided by two circling discs.
The inside of the Anniversary Edition is equally impressive. The automatic in-house movement Calibre 92 has a running time of 100 hours and a silicon balance spring that is resistant to temperature fluctuations and magnetic fields. Atop the Glashütte-typical, three-quarter plate – with grey galvanised Glashütte stripes – circles a medium-sized rotor weighted by yellow gold. The sapphire case back lets you admire the movement in its entirety, including the hand-made engravings around the balance bridges. Each individual watch assembled, finished, and regulated by hand in the manufacture’s own workshops.
The platinum case framing the star-influenced dial has a matt, straight-grained finish on the case band whereas the bezel and the edges have been polished into a contrasting, intense sheen, which further enhances the watch’s varying appearance in different light conditions.
This heavenly creation is held in place by a dark blue Louisiana alligator leather strap, with further strap options of synthetic black, green, or orange textile straps. PanoMaticLunar Anniversary is limited to 180 pieces worldwide.
