Here we have a beautiful Glashütte Original – the “original” Senator Sixties. The “Original”?

Let’s start at the present day. For approximately £4500 one can buy a brand new Glashütte Original Senator Sixties. Google it and then compare the look, the size and lastly the price of this new watch to our watch.

The new watch is lovely, but they are not cheap. Our watch which dates from the 1960s has aged well and is just as beautiful. It’s also a steal.

Cold War East German production; what does one think of? The Trabant car? Well there’s no sign of that here; this is a very classy little watch. Made in East Germany at the height of the Cold War, in the 1960s, the state-owned VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe GUB launched a wristwatch that was to become a true icon: the Spezimatic.

It became so popular that in fifteen years from 1964, Glashütte Original produced over one and three quarter million watches. 24 different case designs in gold or chrome plated, with 280 variations.

That’s why Glashütte Original launched a homage – the GO Senator Sixties at the 2007 Baselworld fair. Incidentally, GUB was formed in 1951 as an East German conglomerate comprising all watch companies based in the town of Glashütte. The present day, modern Glashütte Original, currently owned by The Swatch Group, produces its own movements and sells timepieces firmly in the luxury end of the market.

But let’s get back to our little vintage masterpiece. What really strikes home first and foremost is the dial. A domed plexi crystal complements the beautiful pie pan dial with a sunburst champagne finish and number indices for 12, 3, 6 and 9 that just shout their Art Deco heritage.

If you look at the photos you can see how the face catches the light both changing the hue of the dial from champagne yellow to almost white whilst the gold hands and hour markers also catch the light. One nice quirky design this watch has, is the minute hand follows the contour of the Pie-Pan face and is curved downwards towards its end.

It’s not big watch at 36mm, so it will sit comfortably on even the smallest of wrists. The 20 microgram rose gold plated case with a steel caseback has signs of wear and some scratches, but nothing that would make you wince.

The hands are baton style, filled with luminescent material. The hour markers are applied stick markers and next to each hour marker is a small luminescent dot, although not surprisingly both the hands and these have long since lost their luminosity.

The movement is the famous calibre GUB Glashütte 70.1-17R. 17 jewel hand-wound time only mechanism. Glashütte made nearly 400,000 of these movements over the years.

It is a simple watch to wear to work or out for the evening. It’s stylish, discreet and still looks sharp for a watch that’s fifty years old.

It comes on a new black strap that is approx. 230 mm with buckle and a Chrono Duo presentation box.

So in conclusion, many modern day watches are directly inspired by the past. So why buy a modern ‘replica’ Glashütte Original Sixties when you can have the vintage original? At a fraction of the price?