Glashutte Original Watches

You know what they say about form following function, that designing a tool should be considered first with operation and usability, and secondly with aesthetics—well, seems like the folks at the Saxony watchmaker Glashütte Original didn’t get that particular memo, because here we have the Glashütte Original PanoInverse—and it appears to have been built backwards.

Someone's going to realise soon, and then it will be too late. What am I talking about? Glashutte Original's prices. Now here's a brand that, for all intents and purposes, is on a level with the likes of Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe, yet they offer watches —like this Seventies, for example, which comes on a bracelet and has the stupendous calibre 39-47 in-house movement—for less than £8,000. Sure, that's not exactly pocket change, but for a watch of this quality, it's a veritable bargain. Let me explain why.

The history of Glashutte Original is a long and winding one, and in order to understand how the brand became what it is today, it’s imperative to take a look back at the history of a small town deep in the Saxony region of Germany.