With A. Lange & Söhne next door, NOMOS Glashütte across the road, and Moritz Grossmann over the train tracks, Glashütte Original knows a thing or two about competition. And that’s why distinguishing itself and its wares from those of its competitors are paramount. Along technical and aesthetic innovation, must come an effective pricing strategy. It is the least “sexy” avenue for any storied brand to pursue, but it must be properly explored. Blinkered pricing strategies can cripple a brand’s chances of securing the right interest in such a crowded field. With the Glashütte Original PanoMaticLunar Rose Opaline watch, the brand seems to have done a good job on all three fronts, providing a visually layered dial in a versatile steel case for a very reasonable price, given the level of craftsmanship and complication on display.

In truth, this kind of aesthetic is not to my taste (blued indices rarely are), but that hardly matters when the effortlessly elegant and cool combination of a salmon dial with deep blue indices remains a much desired, yet scarcely available artisanal rarity. When everyone is busy churning out blue dials, Glashütte Original achieves this rosy hue by bathing the dials in a galvanic treatment which has specific electric current passed through it for a certain amount of time. That’s technology the Swatch Group’s high-end German brand has mastered long-ago in its very own dial manufacture in Pforzheim, Germany. The large Panorama Date has been inverted to show large white Arabic numerals on a deep blue background. It is an effect that helps the dial to stand out and affords the design team praise for following through on the color concept to the n^th degree.

Beating away inside the Glashütte Original PanoMaticLunar Rose Opaline watch is caliber 90-02, an in-house automatic movement, which can be appreciated through the sapphire crystal caseback window. A 28,800vph engine with a handsome balance bridge, which has been hand engraved, the 90-02 utilizes an eccentric oscillating weight to provide a better view of the regulating organ, which will continue to run for 42 hours on a full wind.

This model joins the previous PanoMaticLunar with a dark blue dial and red gold case (1-90-02-11-35-01) from May 2019. Unlike that piece, this model will be limited to just 50 pieces. Not being a fan of salmon and blue dials I would reckon that’s a wise move, as a rich blue dial in a rose gold case like in reference 1-90-02-11-35-01 is a far more commercial prospect… But the advantageous appeal of steel pricing that this model has to offer, along with a versatile and elegant dial color and a highly refined in-house caliber at under €10,000 makes me want to say this really should have been a non-limited version. I don’t yet have a vision into the future, but I don’t find it a stretch to say that 50 of these will fly off the shelves in no time at all. Thanks to that steel case, the price for the Glashütte Original PanoMaticLunar Rose Opaline watch on a leather strap with an ardillon buckle is €9,400. On the leather band with a folding clasp, the price bumps up slightly to €9,700. For the same model on the stainless steel bracelet, the retail will be €10,800. All prices include 19% VAT. Learn more about this range and others at glashuette-original.com.