Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite – a watch made for world travellers – hands-on with live photos, specs & price

If you’re a frequent traveller, you’re probably showed some interest for a watch that features a second time-zone – what we call here a GMT watch. More complicated but also much more useful are the world-timer watches that are able to indicate the time of all the main cities around the world on a single dial. This year, the Saxon manufactory Glashutte Original is introducing a pure traveller’s watch that, despite its apparent complexity, remains extremely intuitive and mainly, really useful to meet the needs of today’s world travellers. Here is the impressive Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite.

Few watches can properly indicate ALL the time-zones around the world. Indeed, most of them are indicating the time around the world with the help of 24 dedicated time-zones – each separated by a full hour. This display divided in 24 parts is already an extremely useful tool for travellers but it lacks of accuracy. In fact, the world is a bit more complicated than that, as some parts of the globe are using half-hour, quarter-hour or three-quarter-hour offsets (for example Venezuela, India, Australia or Russia). Altogether, our actual world is composed of 37 different time-zones – and it’s exactly what the Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite will display.

The Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite relies on its mechanical Calibre 89-02 with a complicated module on the top that was already available in the complicated and exclusive Grande Cosmopolite Tourbillon, a 325.000 Euros watch introduced at Baselworld 2012 and that featured this same 37 time-zones display, together with a perpetual calendar and a flying tourbillon. This year, Glashutte Original comes with a simpler edition that focuses mainly on the traveling complication. It has the ability to track the time in two time zones at once, whatever your position around the globe, even in the more secluded areas. The time zone wheel displays a choice of 37 world time-zones, each indicated by the official IATA location code designating a key international airport in the zone. The 24 time zones that are aligned at full-hour offsets with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) present a black IATA code in the DST or STD windows (at 8 o’clock); 10 time zones aligned with GMT at half-hour offsets appear in blue; 3 remaining zones at quarter- or three-quarter hour offsets from GMT are represented by the relevant IATA location code in red.

Even with all the indications it displays, the dial of the Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite remains quite simple to read. It shows the local and home simultaneously, in any two of 37 world time-zones. The local time is indicated by the blue steel and large central hands while the home time is displayed in the sub-dial at 12. Both are totally independent and the minute hands are not linked like most of the traveller’s watches. Every of the indications are linked to the main (local) time, meaning both the small second at 6, the night and day indicator at 9 and the large Panorama Date at 4.

The use of the world timer function is also quite simple. If heading east (forwards in time), the wearer turns the crown at 4 o’clock clockwise until the IATA code representing the destination time zone appears in the relevant Daylight Saving Time (DST) or Standard Time (STD) window. If traveling west (back in time), the traveller turns the crown counter-clockwise. In both cases, the central hour and minute hands jump ahead (or back) in 15-minute intervals until the destination time zone’s IATA code appears in the relevant DST or STD window. At this point, the traveller need make no further changes: the central hour and minute hands now indicate the correct time at destination, with the correct day/night indication at 9 o’clock and the correct display of the date at destination (if the time at the chosen destination is ahead or back a day, the Panorama Date display changes accordingly).

The complicated display of the Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite comes in a 44mm x 14mm case, made of 18k white gold (complemented with a blue alligator strap) or 18k red gold (with a black alligator strap. The case uses Glashutte Original classical finish: bevelled, curved and short lugs, mirror polished bezel and flat surfaces, brushed sides of the case.

The dial features a silvery and slightly grained finish and black printed indications: a rail track for the local time with large Roman numerals and a rail track with Arabic numerals for the home time. In addition with the features already explained, it provides a power reserve indicator at 12 and a day/night indicator for the home time (depicted by a small round aperture in the center of the home time dial that is black during the night and bright during the day).

The calibre 89-02 is a large self-winding movement (39.2mm in diameter) that features an off-centered skeletonized rotor (with the usual double G) and a 21k gold mass. It also features a balance with 4 regulation screws and the twin engraved cock bridge, with 2 sawn neck regulators. This movement runs at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) and boasts 72 hours of power reserve. It comprises no less than 63 jewels and over 400 individual components. The finish is also pleasant, with bevelled & polished edges, polished steel parts, polished & blued screws and the typical Glashütte three-quarter plate with stripe finish.

The Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite is certainly an impressive watch for the frequent travellers that allows them to quickly and easily adjust to the destination time, whatever the arrival city is. Few watches area able to indicate the 37 official time-zones, especially with such a practical display and mechanism. The Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite is priced at 38.400 Euros (in 18K white gold) and 36.900 Euros (in 18k red gold).