Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar Review

Glashütte Original has always been one of our favorite watch brands, with us having owned a few pieces over the years. Glashütte Original really represents the best that German watchmaking has to offer. Although only officially founded in 1951, Glashütte Original’s true history goes back well into the 1800s.

Back in 1845 the small mountain town of Glashütte in Saxony began to be a place for watchmakers to settle with financial help from the government being an incentive to settle there. The Kingdom of Saxony gave loans out to these new independent watchmakers, and in a short period of time Glashütte was known worldwide for the quality of watches and watch parts coming out of the town. In 1878 the German School of Watchmaking Glashütte was founded to help preserve all of the area’s watchmaking knowledge for future generations. These early watchmakers included Ferdinand Adolph Lange, Moritz Grossman, Julius Assmann and Adolf Schneider. These four watchmakers were Glashütte Original's founding fathers so to say, with the common goal of elevating watchmaking in the region.



The early 20th century saw a lot of turmoil in the region and 1951 saw all existing Glashütte watch businesses merge into one combined company named Glashütter Uhrenbetrieb VEB. Just prior to German reunification the size of the company had grown to around 3,000 employees. In 1994, the company privatized and the brand name of “Glashütte Original” was registered. “Original Glashütte” first appeared on watch dials in 1916 to distinguish authentic Glashütte timepieces. Glashütte Original’s goal was to bring back the prestige and traditional ways of German watchmaking.

The brand was rather successful with their venture and in 2000 the newly reinvigorated Glashütte Original was purchased by the Swatch Group, the largest watch group in the world. Glashütte Original is well known for producing over 95% of their components in-house as well as having some of the finest finishing in the entire watch industry.



The last Glashütte Original we owned was a Sport Evolution M my wife wore as her daily watch. Even for having the aesthetics of a dive watch, the watch was just finished beautifully. The dial had an amazing carbon fiber pattern while the caliber 39 was probably one of the best looking movements I’ve seen in a diving/sports watch. The sapphire case back showed off the movement with its partially skeletonized rotor with gold Glashütte Original logo. The type of finishing on the rotor and the rest of the movement is only seen on high horology dive watches like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, just stunning…

Like I’ve mentioned before, one of the main goals while starting and growing Hourstriker is to reach out to brands and forge a relationship with them. Glashütte Original was one of the brands that was super welcoming to us and consistently sent us press releases about their newest watches. After some time I asked my contact Jon at Glashütte Original if they’d be interested in sending us a watch to review. Jon agreed and had the perfect watch in mind, being the newly released annual calendar, the PanoMaticCalendar.



I was very excited to get the PanoMaticCalendar in to review since it was the first Annual Calendar produced by Glashütte Original and also it would push me outside of my tradition go-to styles of sports, diving and pilot’s watches. The PanoMaticCalendar is a stunning dress piece crafted out of red gold and comes on a brown alligator leather strap, not what I would typically gravitate towards, but it’s just a stunning watch.

When the PanoMaticCalendar arrived the first thing I noticed was how solid it felt. It’s not too surprising since the watch is crafted in red gold and has a case diameter of 42 mm. Compared to the last gold watch we had in for review, the Ulysse Nardin Freak X, the PanoMaticCalendar just felt much more substantial… I guess this comes down to the Freak also using materials like titanium in the construction of the watch along with rose gold to keep weight down. The PanoMaticCalendar weighed in at 116 grams on our scale. There is a nice heft to the watch, but I would never call it heavy. It feels like it looks, if the makes sense, you expect a bit of weight with a solid gold watch.



The hue of the red gold case has a very nice warm look to it. The bezel and ring around the case back are polished while the rest of the case has a brushed finish. With this particular watch being a press sample and likely have been handled by numerous individuals who all treat watches differently, I have to say the watch had very little sign of wear. Also during my time with the watch, the watch didn’t pick up any additional marks. This is always a big concern with gold watches, but the condition of the PanoMaticCalendar seems to suggest the case is fairly durable.

While the silver opaline dial and moonphase are beautiful, the part of the dial that first caught my attention was the long display that runs from 6 o’clock to 3 o’clock. This register has the numbers 1 through 12 which are cutouts with just one numeral having a black backing. This register is actually what displays the current month. Naturally all annual and perpetual calendars keep track of the current month, but most especially annual calendars do not display the current month. It’s just an interesting design element to add to the dial, even more so since it’s a retrograde display and not just a round sub-dial. It does seem that the power reserve indicator was sacrificed to add this display though. Although I love a power reserve indicator, I’d give it up for this novel month display.



The big date display is probably the next thing you would notice on the dial. Watches from Glashütte are well known for their big date displays. You can go back to pocket watches and public clocks and there are many examples that contain the big date display. The big date display is found just above the month indicator at 4 o’clock and is framed in red gold. The discs for the date are on the same plane giving them a very fluid appearance. There is a small divider that can be seen between them, but it’s not distracting at all. Unlike A. Lange & Sohne, I really like how Glashütte Original adds a “0” for the 1st through the 9th of the month instead of a blank space.

The moonphase display can be found at 2 o’clock and is truly one of the most beautiful moonphases that I have had the pleasure to see in person. The cutout of the display is even in the shape of a crescent moon, which is a nice little touch. The background of the moonphase is a deep navy with the moon being done in polished red gold. The stars of the night sky are also done in rose gold, which adds nice continuality to the dial. On the outside of the moonphase is a day scale from 0 to 29 days, the lunar cycle.

The Pano collection from Glashütte Original is known for its watches with off-centered dials. The PanoMaticCalendar is no different with the right hand side of the dial being taken up by the moonphase, big date and month displays. The left hand side of the dial contains the hours, minutes and seconds displays. The hours and minutes dial also bleeds a bit into the right hand side of the dial. The hours and minutes are displayed on a large dial while the seconds display is on a smaller dial that overlaps the hours and minutes display. Both of these subdials are also finished with a vinyl style pattern of rings that really shine when they catch direct sunlight.



The hands for the hour and minutes hands are crafted out of red gold with Super Luminova treatment while the seconds hand is blued. The hours and minutes display has nine indices also made from red gold, while the indices for 5, 6, and 7 o’clock are handled by the seconds sub-dial. 5 o’clock is represented by the tick mark for 15 seconds and 7 o’clock is represented by the tick mark for 45 seconds. You can line up 6 o’clock with the mounting point of the seconds hand. The seconds sub-dial has Arabic numerals for each ten seconds 10 through 60.

The dial is completed with PanoMaticCalendar text at 12 o’clock, the Glashütte Original logo at 12 o’clock on the time sub-dial, Glashütte I/SA above the 60 seconds mark and Made in Germany at 6 o’clock. Although the dial color doesn’t seem too dynamic, when the watch gets under bright lighting the dial just sparkles, especially the time and seconds sub-dials.



On the right side of the case you have the red gold crown complete with the Glashütte Original logo. The crown does not screw down and manual winding can be done in its resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one controls both setting the month as well as setting the date. Turning the crown towards you will advance the big date with a very nice audible click each time the date changes. Turning the crown away from you advances the month display. Advancing the crown to position two allows you to set the time, which naturally also advances the date and month when those thresholds are reached.

Also found on the right hand side of the case is the pusher for setting the moonphase at 2 o’clock. I did not have the retail packaging for the PanoMaticCalendar, but I’m sure it includes a pusher for setting the moonphase. Not much force is needed to advance the moonphase, so anything with a small pointed end like a toothpick or ballpoint pen will work. Since the case is red gold, I’d suggest using something that isn’t metal to lower the risk of scratching the watch. I just did a Google search for what the current moonphase position was and advanced the moonphase until it was synced with the current date. It’s a pretty easy process, and something pretty commonplace with calendar and moonphase watches.



Flipping the watch over shows off the newly developed Glashütte Original caliber 92-09 behind the sapphire crystal case back. This caliber boasts 100 hours of power reserve, automatic winding and beats at 4 Hz (28,800 vph). Glashütte Original picked to use a micro-rotor on the 92-09 to show off as much of the movement as possible. The rotor is placed in the upper 2/3rds of the movement and features a partially skeletonized rotor with gold a Glashütte Original logo and weight. You can also see the Glashütte Original text logo under the weight along with the number of jewels used in the watch. On our timegrapher the 92-09 movement had an accuracy of 0 to -1 seconds per day, easily among the best we’ve tested. The 92-09 also uses a silicon balance spring that helps the movement be unaffected by magnetic fields and extreme temperatures.

The star of the rear of the movement is definitely the hand engraved balance bridge with a double swan neck for fine adjustments. Glashütte Original actually adjusts the movement to six positions to ensure insane accuracy, higher end brands typically only do five positions. Keeping up with the fine finishing of the watch, all of the screws are also blued. The plates feature stunning vertical striping as well. Beneath the rotor you can also see some amazing snailing. It’s a shame that when wearing the watch you can’t appreciate the levels of detail and finishing seen through the case back. It’s a real treat to take the watch off from time to time to just admire the beauty of the movement and see the balance beating away. There is a limited platinum version of the PanoMaticCalendar that has a skeleton dial showing off more of the movement and its finishing if that’s more to your liking.



The PanoMaticCalendar comes on a rich brown Louisiana alligator strap that almost has a suede texture to it. The strap is 21 mm from the lugs and tapers down to 18 mm where it meets the buckle. The strap is extremely high quality and was already fairly broken in when the watch arrived, so it was very comfortable.

My biggest complaint with the watch is the buckle which in the case of this watch was a red gold pin buckle. While the buckle is beautiful featuring the Glashütte Original logo, I would just never want to chance dropping a nearly $30,000 watch while trying to strap the watch on. Glashütte Original does offer a deployant clasp as an option with the PanoMaticCalendar, but it didn’t come with this particular watch. The deployant clasp does add $2,300 to the price of the watch though. It’s a fair price for a full red gold deployant buckle and the peace of mind is priceless in my opinion.



I haven’t owned a dress watch for over twenty years when I used to think a watch collection had to consist of a diver, chronograph and dress watch. I’ve never had a job that required me to dress up and live in the very laid back city of Austin, where shorts and a t-shirt are fine at pretty much every restaurant in town. So my typical dress is sneakers, shorts and a t-shirt. For this reason I was a little worried that the PanoMaticCalendar would severely clash with my outfits and it would be way too classy for me.

In reality the watch was way more than laid back enough to be worn with shorts and a t-shirt. I also typically wear a lot of black t-shirts, so I thought the brown strap would look weird. The strap was a very dark, near black, brown though and its more matte finish helped it blend in better with darker shirts. I didn’t feel near as silly as I thought I’d feel wearing a red gold dress watch while dressed down. Now I’m not saying the PanoMaticCalendar is totally laid back and could be confused with a sports watch, but it could be used for more adventurous activities then going to the office since its movement is secured to the case via a bayonet mounting drastically increasing its ability to absorb shocks. The PanoMaticCalendar also offers a generous 50 meters of water resistance.



I’m also very used to wearing larger sports watches and tend to prefer watches with lug to lug lengths of over 51 mm. The PanoMaticCalendar measures in at 49.2 lug to lug with a thickness of 12.5 mm, so a little smaller than my preferred case size. I do have to say that the watch never felt small to me and with its intended purpose of being a dress watch, if it was much larger it might look awkward and not fit well under cuff.

Even being red gold and having a good weight to it, the watch never gave me any wrist fatigue when wearing it for any extended periods. The watch being full gold is a bit top heavy, but the wider strap kept the watch from moving too much on my wrist. I personally can’t stand when a watch favors either side of my wrist and for the most part the PanoMaticCalendar stayed put.



I did not wear the PanoMaticCalendar every time I went out, so there were periods when three or four days went by without me wearing it. The 100 hour power reserve really showed its merit here, since I never had to wind the watch during the time I had it, it was running every time I pulled it out of the safe. Also with its great accuracy, the time never had to be adjusted either.

Once again the life of parents of twin 18 month old daughters restricts the amount of fun activities we can do, so the PanoMaticCalendar was relegated to trips to the grocery store, a few meals out and a couple of trips to have a drink or two. The time was always super easy to tell since the actual time sub-dial is so uncluttered with just the hour and minute hands. The contrast between the silver dial and red gold hands is also very high, making it a breeze to read at a glance. While filling out some paperwork for our daughters 18 month checkup, my wife asked me what the date was and those massive date displays made quick work out of letting her know. I even pointed out to her that she could read the date from about 10 feet away.



As I’ve noticed with most yellow or red/rose gold watches, wearing them out will attract attention. I had more than a few people ask me about and comment on the PanoMaticCalendar. It was fun to run them through all the separate displays and show off the stunning movement. I would say the watch could be a wallflower if worn mostly under cuff, but it is an extrovert when worn on an exposed wrist.

I’d say the two main competitors to the PanoMaticCalendar would be annual calendar watches from Patek Philippe and A. Lange & Sohne. Patek Philippe invented the annual calendar in the 1990s and A. Lange & Sohne share the same roots and hometown as Glashütte Original. The red gold PanoMaticCalendar we are reviewing has a retail price of $28,700 for comparisons sake. The closest watch from Patek Philippe’s current catalog is the rose gold 5396R which is also an annual calendar with a moonphase display and retails for $57,620 not accounting for any secondary market adjustments which Pateks are known to carry.



The closet watch in A. Lange & Sohne’s catalog is the 1815 Annual Calendar in pink gold which retails for $53,100. Strangely there is no annual calendar from A. Lange & Sohne with a big date complication, those are reserved for their perpetual calendars.

At nearly $30,000 less than the closest comparable Patek Philippe and $25,000 less than the closest comparable A. Lange & Sohne, the PanoMaticCalendar offers an amazing value for what you are getting. The PanoMaticCalendar at 0 to -1 seconds per day accuracy is at least if not more precise than the other two watches. The finishing of the movement is on par with what Patek and A. Lange & Sohne can offer as well. With Patek Philippe you are getting the tremendous history of the brand, but it does cost you twice as much. Since A. Lange & Sohne and Glashütte Original share such a shared back-story, I don’t really see the value in paying nearly double for the A. Lange & Sohne either.

Is this watch for me? I would say most definitely if I had more reasons to get dressed up. I’m not sure how good my personal Big Pilot or Royal Oak Offshore would look with a dress shirt or suit… but being that I can’t actually remember the last time I got dressed up, I feel that I would be doing a disservice to the watch with my typical style.



Would I recommend the PanoMaticCalendar to somebody looking for a complicated dress watch in a precious metal? The answer to that is yes whole heartedly. For less than the price of some stainless steel sports watches from the top brands you can get the PanoMaticCalendar which comes in red gold, has the extremely useful complication of an annual calendar and has a movement that is finished to the standards of the best in the business. I guess you could move up to a perpetual calendar which would ensure the watch wouldn’t have to be adjusted once a year, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I have a perpetual calendar and I have to adjust it when it winds down, which is pretty much every time I wear it, even with a 7 day power reserve. You could keep the perpetual calendar on a winder, but you’ll add wear to the movement and also over a full year’s time, more than likely the time will need to be adjusted to make up for accuracy losses over such a long time period.

I’m not sure there is too much I’d change with the PanoMaticCalendar. The size is good for a dress watch and the weight isn’t too much of an issue. The 12.5 mm thickness is slim enough to fit under a cuff if needed. The displays flow well with each other and nothing really seems out of place. The month display is novel and I haven’t seen it done by any other brand and adds something different to the watch. The hand finishing of the movement is just stunning and is a treat to admire when not wearing the watch. I touched on that having the deployant over the pin buckle would be a must for me, but I do know some people don’t care and the pin buckle does save a few thousand dollars.



Overall I’m walking away from my time with the Glashütte Original PanoMaticCalendar very impressed. It’s a great re-introduction to the brand with their newest complicated piece. Like I said earlier, I’d give my fully blessing to somebody looking for a watch in this niche to go with the PanoMaticCalendar.

I’d like to thank Glashütte Original and Jon for sending me the PanoMaticCalendar and can’t wait to see what they send us next.

If you’d like to learn more about Glashütte Original or the PanoMaticCalendar please feel free to visit their site: Glashütte Original

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 1-92-09-02-05-02

Retail Price: $28,700 ($31,000 with deployant)

Case Size: 42 mm

Lug to Lug: 49.2 mm

Thickness: 12.5 mm

Weight: 116 grams

Case Material: 5N 18k Red Gold

Bezel: 5N 18k Red Gold

Water Resistance: 50 meters

Strap: Brown Louisiana Alligator Strap with Red Gold Buckle

Movement: In-House Caliber 92-09

Functions: Annual Calendar, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Big Date, Month Display, Moonphase

Power Reserve: 100 Hours