Tütti Frütti from Glashütte
Glashütte Original Sixties Iconic Square Collection
Effortlessly cool, and brimming with memories just like old photos of youth pulled from a long ago album, the Glashütte Original Sixties Iconic collection of 2015 swept us back to the era of their classic Speizmatic models, where Bauhaus design cues and luxuriantly coloured dials entwined in a timeless embrace.
Well, there's good news and bad news for you, but we'll start with the upside shall we, because now they've revisited their spirited youth once again with a new edition of five irrepressible chronographs in the Sixties Iconic Square collection for 2017, and have done so using their own original 1960's techniques to come up with pieces with authentic styling and a flourish of colour.
Glashütte Original Sixties Iconic Square Forest and Tangerine
Symmetrical perfection at 41.35mm x 41.35mm in polished stainless steel its squared cushion shaped case is sleek, smooth and curvaceous. For lovers of the modern penchant for retro/vintage styling, it's squat piston chrono pushers and almost rim to rim domed sapphire crystal will stimulate the senses.
What really sets these apart though are the dials, and there are five options available. Using period tooling and their best dialmakers each one is true to the original Speizmatic, right down to the slender applied hour batons and stylised arabic 12 and 6, and in Sixties Iconic Forest (green), Ocean (blue), Tangerine (orange) and Fire (red) the rich colours are captured in multiple coats of oven fired lacquer which really brings them to life in a vivid glazed blaze. Manufactured by hand, the unique fading application mean no two are exactly alike.
Glashütte Original Sixties Iconic Square Ocean and Fire
Glashütte Original Sixties Iconic Square Graphite
For the Sixties Iconic Graphite, the galvanised dial blank has been pressed under a pressure of sixty tonnes, using an original 1960's Glashütte die, giving it a filigree guilloché pattern.
The steel hands are long and narrow with a Super LumiNova strip, and the luminous dot markers which punctuate the minutes track ensure a degree of low light legibility. Which is nice, but in truth, those details always were cool and distinctively Glashütte in any light. They still are, and these Sixties Iconic collections just remind us what retro cool really means. The small seconds and 30-minute chrono counters occupy recessed subdials at the 3 and 9 respectively.
Inside, and visible through the sapphire caseback the self-winding Calibre 39-34 is of course finished beautifully, with Glashütte ribbing and the signature 22Kt gold rimmed oscillating weight.
And back at the top I mentioned there was some bad news though, and that's because with only twenty-five pieces in each colour designation being made, you would want to be making tracks to your Glashütte dealer sharpish. A pity, because these would surely increase brand awareness and sell to a much wider audience. Oh, yes, and also because then I might someday have a chance of getting one for myself!
