Glashütte Original Reveals New "Frosted" Dials for Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase

German luxury watchmaker Glashütte Original has been on a streak of masterful moon-phase creations in recent years, releasing some absolutely exquisite dial colors in its PanoMaticLunar model (including the green-dial model I review here) and unveiling the first PanoLunarInverse model toward the end of 2024. Today, the brand continues shooting for the moon, in a visual and horological sense, with the launch of two new versions of its Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase family boasting two eye-catching — and historically inspired — new dial colors.

Both of the watches’ dials — one in frosted silver, the other in frosted copper, achieved in a galvanic process — are created in homage to the rich mineral deposits once mined in the Ore Mountains, near the state of Saxony and the watchmaking town of Glashütte. Their finely grained surfaces, meant to evoke the thin layers of ice on the mountain rock, play host to the familiar and elegant details of the Senator Excellence family — including hand-applied, blued Roman numeral markers in gold and blued, polished poire hands complemented by a central seconds hand with the brand’s “double G” symbol as counterweight.

The watches’ signature functions occupy carefully chosen spots on the dial without disrupting its overall clean, harmonious look. The large “Panorama” date display settles snugly in a double window at 4 o’clock, while the moon-phase elegantly balances it in the opposite corner above, its semicircular aperture stretching from 10 to 11 o’clock. The case measures 40mm in diameter and 12.2mm high, in stainless steel with an array of polished and satin-finished surfaces. The bezel is thin and elegantly stepped, framing a domed, double-antireflective sapphire crystal over the dial, while another sapphire pane in the screwed caseback showcases the movement. 

Glashütte Original established the Senator Excellence collection in 2016 as the stage for the elite, in-house base movement it developed that year, Caliber 36 — notable for its 100-hour power reserve in a single barrel and for being the first movement from Glashütte Original equipped with an antimagnetic silicon balance spring. The “Excellence” at the end of the family’s name refers to the chronometer-level accuracy as determined by a battery of in-house testing. The automatic Caliber 36-24 beating inside these new watches is a descendant of that original three-handed base movement, enhanced with the panorama date and moon-phase indication, and features the same maintenance-friendly “bayonet mount” design that allows the mechanism to be fixed into the case with a simple twist, in the manner of a camera lens. The company developed the latter feature to ensure long-term preservation as well as improved shock resistance.

The aforementioned silicon balance spring also contributes to the cause of extended reliability, with its high resistance to magnetic fields, corrosion and temperature fluctuations. As with all its in-house movements, Glashütte Original’s watchmakers have applied a host of decorative finishes to Caliber 36-24, including Glashütte ribbing on the three-quarter mainplate, polishing and beveling on the edges of plates and bridges, hand engraving on the balance cock, and traditional heat-blued finishing on the screws.

Both new versions of the Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase are offered with three bracelet options: blue Louisiana alligator leather strap with a pin buckle or folding clasp; blue synthetic fabric strap with folding clasp; and stainless steel bracelet. Both go on sale at authorized retailers in March; prices are $11,900 on the strap and $12,900 on the bracelet.