Glashütte Original's Seventies Relaunch: High Horology Meets High Fidelity

Glashütte Original’s Seventies collection debuted in 2011, showcasing timepieces defined by softly squared “TV”-style cases, an aesthetic hallmark of at eponymous decade. In recent years, the German manufacture has focused on the chronograph versions of the Seventies series (I delve into those models here), but this week the core three-hand-date models have received a major revamp and a relaunch. The trio of new Seventies watches that usher in this new era retain all their predecessors’ retro charm but also lean into an era-appropriate theme of celebrating the heyday of analog music.

All three of the new Seventies references feature compact 39mm x 39mm stainless-steel cases, whose softy rounded edges are satin-finished and polished. The square case’s thickness is a modest 9.6mm, while its water resistance is a robust 100 meters, helped in part by the screw-down crown, which is relief-engraved with the Saxon brand’s familiar “Mirrored G” logo. The dials all feature a new “hexagrid” texture that adds depth and catches light reflections, along with the collection’s hallmark obelisk-shaped hands, a gold-framed date window, and a thin rehaut chapter ring.

One of the new Seventies watches is limited to 500 pieces: the Vinyl Record edition, whose silky, matte-finished black dial takes inspiration from the LP records that played on turntables back in the 1970s. On this model, the hands and indexes are both crafted in solid white gold. The other two models, which will join the regular collection, go for a similar theme. The Tweed Amp edition, with its brushed brown dial, pays tribute to the textured, brown fabric coverings on the amps used by musicians in live performances. Its hands and hour markers are in solid red gold, and the sand-colored rubber strap plays off the dial’s color scheme. The third, silvery-white-dialed timepiece is nicknamed “Stereo Panel” after the Hi-Fi systems that dominated the living rooms of the era’s music lovers and represented the pinnacle of acoustic design. Its gold hands and indexes are coated in black, with the rehaut scale text in matching gloss black. 

Glashütte Original has outfitted the watches with Caliber 36, an in-house, mechanical self-winding movement that stores an impressive 100 hours of power reserve and incorporates a silicon hairspring that renders the watch highly resistant to temperature fluctuations and magnetic fields. More granularly, the Tweed Amp and Stereo Panel models use the core caliber 36-11, while the limited-edition Vinyl Record uses the new Caliber 36-10 variant, which is technically identical but adds a black rhodium plating to harmonize with the matte-black dial colorway. These mechanisms’ high-end enhancements, like the ribbed three-quarter mainplate, blued screws, and openworked 21k gold rotor, are visible through sapphire caseback windows.

Each of the new Glashütte Original Seventies models is available on either a satin-finished steel bracelet or a rubber strap with a soft calfskin lining. Both the bracelet and strap are equipped with Glashutte Original’s new, patented Groove Lock system, which enables easy and tool-free swapping between both options; the rubber strap also has a removable fold fastener with fine adjustment for an even higher level of versatility. The Tweed Amp and Stereo Panel models are both priced at $13,200 on a rubber strap and $14,500 on a metal bracelet; both versions of the limited-edition Vinyl Record are priced at $16,300. You can learn more at glashuette-original.com