A World of Blue: Glashütte Original Senator Cosmopolite in Midnight Blue Dial


Germany’s Glashütte Original introduced the first version of its masterfully engineered Senator Cosmopolite world-timer in an über-exclusive tourbillon model in 2012 and has refined it for a larger audience in the years since, releasing the first steel-cased model in 2018. This week, the brand announced a new execution in a midnight blue dial with several subtle enhancements in the service of greater legibility.

The Senator Cosmopolite is now available with a new galvanic blue dial.

The new optimizations on the Senator Cosmpolite’s galvanic, sunray-pattern blue dial — which, as the brand points to with pardonable pride, was made in-house at its own dial factory in Pforzheim — include new sword-shaped hands and high-contrast white printed markers between the rod-shaped hour indexes. The new hands replace the previous version’s poire-shaped hands and the indexes appear here minus the earlier model’s corresponding Arabic numerals. The hands and indexes are both treated with white Super-LumiNova.

The watch’s wearer can view times in all 35 world time zones.

In addition to its central display of the local time, large small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock, and hallmark “Panorama” date at 4:30, the Cosmopolite packs an array of user-friendly functionalities ideal for frequent travelers. An off-center subdial with its own set of hands allows the wearer to view the time in a second time zone, and to choose from all 35 of the world’s time zones rather than the standard 24 indicated by most world-timers. The 24 zones that are offset by Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) by full hours are indicated in white type; the remaining ones, differentiated by three-quarter hours or half-hours from GMT, are indicated in light blue. Most useful of all for globetrotters, these indications are displayed by the official three-letter IATA code of a prominent airport within each time zone. The codes appear in the two windows at 8 o’clock, which also allow for setting of daylight savings and standard time. A day/night indication for the local time can be read on the subdial at 9 o’clock; this indicator for the home time, along with a power reserve indicator, are integrated into the subdial at 12 o’clock.

Glashütte Original’s Panorama Date appears at 4:30.
The wearer can set both time zones for Standard and Daylight Savings time.

The 44-mm stainless steel case has an array of brushed and polished finishes and contains Glashütte Original’s automatic manufacture Caliber 89-02, the multitasking engine of the Cosmopolite. Its 72-hour power reserve is supplied by a skeletonized 21k gold oscillating weight, styled with the Glashütte Original logo. This ornate rotor is visible through a sapphire caseback, along with the classical Saxon three-quarter mainplate decorated with Glashütte ribbing (Germany’s answer to Geneva waves). Beside this plate and on a slightly lower plane is the balance, with its elegantly hand-engraved bridge, which beats at 28,800 vph. In total, the movement has roughly 430 parts, including an astounding 63 jewels.

The watch is available on a leather strap or steel bracelet.

The Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite is available on a tone-on-tone dark blue Louisiana alligator strap with either a steel pin buckle or folding clasp ($21,500); it’s also offered on a stainless steel bracelet (above) with an eight-step adjustment mechanism, for $22,700.

For a detailed hands-on review of the Senator Cosmopolite, click here.

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