Review: Glashutte Original Vintage Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date

What is it about square (or tonneau) shaped watches? I love them. Maybe it’s because we don’t see a lot of them. Infrequent or not, the advent of the Apple Watch is making tonneau (especially square-shaped ones) faces more en vogue.

And when you ad the seventies-television-square shape to all of the other attributes of the Glashutte Original Vintage Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date, you have something pretty special.

GO has been a brand that has held a special place in my heart for well over a decade. When I got back into watches in the very early 2000s, it was a GO Senator Navigator that was the third watch I bought.

But back to the 70s… This watch is unlike so many other watches I have in my collection, and that’s one of the reasons I am so attracted to it.

Glashutte Original Vintage Seventies Chrono Panorama Date © 2017 Adam Brown

The Dial & Face

Glashutte Original has always had a focus on their dial manufacture (they manufacture their own dials in Pforzheim, Germany). And this dial is spectacular. One of the things I like about blue dials is how different they can look in different light. The dial here takes that color change one step further because of the sunburst treatment that is achieved using different layers of varnish.

On top of the dial are applied white gold hour markers with just a little bit of Super Luminova lume. The main hands are flanked by two sub-dials – or is it three?

Rather than add a subdial for the chronograph’s hour indicator, GO has selected to place a window at 12 o’clock showing an hour dial that rotates in the aperture. The beveling and finishing on this little window is nice – and adds both a unique look while also not over-complicating the face.

To the right and left of the main hands are the subsidiary seconds and chrono minutes. Again, GO has selected to “stack” another feature in the seconds sub-dial – a power reserve indicator. The window goes from black to white as power on the Calibre 37-02 movement is used.

But below the main hands is the star of the dial – the panorama (or “BIG”) date. This is one of my favorite features of GO watches, and something I have on my GO Senator Navigator, PanoReserve and now this. It uses two complications on the same plane, so the numbers line up perfectly. Again, the detail and beveling around the big date window is really nice and a great attention to detail.

One more attention to detail – the color of the date complication perfectly matches the dial. This is only possible when a watch brand manufacturers everything (including dials and date complications) in-house. And when the date is as big as this one – it’s kinda important.

The Case

The square 40mm case is a nice combination of polished and brushed stainless steel. The bezel around the face is highly polished, and then transitions to the polished stuff. The chrono pushers and crown have soft-angled guards on the right and a inset pusher to adjust the panorama date is on the left at 10 o’clock. Polished beveling appears on almost every edge, helping the case catch the light.

Glashutte Original Vintage Seventies Chrono Panorama Date 1-37-02-03-02-70 © 2017 Adam Brown

The back of the case has a sapphire display showing the movement that takes up the full size of the back. Branding, material, water resistance and serial number are all deeply engraved in the back bezel surrounding the window.

The Bracelet

While my watch came on a bracelet, the watch is also available on a strap. I purchased my watch pre-owned and when I opened the box- surprise there is a dark blue GO crocodile strap in the box. That is $$$ bonus!

I haven’t tried on the strap, but I must admit that I bought this watch for the bracelet. This is a bracelet watch, and I had heard how great the GO bracelets were for years. When I tried it on – I understood what all of the talk was about – this is a bracelet at the AP Royal Oak level of comfort and quality.

The polished and brushed tapers from where it meets the case to the deployant buckle. It’s a highly complex bracelet that looks to only be three pieces, but there is a lot going on there. It features a pretty unique “almost no tool required” link removal feature as well. See those little screws on the back of each lug on the bracelet? Just push one of the screws in (and if you want turn 90 degrees) and the bar slides right out and you can add or remove lugs at will. Swapping out the bracelet for the strap works exactly the same way – takes about 45 seconds for the entire drill.

The other great thing about the GO bracelet is the patented micro-adjustment. GO’s been doing this long before Rolex and Omega – and their adaptation of it is just perfect.

Push the GO logo on the back of the deployant clasp, and you can ratchet out the length of the bracelet. Want to tighten it? Just push more of the bracelet under the clasp. It is a whole bunch of awesome and demonstrates GO’s attention to detail with watches at this price point.

The Movement

The GO Seventies Chrono takes advantage of the Calibre 37-02 movement to power its numerous features. You get about 70 hours of power reserve from this movement which moves at 28,800 mph on 65 jewels. When I put this watch on my timegrapher (I bought it pre-owned and it’s several years old), it was +1 second/day in virtually all positions. This makes it the most accurate pre-owned watch in my collection.

Wrap-Up

Since getting this watch, I am afraid no other watches in my collection have seen wrist time. What I like about this watch may be the things that turn off others – it’s not a typical look, it’s relatively big (at 40mm) and thick (13.5mm). While I got a good deal on mine pre-owned, it’s an expensive watch listing at US$16,400 – a price point near where plenty of better-known Rolex as well as JLC, AP, Patek and other watches are attainable.

But I just love it. The big date is functional. The bracelet is very comfortable – and the micro-adjust will be appreciated even more come the summer. The chrono feature adds interest to the dial (although some thickness on the wrist).

And ablogtowatch.com’s Arial Adams seems to agree with me – saying the GO Seventies has “the making of a classic.” Check out his review or the video below: