Glashütte Original is releasing two new chronographs built on the same foundation but aimed at different sides of the brand’s history.
The Senator Chronograph and Senator Chronograph Navigator share an identical 41mm stainless steel case, and both run on the brand’s new in-house automatic Caliber 37-24, a column-wheel flyback chronograph with the brand’s signature Panorama date display.
The movement offers a 70-hour power reserve and a newly designed skeletonized rotor with a 21-carat gold oscillation weight, which lets you see the hand-finished bridges and blued screws beneath, rather than a solid disc blocking the view.
Where the two watches split is the dial. The standard Senator Chronograph pulls from Glashütte’s late-19th and early-20th century observation watches, with a silver grain-textured dial and solid-gold blue Roman numerals. The Navigator goes the opposite direction, drawing on 1940s pilot’s watches with a matte black lacquer dial, Arabic numerals cut from solid luminous material, and an onion-shaped crown built for better grip in gloves.
Both models are offered on an alligator strap, a sand-colored synthetic strap, or a stainless steel bracelet, and for the first time, Glashütte Original built its quick-change system directly into the folding clasp, not just the strap attachment.
Everyone’s shrinking their watches lately
Just this last month or so, both Blancpain and IWC put out new pieces that leaned the same direction: Blancpain’s 70th-anniversary Bathyscaphe reissue held onto its original 1968 case size at 37.4mm rather than scaling it up, and IWC’s new Mercedes-Benz Big Pilot runs its ProSet perpetual calendar movement in a comparatively restrained 42mm case.
It seems like this might be the summer of brands finally going all-in on smaller cases rather than the oversized watches that dominated the last two decades.
Glashütte Original’s own move here, dropping the Senator Chronograph down from its earlier, larger dimensions to 41mm, fits right into that pattern.
The core concept — flyback chronograph plus Panorama Date — isn’t new; it’s been part of the Senator line since 2014. What’s really new is the smaller case, the reworked movement variant, and the clasp mechanism.
Where to buy it
The Senator Chronograph and Senator Chronograph Navigator are available now through Glashütte Original boutiques and authorized retailers, priced at $16,100 on strap or $17,100 on bracelet.
