This Glashütte Original PanoInverse Limited Edition Showcases the Irresistible Rhythm of the City

Since its initial release in 2008, the Glashütte Original PanoInverse has been a curious and beguiling timepiece, in all of its idiosyncratic and inverted iterations. While most of the timepieces hailing from Glashütte hide their magnificent finishing behind the caseback, the PanoInverse subverts expectations by literally flipping the movement around, proudly showcasing its meticulous finishing front and center, prominently displaying the balance bridge and double swan-neck fine adjustment mechanism. As dramatic and unexpected as the series has been, highlighting the multitude of methods and proficiencies necessary to bear the Glashütte name, this year’s addition, limited to just 50 pieces, takes the concept of finishing to an entirely different dimension.

Where one might expect to find the usual trappings of fine movement finishing – Glashütte stripes and perlage, etc. –a dense and expansive cityscape is revealed instead, laser engraved in galvanic black rhodium. Beset with friction jewels, gold chatons and heat blued screws, a near impenetrable tapestry of urban topography engulfs nearly every millimeter of available space. Architectural form, building upon itself, juts upwards like modern crags from colliding tectonic plates, creating an almost M.C. Escher-esque scene of metropolitan abstraction.