Glashutte Original crafts a colourful Sixties’ throwback

In paying tribute to the remarkable design of iconic timepieces from the ‘60s era, the Glashütte Original makes an exciting flashback, and creates the Sixties Iconic Collection of five colourful watches that follow the aesthetics and style of one of the company’s most famous creations: The Spezimatic

Stepping back to the adventurous and enlightening period of the 1960s would bring memories of innovation, may it be in art, music, design or technology. In the world of horology, the so-called Sixties was the decade when the Spezimatic was born.  

Introduced in 1964, the state-owned VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (now known as Glashütte Original) launched the outstanding wristwatch that turned out to be a true icon of its time. It came in a series of automatic models, fitted with Calibres 74 or 75 and manufactured from 1964 to 1979. The success of the Spezimatic saw a large number of different versions: all were highly reliable and featured an elegant design, and they quickly became style icons of their time.

This year, Glashütte Original pays tribute to the iconic timepiece and the retro era with a special collection, inspired by the design of the models of the time. Beyond the amazing dials, the in-house movement and beautiful case makes the Sixties Iconic Collection a really compelling and stylish watch collection.

With five elegant, colourful timepieces, the Sixties Iconic Collection merges the unmistakable design of the ‘60s with exceptional dials in unique hues that give the models their names: Sixties Red, Sixties Golden, Sixties Aqua, Sixties Brown and Sixties Grey.

All five models offer a delightful surprise in the form of a highly unusual dégradé effect on the dial, which is achieved using an extremely complex and time-consuming process in Glashütte Original's own dial manufactory in Pforzheim, Germany. In this process the dials are first galvanised with great care; layers of lacquer are added by hand in a series subsequent steps. Throughout, the process is repeatedly brought to a halt to allow the result to be examined by an experienced set of eyes.

In a final step, a further colour is carefully applied to this "canvas" using a special spray gun – this technique produces, depending on the angle, an individual colour gradient, known as the dégradé effect, which renders each watch unique.

Three of the five elegant models in the Sixties Iconic Collection combine these unique shadings with a refined sunburst finishing: With the Sixties Golden and the Sixties Aqua this results in a golden shimmer or a brilliant turquoise at the centre of the dials blending into a deep black, while the Sixties Red takes on an additional colour: here a luminous yellow changes to intense red.

The subtle colour shading of the Sixties Brown and Sixties Grey models is enhanced by an elaborate guilloché stampimprint. This complex technique makes use of guilloche stamps, which, with the help of a 60-ton press, imprint their filigree pattern on the paper-thin dials. These stamps, known as "dies", are a further example of extreme authenticity. Almost as old as the historic examples from the sixties themselves, they are tools, around 40 years old, from the archives of the Glashütte Original dial manufactory. They give the model with the brown-black dégradé effect a fine rhombic pattern, while the silver-grey model displays a structure evocative of dewdrops.

The timepieces feature the typical domed dials and lightly arched hour and minute hands, both with Super-Luminova highlights. Arabic numerals at hours 3, 6, 9 and 12 are presented in a font that expresses the unmistakable signature of the 1960s. All five models are presented in softly rounded stainless steel cases, 39mm in diameter, and fitted with a matching Louisiana Alligator leather strap. The beating heart of the new timepieces, as in the other models of the Sixties line, is the automatic Calibre 39-52. The manufactory made movement has a power reserve of 40 hours, is finely finished and presents the characteristic features of fine watchmaking in the Glashütte tradition.

The Sixties Iconic Collection is available worldwide in Glashütte Original boutiques in Dresden, Paris, Geneva, Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao and Tokyo. These exclusive models are to be carried by selected Swatch Group’s high-end Tourbillon boutiques.