© text M. Hanke, 2004/05 © pics: Glashütte Original, 2004, except when noted otherwise

Since the first models of the Pano-series have been presented, the apparent complexity and beauty of their dials have fascinated watch enthusiasts. Since the dial (and the hands) are the interface between a watch and its werer, it is clear that their designs have to be drafted and executed with the utmost care. While the dials of the classic Senator series seem to be more sober, drawing their elegance from a clean and smoothly executed finish, the Pano-series dials unite a manifold of different surfaces and outlines, and invite the observer to study them in closest detail.

Being produced by GO's long-term partner and supplier, Th. Müller GmbH+Co.KG in Pforzheim, the Pano-series dials need at least 45 different production steps. Let us look at the most important of them:

Most Pano dials are made from massive 970 silver plates, with a thickness of 0.8 millimetres. The PanoRetroGraph and the PanoMatic tourbillon, however, have dials from 18k white gold. The raw dial shapes are stamped from silver strips. To achieve the angled frame edges in the date window, the discs have to pressed in a special machine for four times. Between each pressing, the material is heated, until it is red hot. This is necessary to make it soft enough to prevent any cracks in the frame's edges. However, the disadvantage of this lengthy procedure is that afterwards the material does not have a 100 % even thickness any more.

Next, the holes for the hand's shafts, as well as the date and minute counter windows are cut out, and the fixation/location pins are soldered on. The raw dial discs are sanded and polished, to smoothen out any material irregularities. The v-shaped groove around the minute counter is milled by means of modern CNC machines. Please note, that as a result of the previous production steps the base material is not evenly thick. Consequently, the milling might dig into the dial with varying depth. These differences normally lie within tolerances of a few hundreds of a millimetre, though.

A rotating brush finishes the date window's frame edges

Afterwards, the whole dial is silvercoated, and the angled frame edges of the date window are brushed with a specific tool, in order to achieve a nicer shine.

© M.Hanke

Yet even these many different phases of work are but the start; the really time consuming effort is yet to follow: The register rings of hour/minute and second hands, as well as the register segments aside the PanoGraph's minute counter, or the PanoMaticLunar's moonphase window, have to be grinded individually by hand, while each time, the rest of the dial is protected by a layer of lacquer. In case of the PanoGraph, this means to repeat everything four times: Hour/minute, second, and the two register segements.

After completion of the fine grinding, these zones again are covered with a protective lacquer, and the rest of the dial is satinized, by a so-called wet-blasting process. After removal of the lacquer, the whole dial is silver-coated again (the second time!), and covered with a new protection, in order to keep it clean while drilling the tiny holes, which later serve to attach the applied markers.

The attachment holes for the markers are drilled

Next, the dial gets a final coat of Zapon varnish, a crystal-clear acrylic protection lacquer (scale model builders among us will recognize it as the ubiquitous Future), which prevents the blackening of the silver. After a control of the surface, the prints are applied individually. After each print element, the dial is dried in an oven.

Printing on the dial

Controlled again, finally the dial meets its last production step: the application and attachment of the markers. Their little allocation pins are ground flat on the dial's back side, which attaches them firmly to the base.

I think it is safe to state that the Pano-series dials are among the most complex series production dials in the current watch industry. The multi-layered impression is created very difficult, within only one material layer, while it would have been far easier to simply glue several layers together. Very often, an applied frame on windows serves to create the three dimensional effect, and as a positive aside, can hide any production irregularities, which are not uncommon on the edges of cut out windows. Neither of them have been used in the Pano-series dials, and the more the owner knows about the production steps, the easier it is to really appreciate their wonderfully varied appearance.