Union Glashutte Averin Chronograph Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Aug 4th 2009 at 12:00PM

I was stunned to see this interesting watch from German Union Glashutte. I've always liked the brand's classic watches with a bit of a functional edge, but I was not expecting something as creative as this. Aside from the cool design, I am impressed by the unique way that Union Glashutte laid out the information for the Valjoux 7751 automatic mechanical movement. The 7751 as always been of the odder 7750 derivative movements because of the large amount of complications it had, and the quirky way it presented the information. Owning a watch with just such a movement I can attest that it is impressive, but not for everyone (as some of the information is small when trying to read or laid out in a complex manner). The movement includes the time, a 12 hour chronograph, an annual calendar with the day, date, and month, a moon phase indicator, and a synchronized 24 hour hand. Kind of a lot right?

The problem with the movement layout has always been symmetry as the entire right side of the dial is often left over for the brand logo or something like that. Still, most watches with the movement in this normal orientation ended up looking a bit lop sided. What Union Glashutte did is take the peripheral date dial and place it all on the right side of the watch and replaced the basic date hand with a three pointed hand that functions like the seconds sub dial on most Daniel Roth watches. Very clever and yet totally quirky in a sort of old world sense. The dial looks visually interesting with a textured black dial against silver, while most of the hour markers are visible and applied to the face.

The Averin Chronograph's case is a perfect square at 42.5mm by 42.5mm in size, and looks good in my opinion. The dial is available in the pictured two-tone or an all black or all silver tone dial. There is also a brown or black strap available. Price for this impressive number is about $4,200 and should be available now. Distribution for Union Glashutte should be wide as it is part of the Swatch Group, but still lagging in the US.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Union Glashutte Averin Chronograph Watches