Glashütte Original Lands His-And-Hers Lunar Timepieces

His-and-hers watches are making a comeback. It was a big trend in the mid 1990s, but a mounting backlash (“We are not just smaller versions of men!”) forced makers to create separate ladies’ collections. But things go in cycles, and “shrinking-and-pinking” has taken on new and improved form. A smaller version of a great men’s watch that fits my wrist? Yes please! Glashütte Original gets the formula right with the new PanoMatic Luna and PanoMatic Lunar models.

The men’s (or ladies’ since it’s only 40mm) PanoMatic Lunar contains the caliber 90-02, an exquisitely finished movement with a typical German three-quarter plate with striped finish, a skeletonized off-center rotor and a hand-engraved balance bridge. The ladies’ PanoMatic Luna (or men’s if a 39.4mm case size diamond highlights suit them) contains the caliber 90-12, which is based on the 90-02 and does virtually the same thing. Both have hours, minutes, moon phase, small seconds and a big date.

Design-wise, the ladies’ piece is a little more decorative, as well as being a little bit smaller. The dial is white or lilac mother-of-pearl, compared to the white, gradient green or black on the men’s. The small seconds subdial and the date window on the ladies’ piece are slightly smaller with a more scripty font, and the hour indexes are set with diamonds, as is the bezel. One more subtle difference: the crown on the ladies’ piece is a little more dainty, and the strap is more tapered.

These are all thoughtful, subtle differences that constitute an improvement on the previous convention of simply shrinking the dimensions, throwing in a quartz movement, and leaving it at that. Glashütte’s feminization tweaks improve the design and demonstrate a recognition of the sort of refinements that transform a great men’s watch into a great ladies’ watch.