Muhle glassute panova grau

Mühle-Glashütte makes sub-£1000 everyday automatic

2020 Panova Grau arrives with a fascinating back story and a stylish grey and orange dial.

Mühle-Glashütte is a brand that connoisseurs can get behind. It has a history stretching back to 1869 in the German watchmaking village and is currently run by the affable Thilo Mühle, the great, great, great grandson of its founder.

It is also a history scarred by conflict and 20th century geopolitics, since the entire output of Glashütte watchmakers was diverted to help the German war effort and the village then found itself the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, with the Soviet Union nationalising and controlling every one of its manufactures.

Its recent history began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, since when the business has been re-established as a true manufacture responsible for the majority of components that go into its watches.

This background is important when you consider that its latest watch, the Panova Grau, will go on sale for under £1,000 when it hits stores in April.

That is a great story for not a lot of money.

To keep the price down, the watch houses a modified Sellita SW200-1 movement that includes Mühle’s own rotor and patented shockproof woodpecker neck regulator.

It is handsome, too, with a creative contrast of orange and grey used on its dial and a tan leather or Nato strap with rounded steel fastenings complementing the soft curves of the steel case and lugs.

Fine circular graining on the dial plays with the light and shadows to produce an array of grey shades.

Suggested retail price will be £990. Mühle-Glashütte is distributed in the UK by The Blue Company.

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