Glashütte Original Serenade Luna Review

Last week we reviewed the excellent Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase from Glashütte Original. We've always been a fan of the brand and have owned Glashütte Original watches personally in the past. We have also been impressed with the modern watches the brand has sent us to review over the last year. My wife's Glashütte Original was a mid-sized sports watch and not a true ladies timepiece. So when Glashütte Original offered to send us a watch from their Ladies collection we were excited to see how the brand does at producing a ladies timepiece.

Before we go into detail about the watch Glashütte Original sent us, let's first go over a very brief history of the brand. If you would like a much more in-depth history of the brand, please read out review of the Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase where we go into full detail of the formation and evolution of Glashütte Original.



Glashütte Original was founded in 1845 by master watchmaker Ferdinand Adolph Lange in the German town of Glashütte. At that time the mining town and surrounding areas were going through a financial crisis originating from the once rich silver mines drying up. Lange had the ingenious idea to ask the local government to financially back creating a watchmaking industry in the area, which they agreed to. Lange had studied how the Swiss had successful created an industry where many smaller artisans would create specific watch components and then provide them to various manufactures who would do the final finishing and assembly. Lange believed the very mechanically skilled people of Glashütte would excel at this work and an industry that could rival the Swiss could be achieved in the town.

Lange himself brought over skilled apprentices to help create the backbone of the watchmaking industry in Glashütte, but soon after hearing of the government backing more master watchmakers moved to the area. Among those watchmakers were Moritz Grossmann, Julius Assmann and Adolf Schneider. These three masters along with Lange didn't end up creating competing brands, but rather worked together to establish Glashütte as the cradle for German high watchmaking. Hallmarks of Glashütte produced watches included the three-quarter plate and swan-neck fine adjustment.



The Glashütte watchmaking industry saw extreme success until both World Wars nearly wiped out the industry in the area. After the Second World War in particular Glashütte found themselves on the Soviet controlled side of Germany and much of the watchmaking tools and machinery were seized as reparations for the war. What remained of the Glashütte watchmaking industry was then combined into a state owned conglomerate named VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB). Oddly enough this entity produced some fine mechanical calibers and kept the tradition of Glashütte watchmaking alive. While the Swiss were struggling to fight off cheap Japanese quartz movements in the 1970s and 80s, the communist demand for mechanical watches remained high and Glashütte watchmakers kept busy.

After the fall of communism in Germany in 1989 GUB was privatized in 1994 and renamed Glashütte Original. Using Original in the name of the company was a reference to the past when Original was put on real timepieces from Glashütte to differentiate them from imitations. The new Glashütte Original now focused on high-end artisanal watchmaking. By the year 2000 Glashütte Original had once again become a success and was acquired by the Swatch Group. This acquisition gave Glashütte Original basically limitless resources as well as stability. Today Glashütte Original continues to evolve their movement manufacture as well as becoming a true vertical manufacture producing almost all of their components in-house.



Initial Thoughts

Now that we've gone over a brief history of Glashütte Original, let's now take a look at the watch from the Ladies collection they sent us to review. The model sent was the Serenade Luna in red gold with a full diamond bezel and hour markers. When the watch arrived, the first thing I noticed about the Serenade Luna was its weight. My wife typically wears men's watches like a 40 mm Rolex Yacht-Master or a 41 mm Hublot Big Bang, so we aren't that used to smaller ladies pieces. The funny thing was that the Serenade Luna felt extremely light while the gold case made it feel dense at the same time. On our scale the watch only weighed in at a feather light 62 grams, but felt super luxurious in hand due to the density of the red gold.

The next thing that made an impression on me during my initial time with the Serenade Luna was the stunning dial. The radiant blue dial was manufactured by Glashütte Original's own dial manufactory and has a deep blue color to it with a sunray finish. The star of the show though is the amazing moon phase display found at 6 o'clock. This moon phase is made out of natural and blue mother of pearl to create a shimmering depiction of the celestial body.



Finally the expertly finished in-house Calibre 35-14 made me take note of it during my first viewing of the Serenade Luna. The movement is on full display through the large sapphire crystal display window on the back of the case. Staying true to tradition the 35-14 features a three-quarter plate that is finished nicely with Glashütte Ribbing. The solid gold rotor is finished with an intricate wave like guilloche pattern that really makes the weight pop off of the movement. Finally nice usage of perlage and blued screws really finishes off the beautiful movement.

Technical Specifications

Having gone over my initial thoughts of the Glashütte Original Serenade Luna, let's now go over the technical specifications of the watch. The Serenade Luna is crafted out of red gold and has a case diameter of 32.1 mm and a lug to lug length of 37.9 mm. The watch only weighs 62 grams on the leather strap and red gold deployant clasp and at its thickest point is only 9.1 mm tall.



The Serenade Luna uses a flush slightly domed sapphire crystal that has an anti-reflective coating applied to the inside of the crystal. This is advantageous to having this coating applied to the exposed exterior of the crystal since anti-reflective coating scratches easily, which is something I've had happen to some of my watches in the past.

Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the radiant blue dial which has a very dark blue hue. The finishing of the dial is in a sunray pattern that radiates out from the center of the dial. Glashütte Original uses applied red gold bar indices for the hour markers on the Serenade Luna. Each of these markers is then set with two brilliant cut diamonds each. 5 and 7 o'clock are smaller indices to make room for the moon phase display and are only set with one diamond while there is no hour marker at 6 o'clock.



Above the moon phase window there is a moon shaped design featuring a blue background set with six gold stars. The moon phase window is round and the moon phase is completely made out of white and blue mother of pearl while the sky disc is made from Tahitian mother of pearl with gold stars. The moon phase display is one of the more artistic ones I've had the pleasure of seeing and all of the mother of pearl accents really makes it shimmer.

The Glashütte Original Serenade Luna has three centrally mounted hands being the hour, minute and seconds hands. These hands have a more rounded diamond shape to them and are also crafted out of red gold. The seconds hand has a large double diamond shaped counterbalance as well. Glashütte Original does not use any lume on the dial of the Serenade Luna either, deciding instead to keep the classic dress watch look intact.



Finishing off the dial of the Serenade Luna is a circular engraving separating the outer hour markers from the inner hands and intersecting with the moon phase display. At 12 o'clock the Glashütte Original branding is printed and at 6 o'clock is the "Made In Germany" text where "Swiss Made" is found on Swiss counterparts.

Moving on from the dial is the sparkling diamond set bezel. The bezel is set with 48 brilliant cut diamonds with a total carat weight of 0.926 ct. The clarity of the diamonds is vvs which makes sure the diamonds really shine when they catch the light. I feel the execution of the bezel is tastefully done and nowhere near over the top. In lower light situations the watch seems subtle, but in the sunlight it really wakes up.



The red gold case of the Glashütte Original Serenade Luna is completely polished in finish. There is no mistaking this watch for a sports watch with no satin or brushed finishes in sight. The right hand side of the watch features a decently sized non-screwed down crown with good grip to it. The lack of a screw down crown limits the water resistance of the Serenade Luna to a splash / rain proof 30 meters. Capping off the crown is a large stunning rose-cut diamond. The lugs also slope down nicely to follow the curve of your wrist.

In the resting position you can manually wind the automatic movement via the crown. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you advance the moon phase by turning the crown away from you. Pulling the crown all the way out to the second position lets you set the time and also stops the seconds hand for precise time setting. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minute hand either.



Flipping the watch over shows off the sapphire crystal set display case back. There is a slim bezel holding in the crystal in place with just Glashütte Original and the case number engraved on it. Through the sapphire you can see the German made in-house Calibre 35-14 automatic movement topped off with the solid gold guilloche finished winding rotor. As I mentioned earlier the movement features Glashütte Ribbing on the three-quarter plate as well as the use of perlage and blued screws. Overall the movement is very attractive and would have been a shame to cover up with a solid case back.

The Calibre 35-14 beats away at 28,800 vph (4 Hz) and has an ample power reserve of 60 hours. The balance also features a silicon hair spring to increase reliability and accuracy. On our timegrapher the 35-14 inside of the Serenade Luna has an accuracy of +3 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions. This is extremely accurate and even within chronometer specifications.



The Serenade Luna has a 16 mm lug width and comes on a blue Louisiana Alligator strap. The strap tapers down from 16 mm at the lugs down to 14 mm at the red gold deployant clasp. The backside of the strap is done in contrasting beige leather. The strap also features a quick release pin to make swapping out straps a breeze.

On The Wrist

During our time with the Glashütte Original Serenade Luna I did not wear the watch since it was designed for much smaller wrists than my 7.25 inch wrist. The wearing duties went to my wife who has nearly a 2 inch smaller wrist. She told me that she really enjoyed wearing the Serenade Luna and its smaller size was refreshing to her since she pretty much wears larger sports watches.



She took the watch out during a few errand runs as well as going out in the evening. While her fashion style isn't as relaxed as mine, she is the mother of two young girls and doesn't have the need to dress to the nines often. She mentioned that the Serenade Luna blended in pretty well with her outfits even though she does wear a lot of black and didn't think the blue clashed much at all.

My wife has been in the jewelry industry just as long as I've been in the watch industry so she has been around endless jewelry. She commented that the diamonds used on the bezel, dial and especially the crown looked like very high quality stones and were cut expertly to achieve maximum brilliance. She also felt that the diamonds weren't over the top and kept the watch looking tasteful.



She wanted me to point out that the low weight of 62 grams really made the Serenade Luna disappear on the wrist and during very long wearing periods she never experienced any wrist fatigue and the watch pretty much disappeared on the wrist. My wife is also a huge fan of the moon phase complication as well as mother of pearl (one of our daughters is named pearl after all), so she was just fascinated by the moon phase on the Serenade Luna.

I didn't try my typical legibility test of seeing how easy it is to tell the time at a glance while driving on the Glashütte Original Serenade Luna since I didn't really wear the watch. I would imagine that the watch wouldn't excel in the test because of its smaller case size and gold hands and hour markers. The main goal of the Serenade Luna is to be as attractive of a watch as possible, so legibility needed to take a backseat, this isn't a diver after all. With there being no lume on the dial, the Serenade Luna is not really meant to be read in the dark either.



When my wife wore the Serenade Lady out to dinner and drinks we did noticed a fair amount of people checking the watch out. I guess this isn't too much of a surprise since it's housed in an eye catching red gold case and set with a good number of brilliant diamonds that do a great job of catching light. A few friends we showed the watch to really thought the Serenade Luna was quite beautiful as well.

Value and Position in the Market

I'm sure if you're reading this site and know the quality of watches Glashütte Original makes along with the case being crafted out of red gold and set with diamonds you can probably guess the Serenade Luna does not come in cheap. The watch retails for $24,200 which I believe is a rather fair price for a diamond set gold watch with a stunning dial and moon phase window powered by a highly accurate in-house movement. Now like with all of our reviews is the time to compare the Serenade Luna to other watches with similar features and specifications and see how the watch fairs value wise.



First up is the Calatrava 4997/200G-001 from Patek Philippe which has a 35 mm case made out of white gold. Like the Serenade the Calatrava also has a stunning blue dial, but does not have any additional complications past hours and minutes. The bezel of the Calatrava is fully set with diamonds, but none are found on the dial. The Calatrava is powered by an in-house automatic micro rotor movement and also has 30 meters of water resistance. The Calatrava is much more expensive than the Serenade Luna at $42,769.

Next up we have the Code 11.59 from Audemars Piguet which has a 38 mm case made out of pink gold. The Code 11.59 isn't set with any diamonds but does have a captivating purple dial. The watch is powered by an in house automatic movement with 60 hours of power reserve. The Code 11.59 also has the same 30 meters of water resistance as the Patek and Glashütte Original. Once again the Code 11.59 is much more expensive than the Serenade Luna at $35,900.



Moving on is the Traditionelle Manual-Winding 1405T from Vacheron Constantin which has a 33 mm case made out of pink gold. The Traditionelle has a fully set diamond bezel and features a mother of pearl dial featuring a special pattern for Vacheron's 270th anniversary. The watch is powered by an in-house hand wound movement with 42 hours of power reserve. Once again the Vacheron is water resistant to only 30 meters. Like the Patek and AP, the Vacheron is also much more expensive than the Serenade Luna at $34,000.

Finally we have the Reine de Naples 8918 from Breguet which has a 28.5 mm oval case made out of yellow gold. The Reine de Naples has a diamond set bezel and crown and features a large diamond on the stunning mother of pearl dial. The Breguet is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 45 hours of power reserve. As a surprise to nobody, the Reine de Naples has a water resistance of 30 meters. Also it shouldn't come as a shock that the Reine de Naples is also much more expensive than the Serenade Luna at $45,700.



As you can see the Glashütte Original Serenade Luna offers everything the four watches above offer from an in-house movement to a diamond set dial, bezel and crown. The Serenade Luna is also the most complicated watch in the group with its large moon phase display. With that all being said, the Serenade Luna is much less expensive than the other three watches. Glashütte Original also has a history as full of tradition and as the other four brands spanning nearly 200 years.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end is the Glashütte Original Serenade Luna for me? Well since the watch is designed for a woman's wrist and I prefer watches with an over 50 mm lug to lug length, it really isn't. All joking aside, my wife did love the Serenade Luna. It's very rare even with her personal watches that she picks the watch she wants to wear and just defers the choice to me. While we had the Serenade Luna she actually asked me to grab it before she left the house which is highly unusual. So it's clear to say that she really enjoyed the watch and it definitely is for her.

Would I then recommend the Serenade Luna to somebody looking for a gold jeweled dress watch from a top manufacture? In all honesty I really would give my full recommendation of the Serenade Luna to that collector. The watch runs on a stunning in-house automatic movement featuring a great looking dial made in Glashütte Original's own dial manufactory. The combination of different types of mother of pearl being used for the moon phase display is also something that's hard to take your eyes off of. This is all wrapped up in a polished red gold case expertly set with diamonds on the bezel, dial and hour markers. Also being vastly less expensive than rivals from other top manufactures is a huge bonus. I really think any collector looking for this kind of watch should really stop by a Glashütte Original boutique or authorized dealer and give the Serenade Luna a good hard look.



I'd really like to thank Glashütte Original for sending us the Serenade Luna and Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase to review. Once again both watches have shown how the manufacture really produces excellent pieces and can excel at two watches so different from each other. We've now reviewed a good portion of the collections from Glashütte Original and maybe next we can review one of their more complicated pieces.

For more information about the Serenade Luna please visit : Glashütte Original

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 1-35-14-06-15-04

Retail Price: $24,200

Case Size: 32.1 mm

Lug to Lug: 37.9 mm

Thickness: 9.1 mm

Weight: 62 grams

Case Material: Red Gold

Bezel: Diamond Set

Strap: Blue Louisiana Alligator Leather Strap with Red Gold Deployant Clasp

Movement: German Made In-House Calibre 35-14 Automatic

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Moon Phase

Power Reserve: 60 Hours

Water Resistance: 30 Meters