The Movement Inside

Every Glatt runs on a TMI Seiko NH35. It is not the most exotic movement you can buy, and choosing it was not a compromise we made quietly. It is the right call, and it is worth explaining why.

What it is

The NH35 is a Japanese automatic movement. It winds itself from the motion of your wrist, it beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour, and it holds roughly 41 hours of power reserve when you take it off. It hacks, which means the seconds hand stops when you pull the crown out, so you can set it against another clock properly instead of approximately.

There is no battery in a Glatt and there never will be. If it sits in a drawer for two days it stops, and you wind it and set it and it carries on.

Why this one

Three reasons, in order of how much they mattered.

It can be serviced anywhere. This is the big one. The NH35 is one of the most widely used automatic movements in the world. Any competent watchmaker has seen hundreds of them and can get parts without an argument. A more unusual movement would have made this watch harder to keep alive in fifteen years, and a watch you cannot service is a watch with an expiry date.

It is honest about accuracy. A mechanical movement in this class runs within a range of a few seconds a day, and that range shifts with temperature and how you store it overnight. Anyone promising you quartz precision from an automatic at this price is selling something. You will adjust a Glatt now and then. That is part of owning it.

It leaves the budget where you can see it. Money spent on a rarer calibre is money not spent on the case, the sapphire, the strap, or the dial finish. We would rather you feel the quality in the parts you touch every day.

What surrounds it

The movement sits in a 316L stainless steel case, 40.0 by 46.0 millimetres lug to lug, with a screw-down crown and 5 ATM of water resistance. Above it is flat sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. Behind it is an exhibition caseback, so the rotor is visible, along with the engraved markings and that watch's own serial number.

You do not need to care about any of this to enjoy the watch. But if you are the kind of person who turns it over to look, there is something there to look at.