What We Know
The Annual Editions from German brand Glashütte Original are quite self-explanatory from their name. Each year, Glashütte Original adorns one of its vintage-inspired designs from the Sixties collection with a new colorway. There’s no hard-and-fast rule about what colors make an appearance—past dials have ranged from subtle to loud, muted to saturated, and smooth to textured. This year’s Sixties Chronograph Annual Edition goes for maximum visual impact with a very unconventional purple dial, produced in-house at their dialmaking facility in Glashütte.
This 2026 edition opts for the distinctive textured dial that has accompanied a few of the past Sixties models, produced through a stamping process for the bronze dial base. After a galvanic coating process that adds a layer of gold to the base dial, purple lacquer is hand-applied and then fired at high temperatures to set the color.
A unique design detail of the dial is the lack of applied hour indices. Rather, the now purple lacquer dial is hand-engraved to reveal strips of the bronze base, acting as those markers and a warm contrast to the rest of the dial. Once this step is completed, the entire dial gets a protective clear lacquer coating, and the dial text is printed on. Gold-plated hands are paired to complement the tone of the bronze hour indices. And of course, any Sixties Edition from Glashütte Original means some heavily stylized numerals, seen here at twelve and six o’clock.
As this year’s Annual Edition comes in the form of a chronograph, the case in diameter remains large in diameter at 42mm, with a lug to lug of 48.5mm, and a thickness of 12.4mm sandwiched by two sapphire crystals on the front and the back. The case design is quite simple in its geometry, with only a few facets on the entirely polished case, serving as a subdued framing for that colorful dial. The exhibition caseback reveals the Calibre 39-34 automatic chronograph movement powering the watch, with a power reserve of 40 hours and a frequency of 28,800 VpH. It’s a modular chronograph, with a Dubois Dépraz chronograph module fit on top of a Glashütte Original time-only base, but the standard Glashütte Original level of finishing remains here.
The new 2026 release of the Glashütte Original Sixties Chronograph Annual Edition is available now and priced at $10,000.
What We Think
Glashütte Original has always been a brand that never shies away from exploring the funky side of watch design, and in the case of the Annual Editions, allows for the brand to actually play with small runs of very fun, unique colors that stand in stark contrast (literally speaking) with many of its more conventional and core offerings.
While I do prefer these fun dial colors in the slightly smaller 39mm time-only Sixties design, it seems like there may be a leaning from the brand’s collectors towards this larger chronograph model. If there’s any critique to be made, the caliber looks incredibly small compared to the diameter of the case, and I hope that means that one day we might see a smaller diameter take on this chronograph, or at the very least, a fully integrated chronograph caliber at this size.
The Basics
Brand: Glashütte Original
Model: Sixties Annual Edition
Reference Number: 1-39-34-08-22-04
Diameter: 42mm
Thickness: 12.4mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial Color: Purple
Indexes: Engraved
Lume: Yes, Super-LumiNova on hands
Water Resistance: 3 bar
Strap/Bracelet: Synthetic fabric strap
The Movement
Caliber: 39-34
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph
Power Reserve: 40 hours
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 28,800 VpH
Jewels: 51
Additional Details: Dubois-Depraz module
Pricing & Availability
Price: $10,000
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: No
For more, click here.
