Blue dials on watches have gone from novelty to mainstream; it?s rare these days to find any popular watch model, or family, that doesn?t offer at least one option in blue ? some even in an array of shades, from powdery pastel to shiny cerulean to bold navy all the way to moody indigo. There are so many blue dials these days, and so many brands that claim a specific blue as their own, that when a new blue-dialed watch comes along that really makes the collective watch community take notice, it is a special event indeed. I daresay that Glashütte Original ? the German manufacture renowned for its complications prowess, its traditional designs, and more recently for its boldly colorful dial experiments ? has accomplished that feat with the latest annual release from its Sixties collection, a steel-cased bicompax chronograph in a gradient ?Glacier Blue? dial.
Glashütte Original’s Sixties Annual Edition for 2020 has a striking Glacier Blue dial.

That icily attractive dial is, of course, where we begin our examination of the watch. Like the forest green and blazing burnt orange dials that preceded it to the market in 2018 and 2019, respectively, the Glacier Blue dials are produced by skilled artisans at Glashutte Original?s own dial making workshop in Pforzheim, Germany. The sunray finish is applied to the dial blanks before being pressed into their final, domed shape, after which they receive a galvanic nickel coating. The dials are then sprayed with dark blue lacq...