Mühle Glashütte Terrasport II: German Precision Takes Flight

A brief history of Mühle Glashütte

Mühle Glashütte was founded in 1869 in the German watchmaking town of Glashütte. Robert Mühle founded the company in 1869, initially producing highly accurate measuring instruments for the local watchmaking industry and watchmaking schools. The company has been handed down for 5 generation to the present day.

The company is well known in Germany in making marine chronometers, ship’s clock, and other nautical instruments, where accuracy, reliability and legibility under demanding conditions are paramount. After 1994, upon the reunification of Germany, the fourth generation owner of the company concentrated their traditional strengths in marine timekeeping systems. Not long after, they focused on making mechanical wristwatches with a nautical eye for design.

Their core philosophy centered around 4 aspects:

1. Precision – achieved through meticulous regulation and in-house modifications.
2. Robustness – Built to withstand daily wear and more demanding conditions. This includes their patented shock protection.
3. Legibility – Clear, unambiguous dials are a hallmark.
4. Functionality – Every design element serves a purpose.

The Terrasport Collection: Grounded in Clarity and Durability

 As the name suggests (“Terra” meaning Earth/Land), the Terrasport collection is designed for terrestrial activities. These watches often draw strong inspiration from classic pilot’s (Flieger) watches, emphasizing straightforward design and high functionality. The collection focuses on the core tenets of a pilot’s watch: maximum legibility day and night, robust construction, and reliable performance

The Terrasport II in stainless steel, black.

This watch features all the hallmarks of what makes a pilot’s watch, a pilot’s watch. It features high contrast black dial that provides a clean backdrop for the luminous Arabic Numerals and indices, ensuring high readability in all lighting conditions. Luminous sword hands for quick and accurate reading of the time. It also features the orientation triangle at 12 o’clock. originally designed to help pilots orient the watch and read the time quickly, even in low light or under stress.

The watch bears all the features of a modern watch, such as a sandwiched sapphire crystal on the front and back so as to appreciate the beauty of the Muhle modified movement based on the Sellita SW200-1 Swiss automatic caliber inside and provide scratch and water resistance up to 100 meters. The caliber is heavily modified to give it the Muhle touch and showcase their innovation.

Why I bought this watch

I have always wanted to buy a pilot watch. In fact, the pilot watch was the next watch on my list to buy when I recently bought my Tissot Visodate. One Swiss brand is well known to create beautiful pilot watches, and that is IWC. For a long time, I have ready about the rich heritage of pilot watches, the design philosophy and all the design hallmarks that make a pilot watch a true pilot watch. IWC watches was beyond what I could afford at that time. The most basic pilot watch was going for around S$6000 at the time in mid 2010s. Furthermore, most of their watches were too big for my wrist, often stretching beyond 40mm in diameter.

I bought this watch sometime in 2021 or 2022. It was my first watch to ever be bought online. It was quite difficult to buy this particular brand from my local watch dealer as they did not carry it and the brand was not very well known in Singapore. Nonetheless, I was determined to get it and realised that I could get it cheaper online than at a retail store locally, primarily due to avoid the VAT and GST when buying online. In the end, the watch cost less than S$3000, far cheaper than any of the pilot watches from IWC.

I have always loved the design aesthetics of a pilot watch. Large numerals, highly legible, no nonsense design. 100% practical and readable.