Mühle-Glashütte’s new Sportivo collection aims for sophisticated sporty versatility
Jamie WeissThese days, watches are made all over the world, but there are a few different cities that are particularly renowned for watchmaking. Besançon, for instance, is the historical capital of watchmaking in France, and Swiss towns like Le Locle, Schaffhausen, Geneva, and Neuchatel are world-famous for their watches. Germany, too, has one particularly famous watchmaking town: Glashütte. Nestled in the Saxon countryside, Glashütte is the birthplace and home of German watchmaking, with firms like A. Lange & Söhne, Nomos, Tutima, and Glashütte Original all found in this small village. A particularly underrated Glashütte brand is Mühle-Glashütte. Founded in 1994 by a family with a 140-year history of working in the watch industry, Mühle-Glashütte is best known for its dive watches, a reflection of its nautical history. However, 2024 has seen Mühle release a new range of sports watches called the Sportivo, which the brand says are aiming for a more general “go anywhere, do anything” sort of vibe.
The case
The Mühle-Glashütte Sportivo collection launched with three different watches: the Sportivo Compass Date, the Sportivo Travel GMT and the Sportivo Active Chronograph. They all share the same fundamental design and case diameter, measuring in at 42.5mm. The Compass Date and Travel GMT are both 11.4mm thick, while the Active Chronograph is slightly thicker at 15.5mm. All three also feature ceramic bezel inserts with luminous elements and are water-resistant to 300 metres, meaning there’s still a bit of dive watch DNA in there. These proportions are probably slightly larger than your average GADA watch – and the watches’ sporty design stretches that label further – but I can see what Mühle is going for here.
The Sportivo’s case has an uncontroversial and robust design with brushed top surfaces contrasted by polished bevels, bezel knurling and crown guards. The crown guards protrude from the case almost like chronograph pushers on the Compass Date and Travel GMT models, while the Active Chronograph has slightly smaller crown guards to facilitate its actual chrono pushers. There’s not much to dislike here: again, they feel very dive watch-y, but that’s not a dig by any means. There’s an unmistakably Germanic sophistication and earnestness in the Sportivo’s design.
The simplest of the three, the Sportivo Compass Date has a bidirectional compass bezel plus a blue and bright green colour scheme. Although it lacks a diving bezel, it’s perfectly suited to aquatic adventures. Interestingly, Mühle has equipped the Travel GMT with a unidirectional diving bezel: understandable considering its water resistance, but perhaps a missed trick, as it could have sported a GMT bezel so users could track three different time zones. It has a black and electric blue colour scheme. Finally, the Sportivo Chronograph retains the diving bezel and sports a blue and orange colourway.
The dial
The Sportivo Compass Date and Active Chronograph both feature dials with an intriguing texture that resembles running water, with the Chronograph model punctuated by two large azuraged sub-dials with funky hemispherical cutouts for numerals and the Compass Date boasting two Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock. The Sportivo Travel GMT ditches the textured dial of the other two models in the collection in favour of a more sober black and grey fumé look. Mühle explains this is to aid legibility while tracking multiple time zones, with 24-hour sectors found below its indices.
All three feature date windows – the Compass Date and Travel GMT at 3 o’clock, and the Active Chronograph at 6 o’clock. Some people really hate 6 o’clock date windows but in this application, it helps maintain the symmetry of the watch’s dial. While each has date wheels with white backgrounds, the numerals on the date wheel are colour-matched: the Compass Date and Active Chronograph have blue numerals and the Travel GMT has black numerals. Small tweaks, but the devil’s in the details.
The strap
Two strap options are available for the Sportivo: a colour-matched canvas and rubber strap with a pin buckle, as well as a steel three-link bracelet, which will set you back an additional €250 if you opt for one over the canvas strap. The straps are high-quality with a ribbed rubber underlay that provides good ventilation and comfort. The bracelet is also a competent number with nicely machined links, a subtle taper and on-the-fly micro-adjustment. A point of criticism: I don’t love the design of its end links, but that’s almost more a criticism of the watch’s case design anyway – I don’t love watches with this sort of semi-integrated horn design, but that’s just me.
The movement
Each of the three Mühle-Glashütte Sportivo models uses a different movement, although they are all effectively Sellitas modified for Mühle, utilising the brand’s shockproof woodpecker neck regulator and featuring pleasant Teutonic finishing including blued screws and Glashütte solarisation. The Compass Date uses the utterly prolific Sellita SW200-1 with a 41-hour power reserve; the Travel GMT uses the SW330-2, a caller GMT movement with a 56-hour power reserve; and the Active Chronograph uses the MU 9419, which is derived from the Sellita SW500 and has an decent 62-hour power reserve. It’s a 30-minute chronograph, which Mühle has made a point of describing as qualifying it as “a companion for intensive interval workouts or one-kilometre training sessions for Hyrox events.”
Mühle is one of the only watchmakers in Glashütte to predominately use movements of Swiss rather than German origin (in fact, Nomos took Mühle to court over this practice in 2005 as they believed this practice went against the so-called “Glashütte rule” that 50% of the added value of a movement has to be realised in Glashütte, leading to Mühle’s insolvency in 2007). I don’t see this as a negative, however. Mühle also produces some of the most affordable watches to come out of Glashütte, in part because they utilise Swiss movements. The MU9419 is a great movement, as are the SW200-1 and SW330-2, and the Mühle-specific modifications to these make them a tier above your average Sellita-powered timepiece.
The verdict
As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, I feel that Mühle-Glashütte is an underrated brand, and I believe the Sportivo will help expand the brand’s appeal. Of the three, I like the look and colour scheme of the GMT the best, although I kind of wish it had the same textured dial as the other two models. I also wish, in general, that they opted for less lairy colour schemes overall, and perhaps shrunk the case down a bit, as I think 42.5mm is just a bit too big to be considered a traditional GADA watch. However, their versatility and specs are hard to ignore, and I think many collectors will find the Sportivo to be a perfect “one watch” – in any of its guises.
Mühle-Glashütte Sportivo pricing & availability
The Mühle-Glashütte Sportivo collection is available now from Mühle-Glashütte dealers or the brand’s online store. Price: €2,300 (Compass Date), €2,700 (Travel GMT), €3,800 (Active Chronograph)
| Brand | Mühle-Glashütte |
| Model | Sportivo Compass Date Sportivo Travel GMT Sportivo Active Chronograph |
| Reference Number | M1-52-22-CK (Compass Date) M1-52-13-CK (Travel GMT) M1-52-02-CK (Active Chronograph) |
| Case Dimensions | 42.5mm (D) x 11.4mm (T) x 50.2mm (LTL) (Compass Date, Travel GMT) 42.5mm (D) x 15.5 mm (T) x 50.3mm (LTL) (Active Chronograph) |
| Case Material | Stainless steel, ceramic bezel insert |
| Water Resistance | 300 metres, screw-down crown |
| Crystal(s) | Sapphire |
| Dial | Textured blue (Compass Date, Active Chronograph) Black fumé (Travel GMT) |
| Lug Width | 22mm |
| Strap | Colour-matched canvas and rubber strap, pin buckle Steel three-link bracelet, folding clasp with micro-adjustment |
| Movement | Sellita SW200-1, automatic (Compass Date) Sellita SW330-2, automatic (Travel GMT) MU 9419, Sellita SW 500 base, automatic (Active Chronograph) |
| Power Reserve | 41 hours (Compass Date) 56 hours (Travel GMT) 62 hours (Active Chronograph) |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds, date, bidirectional compass bezel (Compass Date) Hours, minutes, seconds, date, GMT, unidirectional timing bezel (Travel GMT) Hours, minutes, seconds, date, chronograph, unidirectional timing bezel (Active Chronograph) |
| Availability | Now |
| Price | €2,300 (Compass Date) €2,700 (Travel GMT) €3,800 (Active Chronograph) |