NOMOS Glashütte is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

watchmaking A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

company based in

Glashütte Glashütte [] is a town in Saxony, Germany, known as the birthplace of the German watchmaking industry and has a population of about 7,000. Historically, it was first mentioned in a document circa 1445. In January 2008, the former municipality Re ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, which specializes in artisan manual-winding and automatic

mechanical watch A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a clockwork mechanism to measure the passage of time, as opposed to quartz watches which function using the vibration modes of a piezoelectric quartz tuning fork, or radio watches, which are quartz watches ...

es. It was founded by Roland Schwertner in January 1990, two months after the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

. The designs for the first collection were drawn up by Susanne Günther, drawing influence from the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

purist style. NOMOS designs are known for their clean and

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

aesthetic. NOMOS Glashütte is a member of the

Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (English: "German Association of Craftsmen"; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern arch ...

, a predecessor of the

movement and a group that represents the interests of companies that combine handcraft with industrial production, and design with functionality. The management team is made up of CEO Uwe Ahrendt, a graduate engineer and responsible for production; Judith Borowski, heading up communications and design in Berlin; and Roland Schwertner, who continues to be in charge of sales.

History

In 1990, Roland Schwertner, an IT expert and photographer from

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, registered the trademark NOMOS Glashütte/SA. The first ever collection of NOMOS watches came out in 1992. NOMOS Glashütte now has three sites in Glashütte, a place renowned for its tradition of watchmaking. The administration department can be found in the former Glashütte station building, while most of the watchmakers are located on ''Am Erbenhang'' street. Since 2017, a further manufacturing facility can be found in the Schlottwitz district. Annual production is approximately 20,000 pieces. In its early years, the company focused on manufacturing mechanical watches with hand-wound movements. The basis for these movements was, until 2005, the Swiss-made

ETA SA ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse (ETA SA Swiss Watch Manufacturer) designs and manufactures quartz watches and both hand-wound and automatic-winding mechanical and movements. Commonly referred to as ETA, the company is headquartered in Gren ...

/Peseux 7001. Since April 2005, NOMOS Glashütte has only used in-house

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

. Beginning with α (Alpha), a manual winding caliber, the range has since been expanded to include a range of other

manual winding A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a clockwork mechanism to measure the passage of time, as opposed to quartz watches which function using the vibration modes of a piezoelectric quartz tuning fork, or radio watches, which are quartz watches ...

movements with additional functions. The first automatic NOMOS watch, the Tangomat, was first introduced in the summer of 2005. In 2014, the company unveiled its own in-house

escapement An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to ...

, known as the NOMOS swing system, which made it no longer reliant on Swiss manufacturers. This new component was gradually introduced into NOMOS’ caliber range. Since 2016, the company has concentrated on upgrading its caliber range with the NOMOS swing system; once upgraded, the calibers receive a name beginning with "DUW". This acronym stands for "Deutsche Uhrenwerke" and is intended to highlight the company's in-house caliber production. The calibers in the company's neomatik (“new automatic”) series are very thin. NOMOS Glashütte introduced DUW 3001, its tenth in-house caliber, in 2015. At only 3.2 mm in height, this caliber is exclusive to the neomatik series, launched at

BaselWorld Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show is a global trade show of the international watch, jewellery and gem industry, organized each spring in the city of Basel, Switzerland, at the Messeplatz. The last Baselworld was held March 21–26, 2019. In ...

2016. The latest movement, DUW 6101, or “neomatik date,” was introduced in 2018. In this year the company also introduced the models Autobahn and Tangente Update, which debuted the neomatik date caliber. At

2019, the company introduced three new collections: the duo series, three new sport watches (two versions of Tangente Sport and one of Club Sport), and three automatic Club Campus models.

Models

The brand started production in 1992 with four basic models: Tangente, Orion, Ludwig, and Tetra. NOMOS Glashütte has since gradually expanded its range of watches to include new models and sizes, such as Club and Metro. In 2013 the company introduced two gold models to its collection, Lambda and Lux. There are currently thirteen NOMOS watch models, which come in a number of variations. These are: File:NOMOS Glashütte Tangente.jpg, Tangente File:NOMOS Glashütte Orion.jpg, Orion File:NOMOS Glashütte Ludwig.jpg, Ludwig File:NOMOS Glashütte Tetra.jpg, Tetra
Tangente
(1992): originally hand-wound with optional date function, power reserve indicator, white or champagne-colored dial, in 33, 35, 38, 39, and 41 mm diameter; also available as a limited edition for Doctors Without Borders in the UK, USA, and Germany
Tetra
(1992): hand-wound with optional automatic winding, power reserve indicator, various dial colors, in 27, 29.5, and 33 mm diameter; also available as a special edition for Doctors Without Borders in Germany
Orion
(1992): hand-wound with optional automatic winding, date function, various dial colors, in 33, 35, 38, 39, and 41 mm diameter
Ludwig
(1992): hand-wound with optional automatic winding, date function, white or champagner dial, in 33, 35, 38, and 41 mm diameter
Tangomat
(2005): automatic in 38 mm diameter with optional date function, white or dark-colored dial, and world time function
Club
(2007): hand-wound with optional automatic winding, date function, white or dark-colored dial, in 36, 38, and 40 mm diameter
Zurich
(2009): automatic in 40 mm diameter with optional date function, various dial colors, and world time function
Ahoi
(2013): automatic, 36 or 40 mm in diameter with water-resistance to 20 atm, optional date function, and various dial color options
Lux
(2013): hand-wound shape watch in 18 kt white or rose gold, various dial colors, in two sizes: 40.5 × 36 mm and 38.5 × 34 mm
Lambda
(2013): hand-wound watch in 18 kt white or rose gold; black, deep blue or off-white dial, in two sizes: 39 and 42 mm diameter
Metro
(2014): hand-wound in 35, 37, 38, or 39 mm diameter with date, power reserve indicator, and various dial color options
Minimatik
(2015): automatic in 35.5 mm diameter, available in white, champagne, or midnight blue
Autobahn
(2018): automatic in 41 mm diameter with date function, superluminova on dial, and three dial color options

Calibers

NOMOS Glashütte owns multiple patents for their calibers, such as for the in-house date mechanism, power reserve display and for the proprietary escapement, the NOMOS swing system. NOMOS Glashütte currently produces eleven in-house

calibers In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matc ...

with various complications. These are:

Manual

α (Alpha)
43-hour power reserve / Alpha.2 (found in the duo series), with a shorter pivot on the second wheel
DUW 1001
power reserve indicator, 84-hour power reserve
DUW 2002
tonneau shape, 84-hour power reserve
DUW 4101
NOMOS swing system, date indicator, 42-hour power reserve
DUW 4301
NOMOS swing system, power reserve indicator, 43-hour power reserve
DUW 4401
NOMOS swing system, power reserve indicator, date indicator, 42-hour power reserve

Automatic

neomatik DUW 3001
NOMOS swing system, 42-hour power reserve
DUW 5001
NOMOS swing system, 43-hour power reserve
DUW 5101
NOMOS swing system, date indicator, 42-hour power reserve
DUW 5201
NOMOS swing system, worldtimer function, 24-hour indicator, 42-hour power reserve
neomatik date DUW 6101
NOMOS swing system, date indicator, 42-hour power reserve The NOMOS Glashütte movements have a Glashütte three-quarter plate, are rhodium-plated and refined with Glashütte ribbing and NOMOS perlage. Further special features include: stop-seconds mechanism, fine adjustment in six positions, Glashütte-style NOMOS stopwork, tempered blue screws, sunburst finish on the ratchet and crown wheel. Additional features of the movements DUW 1001 and 2002: swan neck fine adjustment, hand-engraved balance cock, screwed gold chatons, 84-hour power reserve, twin mainspring barrel, screw balance.

Awards

NOMOS watches have won more than 150 prestigious design awards to date (as of December 2018), including the iF Design Award, the

Good Design Award In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

, the

red dot Design Award The Red Dot Design Award is a German international design prize awarded by Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG. There are prize categories for product design, brands and communication design, and design concept. Since 1955, designers and producers can appl ...

, and the

German Design Award The Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the official design award for Germany presented by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology. The award was given for the first time ...

. In 2018, NOMOS Glashütte became the first non-Swiss brand after A. Lange & Söhne to win the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), the Oscars of the watchmaking world, with the Tangente Update model - which has also been awarded the European Product Design Award (EPDA). File:Tangente neomatik 41 Update.jpg, Tangente Update has won the GPHG, iF Design Award, and EPDA. File:Nomos Glashütte Metro.jpg, The German Design Award 2018 was the sixth prize awarded to the model Metro, released in 2014.

Other

"Nomos" means ''law'' or ''rule'' in Greek. In 1906, a company called "Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft, Guido Müller & Co." started importing Swiss watches and distributing them with the more prestigious addition “Glashütte/Sachsen”. For a watch company to include “Glashütte” in their name, at least 50% of the caliber must be manufactured in Glashütte; this is up to 95% for NOMOS Glashütte, but was not the case for the Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft. The renowned company A. Lange & Söhne took them to court and in 1910 the Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft ceased business operations. The Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft from the early 1900s and today's NOMOS Glashütte have nothing more than the name Nomos in common.

Literature

* Schmid, Hans Heinrich: Lexikon der Deutschen Uhrenindustrie 1850 - 1980

* Design Klassiker, Die Tangente von NOMOS Glashütte, . * NOMOS Glashütte - Das große Universallexikon Berlin: Birkhäuser 2004, . * Doerr, Elizabeth: Bravo, NOMOS! How The Metro will Change the Watch Game

* Quill & Pad: How Does NOMOS Glashutte Make A Beautiful Watch With Manufacture Movement For Under $3,000?