NOMOS Glashütte is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also 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, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, specializing in artisan manual-winding and automatic

mechanical watch A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a Movement (clockwork), 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 clock, radio ...

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

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

. The first collection of designs was drawn up by Susanne Günther, who took influence from the

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

purist style. NOMOS designs are known for their clean and

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

aesthetic. NOMOS Glashütte is a member of the

Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The ''Werkbund'' became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, parti ...

—a predecessor of the

movement. The Werkbund Association aims to represent the interests of companies that combine both handcrafts with industrial production and design with functionality.

History

"Nomos" (νόμος) means ''law'' or ''rule'' in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. In 1906, a company called "Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft, Guido Müller & Co." started importing

Swiss watch Swiss made is a label or marking used to indicate that a product was made on the territory of Switzerland. It is also a geographical indication protected under different Swiss and international laws and treaties. According to the Swiss Federal ...

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

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, registered the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

NOMOS Glashütte/SA. The first collection of NOMOS watches came out shortly thereafter in 1992. NOMOS Glashütte currently 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

movement Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...

s. Until 2005, the basis for these movements was 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 Grenc ...

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

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

. 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 watche ...

movements with additional functions. The first

automatic Automatic may refer to: Music Bands * Automatic (Australian band), Australian rock band * Automatic (American band), American rock band * The Automatic, a Welsh alternative rock band Albums * ''Automatic'' (Jack Bruce album), a 1983 el ...

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 t ...

, 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 considerably thin. NOMOS Glashütte introduced DUW 3001, its tenth in-house caliber, in 2015.

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, square 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, Roman numerals. *Tangomat (2005): automatic in 38 mm diameter with optional date function, white or dark-colored dial, NOMOS Xi movement, 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 and limited edition stainless steel; black, deep blue or off-white dial, in two sizes: 39 and 42 mm diameter. In 2020, Lambda reference 960.S1 was introduced as a limited edition of 175 pieces celebrating the 175th anniversary of watchmaking in the town of Glashuette.
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 the 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 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, Jewels: 29, Frequency: 21600.
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 design awards as of 2018 including the

iF Design Award The iF Product Design Award was introduced in 1954 and is annually conferred by the iF International Forum Design. The award, which spans multiple disciplines, has more than 5,500 entries from around 59 nations every year. History The iF Indus ...

, the Good Design Award, the

red dot Design Award The Red Dot Design Award is an international, annual design competition for product and industrial design, brand and communication design as well as design concepts, in which the Red Dot quality label is awarded to winners. The Red Dot Design A ...

, and the

German Design Award The Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany () is the official design award for Germany presented by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology. The award was given for the first time under the name 'Federal Award for Good Design' in ...

. 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.

History

Models

Calibers

Manual

Automatic

Awards

Further reading

References

See also