Nomos marks a milestone
Saxony has a proud tradition of watchmaking that returned triumphantly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, with both the revival of historic dial names and the founding of new ones. Among the most notable of the latter is Nomos (‘law’ or ‘rule’ in Greek), which was founded in Glashütte in January 1990, two months after the Wall came down.
The first Nomos watches were released in 1992 across four ‘families’: Tangente, Orion, Ludwig and Tetra, all of which survive as part of what is now a 13-model line-up. To mark the 30th anniversary, the brand has gradually released special editions, including 35mm and 39mm versions of its minimalist, top-selling Tangente, with special platinum-coloured dials that epitomise the brand’s “form and function” aesthetic. But the most recent commemorative pieces are in the square-cased Tetra range of watches that, until now, have been available only in hand-wound form.
The new, 33mm limited editions are equipped with the brand’s neomatik self-winding movement and feature dials in opaque, enamel-like finishes that are offered in a choice of red, blue, black or off-white. Just 175 of each will be available – representing 175 years of watchmaking in Glashütte – and all boasting engraved edition numbers.
Transparent casebacks, meanwhile, reveal the nicely decorated DUW 3001 calibres that are individually numbered in gold (Nomos now has a line-up of 11 in-house movements and creates 95 per cent of its own parts) and each watch is supplied on a Horween leather strap.
The Nomos anniversary coincides with the recent introduction of the so-called ‘Glashütte Rule’ that affords watches produced in the town a status comparable to that of ‘Swiss Made’. It is only the second time since 1938 that such a legal designation of origin has been officially awarded to a technical product in Germany, and it means that manufacturers must meet a strict set of criteria to sell watches with the Glashütte name.
The town, which lies around 18 miles south of Dresden, at the foot of the Ore mountains separating Germany from the Czech Republic, is currently home to 10 watch manufacturers in addition to Nomos. Others include A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original, Tutima and Moritz Grossmann, as well as Wempe, which restored the town’s historic observatory in 2006 and now uses it as the base for its chronometer manufacturing workshops. Harley Sprocker Nomos Tangente Platinum Gray, from £2,440, Tetra limited edition, £3,060; nomos-glashuette.com