Bang for your buck: A quick summary on NOMOS Glashütte

Watch enthusiasts are no stranger to the German town of Glashütte, which is home to many of the world’s finest watchmakers such as Glashütte Original and A. Lange & Söhne. These big names have dominated the German watch scene for some time with pieces such as their signature Panomatic and Lange 1, but in recent years Glashütte-based NOMOS has been steadily gaining its own following. The beauty of NOMOS lies in a few different places: the watches themselves, the engineering behind the movements, and perhaps most importantly the value.

The watches themselves

Inspired by the Bauhaus movement, all pieces by NOMOS embrace simplicity in design. The baseline model, the Tangente, is about as simplistic as they come. The serifed numerals and flame-blued hands provide just enough character to keep the watch from looking stale, while complimenting the clean dial and case perfectly.

If you’re looking for something that is still Bauhaus inspired but more sporty, there is still hope: the Club is perhaps one of the nicest “sport” watches I’ve seen. I put sport in quotes because the Club could easily still pass for a dress watch, but with a rugged α movement inside and 100m water resistance, the watch can take a licking.

The engineering

What’s most interesting about the Tangente and the Club is the fact that the α (Alpha) movement is nearly completely in-house, with exception of critical parts such as the Nivarox balance springs. Indeed, all NOMOS watches contain in-house movements that are made to impressively high standards. NOMOS has this to say on their website:

Between 75 and 95 percent of a NOMOS watch’s value is added directly in Glashütte—an extremely high amount, since the law only stipulates a minimum of 50 percent in order to qualify for the Glashütte label. It is only certain specific pieces, such as the rubies used as jewel bearings or the Nivarox 1a balance springs, that our manufactory must obtain from third parties.

In-house movements are practically always finished to a higher level of quality and detail than mass-produced movements. NOMOS takes this to a high level, comparable to much more expensive and luxurious pieces from other brands. That brings us to the value aspect of NOMOS, where it really knocks out the competition.

The DUW 1001

The value

NOMOS doesn’t make inexpensive watches - that’s not their game. If you’re into the Bauhaus style and you’d like something to impress the baristas at Starbucks, there are cheaper alternatives. But, you’d be hard pressed to find a better value in a watch than NOMOS offers.

Take, for example, the aforementioned Tangente. The watch, with an in-house movement, sapphire crystal, beautiful finishing, comes in at a retail price of $1900 with steel caseback. If you’d like to gaze at that trademark Glashütte three-quarter plate all day long, you can opt for the sapphire caseback version for $2180. The movement may be handwound, and sure, there may be no date, but I challenge you to find a comparable watch for a better price (no, seriously, if you find one, let me know!). The rest of NOMOS’ offerings, for the most part, offer equal or better values. If I had to guess, I’d say they’re going to take advantage of their increasing popularity and increase their prices (even more than they have in the past) over the next few years.