Nomos is headquartered in Glashütte, Germany, and has been an independent brand since its inception just after the fall of the Berlin Wall when Roland Schwertner turned his entrepreneurial spirit to watchmaking. The first collection was released in 1991 and included four models — the Orion, Tangente, Ludwig and Tetra. Each of the four was designed by Bauhaus designer Susanne Günther, who brought the design tenets of the movement into the watches. Each Tangente model that followed through the years continued to play with its initial design concept of a modern, simple dress watch and introduced a variety of sizes, colors and complications.
The introduction of the Nomos Club series in 2007 brought a line of youthful sport watches with an emphasis on affordability. The models featured 36mm cases, shell cordovan straps and luminous hands for a contemporary look that appealed to a new audience of Nomos collectors. The Club line expanded to include a date complication, automatic models, and would receive a neomatik movement in 2017 with the thin Nomos Club neomatik.
Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Petrol and Polar
Recently, the Nomos Club Sport neomatik line expanded again with two new models — the green Club Sport neomatik petrol and the blue Club Sport neomatik polar. The existing watches are offered in 42mm, and in blue and black dials. The new models reduce the diameter from 42mm to 37mm for a watch size that is gender neutral and comfortable for wrists of all sizes. “Demand for Club Sport with this diameter was more than obvious,” says Sven Schönberger from Nomos Product Management. “It simply fits the times.”
The new blue and green dial colors are beautiful with their Nomos sunburst finish that catches the light for a dynamic and radiant display. The numerals continue the minimalist Bauhaus design with large, easy-to-read indexes and are recessed to hold more luminescent material for a longer period of low-light readability.
The sapphire crystal back reveals the Nomos DUW 3001 neomatik caliber — an astonishing 3.2mm in height, with a view of the beautifully worked rotor that keeps the movement wound with minimal wrist movements.
The stainless steel case creates a minimalistic frame for the dial with a grooved crown designed for a sure grip. These models are seawater resistant up to 200 meters, or up to 660 feet, and with the high luminosity, they are perfect for underwater sports like swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving.
The watches are paired with an ultra-comfortable stainless steel link bracelet with a polished and satinated finish and a deployant clasp.
Nomos Neomatik
No discussion of Nomos is complete without mentioning their innovative family of neomatik (named after “new automatic”) movements known for their thin profiles. Since 2015, Nomos has raised the bar for slim dress watches with the development of two new neomatik movements with slender profiles. The first time-only neomatik movement, DUW 3001, was released in 2015 and measures a lean 3.2mm in height. The second movement released in 2018, DUW 6101, featured a date complication and measures 3.6mm in height. Both movements are independent of each other and were developed by the same technical team responsible for the swing system in 2014 — Nomos’s proprietary escapement. “The Nomos swing system and neomatik,” explains Nomos CEO Uwe Ahrendt, “stand for the best handcraft and outstanding technology from the cutting edge of Glashütte.”
Theodor Prenzel, Deputy Head of Research & Development for Nomos, headed the project back in 2012 and was given a real challenge. “I only had three goals to meet in developing a new movement: make it flat, make it accurate and make it cost effective,” he details. “Typically, the rule in watchmaking was that a movement should either be flat, accurate or affordable. It took us seven years in R&D and almost USD12 million in research and development to complete the Nomos swing system alone.”
The DUW 3001 movement has achieved new levels of efficiency, with a friction loss of only 5.8 percent rather than the usual 20 percent for an efficiency of 94.2 percent. The DUW 3001 is equipped with the Nomos swing system that made Nomos one of the few watchmakers fully independent, right down to the escapement.
A sport watch for all
The green Club Sport neomatik petrol and the blue Club Sport neomatik polar, with its smaller diameter and attractive new colors, really are sport watches designed for all. The comfort of the bracelet and the sport-friendly water and shock resistance, as well as its relative affordability, makes this the ideal next buy for any collector who values the tradition of Glashütte watchmaking and an appreciation of modern innovation.
“When it comes to designing our watches, we concentrate on the essentials, leaving the superfluous to one side,” explains Arhendt. “This approach is indirectly connected to the Bauhaus movement. It comes specifically from the Deutscher Werkbund, which was a precursor to Bauhaus, and is characteristic of the way we work at Nomos Glashütte — with the aim to make high-quality products using efficient techniques.”
Tech Specs
Club Sport Neomatik Polar, Ref. 750 / Petrol, Ref. 746
Movement: Self-winding caliber DUW 3001; 43-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes and small seconds
Case: 37mm; stainless steel, water-resistant to 200m
Dial: Green or blue sunburst pattern
Strap: Stainless steel link bracelet with deployant clasp
Price: USD 3,610
