Horological Meandering

WatchProSite Moderator Patrick_y reviews the Nomos Glashutte Club Campus 38 Blue Purple Reference 730 timepiece!  At $1650, this is likely the most accessibly priced watch Patrick_y has reviewed from a major brand! 

 

Blueberries.  They’re healthy for you and are rich with anti-oxidants.  Also, we have a lot of blue and green dialed watches, but not purplish blue.  Blue dials are great, since men often wear shirts that are sky blue or French blue in color – but men also often wear lavender shirts too…  Hmm…  Perhaps a new trend of purplish blue watches should start? 

 

Nomos Glashutte presented me with the loan of its Club Campus 38 Blue Purple timepiece.  At $1650 US Dollars, it’s one of the least expensive Nomos timepieces available.  Yet, it’s still very much a high quality piece of German engineering. 

A picture of the watch outdoors in the garden. 

Starting with the Movement…

 

Movement Architecture (Updated 10-May-2022): Wow!  The movement is amazing relative to the price.  This is a movement with a ¾ plate (there’s even an A. Lange & Soehne watch that doesn’t have a traditional ¾ plate)!  Whenever I read a movement has 17 jewels, I assume it’s one of those standard ETA Swiss movements.  Nomos likely took inspiration from the ETA 7001 movement, as the similar base-plate with similar jewel holes for the gear train gives it away.  However, that's where the similarities end.  The 3/4 plate is entirely Nomos' own, as is the ratchet system.   17 jewels was a minimum requirement for many countries for importation and customs duty rules.  And Nomos does not sell this movement to other manufacturers.  And the movement is thin!  2.6mm thin! 

Movement Finishing and Decoration: Finishing of this movement far exceeds other watches of similar pricepoint with nice ribbing, perlage, an unpolished beveled edge, and real heat-blued screws (most at this price point are chemically blued).  Few wire springs are used on this movement and you can see in the top of the photo the rachet for the main spring is a hefty chunk of metal with a metal bar using tension to act like a spring (Vacheron Constantin would do it this way since they’re banned from using wire springs due to Geneva Seal requirements), unlike a Swiss movement normally of this pricepoint which would use a rachet with a little wire coil spring.  Lastly, also notice the mainspring wheel is nicely solarized. 

 

Notice the movement is finished on both sides.  Very well finished!  And on the right photo, you can see the tension bar acting as a spring for the rachet in the top of the photo.

Movement Manufacturing: Furthermore, this is a Glashutte movement.  Meaning a minimum requirement of 50% of the value of the movement must be created in Glashutte!  A small team of workers assembles the movement in various stage, with each worker adding or adjusting a part of this movement.  Hairsprings are supplied externally (very few manufacturers make hairsprings in-house and all the ones that do have to sell externally).  I cannot stress, for this pricepoint, this movement is just incredible.  Please read my post about Made in Germany watches to learn a little more about the requirements to put Glashutte on the dial.  Here is a link: www.watchprosite.com /

 

Movement Performance and Haptics: 43 hours power reserve, tested, got nearly 44 hours on a full wind.  Accuracy on the demonstrator watch was good.  Averaging around -1 to -2 seconds a day.  Definitely solid accuracy.  The crown was a great size, nicely knurled, and easy to wind.  Good haptic feedback from winding, and winding to the end was a nice abrupt stop, no mushiness at the end. 

 

Case and Dial Design

I didn’t disassemble the case and dial, but it appears to be possibly a monoblock case.  Also possible for the case to be made from a ring with the lugs welded on.  The case was very well made and a solid case and likely a closed deck design.  The cases are supplied by a specialist supplier.  I’m told the back has a screw down case back and not a press case back (screw down is more secure and more expensive to produce, also better for water resistance).  The case is actually water resistant to 100 meters!  A cute whale also indicates the water resistance.  Nice touch!  The polished case back is also the perfect place to engrave a message to the recipient!

See the whale?  This Nomos can also be engraved with your name and contact information as the world's most expensive luggage tag!  But you'd probably want to engrave a more special message for a loved one!

 

If I were to be critical here, the distance between the strap and the case seemed a little larger than I would’ve designed it.  The gap here is a tiny big larger than I find ideal to my eyes. 

 

The dial is available in multiple colors, but this particular dial was quite nice.  It’s a two part dial, the sub-seconds dial is countersunk.  Dial proportions are pleasing to the eye, although the expert can tell the movement is a bit small relative to the dial as there’s a bit of space under the sub-seconds sub-dial.  The lume color matched the design of the dial (sometimes the lume color clashes with the dial).  The lume is directly applied onto the dial, thus not using applied indices.  An orange second hand offers superb contrast.  There were no flaws with my piece.  Overall, this is a good dial.  And I especially like the blueberry color.  Blueberries are healthy!  This watch is a healthy watch too! 

 

The strap is hand stitched and wonderfully comfortable.  The clasp unfortunately does have a springbar hole visible on the outside.  Personal pet peeve, I do not like holes on springbars holes on lugs nor on clasps.  But this is easily remedied, as you can buy a different clasp design or a deployant for $30 and $100 USD respectively. 

 

 

A Bit About the town of Glashutte, and Nomos, The Company

Glashutte, the town, is a tiny town with two main streets and one tiny train station.  According to census reports, around 7000 inhabitants are in the town – which surprises me, I would’ve thought the population would be half that.  Many of them work in the watch industry.  Before the watch industry, Glashutte was an iron ore mining town.  King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony established a watchmaking presence in Glashutte in the mid 1800s.  Watchmaking in Glashutte flourished until the second world war, when luxury timepiece operations ceased and weren’t really restarted until the mid 1990s. 

German products are known for great engineering and excellent performance.  I even like German wine! 

 

Nomos Glashutte is one of the Glashutte brands that’s still independent and privately held and is even still managed by its founders.  It is likely the third largest employer in Glashutte with somewhere around 200-300 employees worldwide.  The juggernauts being Glashutte Original and A. Lange & Sohne – both of which are owned by even bigger umbrella corporations with stockholders.  Despite a small team of employees, Nomos manufacturers around a dozen different in-house calibers that were all designed by Nomos for Nomos.  Movements are not sourced externally nor sold externally.  Its best selling models are perhaps their watches with more Bauhaus designs as these elegantly modern designs are well received around the world. 

The Nomos pictured above reflects the simple mid-century Bauhaus designs that the brand is perhaps most well known for.

 

Final Conclusion

I highly recommend this watch.  At $1650 US Dollars, this watch is a great bargain.  The movement being the strongest attribute for this watch.  The watch has an incredible movement for this price point.  A true in-house movement, German architecture, minimal use of coiled wire springs, reasonably good finishing (not to mention extremely good for its pricepoint), and made in modest quantities.  This movement is definitely a huge value add for this watch as no other watch in this price point can offer such a good movement.  I have even recommended watches costing twice as much with movements that might have a lesser generic ETA movement in them.   Combined with the excellent haptics, this is a very premium and well engineered product.  Special thanks to Nomos Glashutte for opening my eyes on how good a watch can be! 

This Nomo with beautiful blueberries California dial, stainless steel case and in-house hand winding German movement definitely has an excellent value for money 👍🏻

I agree! Lots of value for the money! Thank you for reading!

...but this is quite appealing. A nice, casual watch at a great price. Thanks : )

A word that we've forgotten the past couple of years.

Nomos is really doing what they do very well.

I know a few people for whom one or Nomos watches make up a small collection and they are content.

They are indeed great timepieces. Not Breguets. Not Vacheron Constantins. Not Patek Philippes. But great timepieces. Just like a BMW 3 series is a premium machine - and an impressive value in many respects! I'd take a 3 series over the big and very luxurious 7 series on a twisty windy mountain road.

...we had one with the sweetest straight 6 imaginable : ) Drove it into the ground before donating it : )

The latest BMW inline 6 cylinder, internally designated as B58, is one of the best six cylinder engines I've ever driven. Super smooth, powerful, not the most responsive, but relatively good for today's turbocharged world. Strong and reliable closed-deck design. I'm also told it's extremely reliable too! Probably the last great BMW inline 6 engine we may see before the electric cars take over the world.

My sons have one each, one with black dial, one with white dial, both with sapphire case back. They love them, it is a marvelous value for money timepiece! Thanks for your report

I'd say your sons are very well equipped. These are excellent timepieces. And it seems the company has the right values too!

Seems like your sons got the watch collecting bug from you!

The dial of the 36 is more proportioned with the movement. This 38 has a tiny bit of extra space below the seconds subdial, which makes the proportions slightly less perfect. They do make the 36 with all the fancy colors too! It's just I happened to only review the 38.

You are right, it is better proportioned.

Space between the strap spring bar and the rest of the case is a little too generous, maybe by 1 mm. But I realize I'm nitpicking and it looks fine on the wrist.

It honestly is a solid and honest watch. Makes me realize all the other companies have been rather a little dishonest with their pricing!

Which dial color do you like the most? They offer a plethora of colors. The 36 might be the way to go!