Glashütte Original

i know that my latest aquisition isnt a Glashutte Original, but it is made in Glashutte so i hope its alright to include it here.

i have been interested in the Nomos brand for quite some time having seen some very positive posts about them over the last couple of years. what interests me is that they are a true German brand with in-house movements(or so they claim). they have extremely clear dials and cases very much in the bauhaus style, unfortunately until now i havent purchased one as i have strict collecting criteria and they dont fit into them.

However, when i saw this listed for sale on one of the many sales forums i visit i couldnt resist it. this particular model is a 2006 Tangente Rimini handwind ltd edition for the 100th anniversary of the Wempe chronometer works. firstly the dial is superb, a vibrant orangy yellow which changes colour depending on the lighting and secondly it is #99/100. anyone who has seen my other posts will know that when i buy a ltd ed watch i always try to get #99 so when i saw this for sale on the used market i thought fate was telling me something so i bought it.

it arrived yesterday afternoon and my first impressions are excellent. it has its original wooden box which is simple, but more than sufficient to house the watch and the papers. no need for huge highly laquered chests.

the case is a nice 35mm x 6mm. how they manage to get it so slim i have no idea and goes some way to show the quality of the brand.

the strap is Shell Cordovan and i believe they are the only company that supply this exceedingly high quality leather for their straps as standard.

the dial is, as i have already said, superb. a white dial or black dial is ok, but this dial is the business and really makes the watch stand out. the black hands and markers are clear and easy to read. it is a dial that you are constantly looking at to see what shade it takes on in the current light conditions.

this model doesnt have a display back, but i understand they can be purchased direct from Nomos. i may see if they can supply me one with the same writing on as i have on mine especially as i managed to put a light scratch on the back whilst removing it for the movement pics.

the movement is a very well finished 3/4 plate as it seems is traditional in German watches. as for accuracy, i'm not freakish about it, but i like to test every new watch just for my own piece of mind. this watch straight out of the box and onto the wrist has performed faultlessly with no visible error after 24 hours on the wrist. you cant get much better than that.

so after 24 hours of ownership i am exceedingly pleased with my purchase. as a brand they seem to be excellent value for money especially if you buy used as i often do. it doesnt fit into the 2 main categories of my collection, but it will proudly sit alongside the 3rd category which includes Grand Seiko's and other watches with high quality movements.

here are some pics for your delectation 

enjoy, i'm certainly going too.

Graham

Graham,

Very nice acquisition.  I have been a fan of Nomos for some time, although I don't own any of their watches.  I respect their design sensibilities, their dedication to in-house movement development, reasonable sizes, and high-value (to the owner) pricing.  I understand that as time has gone on, they have moved more and more of their watch production in-house, to the extent that they now produce their own balances and hairsprings (or so I've heard).

I believe your watch has their in-house "Alpha" movement, whose design was based on the Peseux 7001.  Alpha retains the great beat (21600), good PR (44+ hrs), and thinness (2.5 mm) that distinguish its parent, and which make your watch so wearable.

I would like someday to acquire one of their watches with an automatic, dubbed the Tangomat, which is a product of their chief designer, Marco Heyne, formerly of Lang & Heyne.  Seems to represent a relative rarity: a modern, in-house, robust, accurate automatic at an affordable price.

Love the orange!

-Tom

 

...even acknowledging that the term "in-house movement" has few unarguable examples in the watchmaking world, I would consider the Alpha to be in-house.

Yes, the design and layout of the caliber came from the Peseux 7001 (a very high-quality design, by the way), and indeed in its early days (1990's) Nomos used the Peseux directly in its watches.

But in creating the Alpha, Nomos redesigned the plates and bridges, added perlage and Glahuette striping, blued the screws, countersunk the screwholes, finished the crown and ratchet wheels, added a hacking mechanism, added triovis fine regulation, added the traditional German click and click spring, and adjusted the watch in 4 positions.  In addition, by 2006, Nomos was manufacturing 80% of the parts for its movements under its own roof (since increased to 100%, as I mentioned above).

To me, this is analogous in some ways to what Dirk Dornblueth does to the Unitas caliber in his 99.x watches.  The difference is that I think Dirk hews to a traditional, handcrafted German watchmaking vision, in which each piece is unique to a degree.  I like and respect this tremendously, but I also admire Nomos' vision of marrying traditional and beautiful German watchmaking inspiration with the most modern of precise German manufacturing abilities, at an attractive pricepoint. 

-Tom

...I would like to get one, but probably not at the moment, although I keep checking the sales boards!

Nomos watches take a real beating on the secondary market, I've observed, for reasons I can't understand.  Well, all right, I can understand, but don't agree with:

- Dial design doesn't appeal to everyone

- Smaller sizes are out of favor

- Not a lot of brand-recognition or advertising

- Not traditional dress-watch styling, not real sports watch either, even with 10ATM WR in their Sport line.

If I have criticism of them, it's that they do too many LEs (yours excepted, of course, Graham   ).  Perhaps it's a way of marketing/crossbranding, and maybe it's a way of offering varities without changing the basic design, but I've seen LEs celebrating everything from city founding anniversaries to certain watchmakers to department stores to a cryptic one called the "Kleinskredit" that had a little "%" under the 6-o'clock position!

I'd rather they offered a customizable experience that allowed one to assemble the dial, hands, back, and movement finishing of choice, rather than hoping that one day an LE will come around to push my buttons.

-Tom

they also have a Triovis fine adjustment regulater (whatever that is). that could well account for its near perfect accuracy.

amazing what you find out if you read the brands website

best

Graham

Guess we cross-posted, Graham.  My understanding is that the Alphas of 2004 to 2008 or so were adjusted in 4 positions, while the ones produced now are adjusted in 6.

Think about both of those items.  When was the last time you saw a movement with either four or six positional adjustments that didn't stamp that fact in large type all over the top plate?  Adds to my admiration of Nomos as a manufacturer that embodies understated excellence and an honest character.

-Tom

Hi Graham,

the Tangente is a great watch. That you posted it today is a funny coincidence as I am wearing my yellow gold Orion today which I do not do often.

The ALPHA movement has gone a long way from its roots in the Peseux 7001. Indeed there have been 5 steps of evolution.
The first four based on 7001s that NOMOS bought and finished (or had finished initially).

1. The 7001 (1992): The version of the 7001 that NOMOS used initially featured the sun grinding typical for Glashütte on the crown wheel and the barrel wheel, the "Glashütter Streifenschliff" (same thing as the Côtes de Genève) on the bridges and blued screws (except the slots, probably the screws were nickeled in the movement kits and could not be "cleaned" completely). This finishing was done by Soprod.
2. The "1 T": In this first evolutionary step the plate and bridges of the movement became matted and gold plated. The plate was decorated with a Langeleist Perlage. A Triovis fine regulation device was added. Now the whole screws were blued. Finishing the movements was now performed by NOMOS at Glashütte as far as I know.
3. The "1 TS" added a hacking second.
4. The "1 TSP" replaced the barrel bridge and the wheel train bridge with the typical Glashütte 3/4 plate. (Btw, it is typical for Glashütte, not for German watches in general.) This included employing the typical Glashütte "ratchet" that locks the barrel wheel. Still the movement based on Peseux 7001 kits.
5. The "ALPHA" (2005) then was a full inhouse movement. It is a new development that kept the dimensions of the Peseux wheel train. The balance and balance spring (Quality 1a) are sourced from Nivarox. A part of the wheel train is inhouse, another part is sourced due to capacity constraints. The plates are Rhodium plated any make it easy to distinguish the the ALPHA from the former Peseux based movements.

There are three more variants of the Alpha movement:

• BETA includes a date display. It is interesing to notice that the movement is only 0,2mm thicker than the no date version. However it is 32,2mm in diameter as opposed to the 23,3 of the Alpha. So the date mechanism was not constructed on top of the movement but around it.
  
• DELTA includes a date and a power reserve display. Here we have the remarkable fact that mechanism of the power reserve display consists of six parts only. It does not add to the dimentions of the movement.
  
• GAMMA features the power reseve display but not the date. It is 0,2mm thicker than Alpha but not wider.

A tell tale detail is this little story: As soon as 1997 Peseux asked NOMOS to cease calling the movement Peseux movements because too many parts had been changed were changed by NOMOS and Peseux spare parts would not fit any more.

For me the NOMOS hand wound movements are clearly the most economic way to get hold of a manufacture movement in general and of a "real watch" from Glashütte in particular.
The automatic movements were developed from scratch inhouse, but that is another story to be told another day.

Best,
Martin

P.S.: You may want to try to get your hands onto a NOMOS ETA movement. Inspite of what JLC claims for the Extreme Lab, the ETA was the first movement to require no lubrication at all. And the power reserve is just enormous.

to give back a little of what I receive from you - especially when things narrow down on Omega - and all the other most friendly people here.
A pleasure to share with you!

One more thing: The NOMOS catalogue is absolutely worth reading. It contains a lot of information about their watches, their history and their way of making watches and also business. More then that it tells a lot about their attitude between the lines.

Best, Martin
This message has been edited by stromer on 2010-01-12 11:56:49

... which is mentioned on their website with the funny description:

Weighing a good kilogram and over 300 pages long: "NOMOS Glashütte - The Great Universal Encyclopaedia in Colour and with an Impressive Map Section". This volume contains everything from A to Z about NOMOS, beautiful watches, and Glashütte (as well as about secret lovers, design secrets, and animals native to the eastern Ore Mountains).

 

-Tom

at NOMOS and the they like most making fun of theirselves.

When I was in Glashütte last Easter holiday I was in their little shop and had the chance to get the encyclopedia. I was stupid enough not to take it just because it was the English version. The German version had long been sold out. Today I think it could have helped me a lot with some of my posts here at PuristS because too often I am lacking the correct English watch terms.

Best,
Martin

but the point is that did not buy it. Neither in German (it was sold out even before i noticed it existed) nor English (I was stupid enough to take it).

If it is worth buying depends on what you expect. If you were looking for a dead serious encyclopedia giving you all the details about watchmaking that you did not know about before you would certainly be disappointed. If you were looking for aspects of watchmaking not so commonly known because they are specific to Glashütte, private to NOMOS or just fun to know, you would love it.
Here is one short sample topic from the encyclopedia: "Anzahl der heimlichen Liebespaare" ("Nr. of secret love affairs"): 2

NOMOS put online an excerpt from the encyclopedia . It seems to by available German only, but given that that you offered to translate the encyclopedia for me it should be no problem for you ;-)

Have a great day!
Martin

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Martin, thanks for filling in the timeline with such great detail.

I'd love to hear more about the Tangomat movement if you've got the time.

I heard an anecdote about the Tangomat's development, that long before its release, Nomos put a number of prototype watches in the hands of consumers and enthusiasts, for daily use-and-abuse over a period of time.  This was not only to troubleshoot the movement under real-world conditions, but also as a smart marketing move to build awareness and fuel interest without spending a lot of advertising money.

Seems like a good idea, and runs counter to the secrecy that most new watch development occurs under.

-Tom

.. i wasn't really convinced by this dial; but the more i look at it, the more it appeals to me ... i think you'll have to come over once again Graham, so i can inspect it personally.

Some yaers ago i bought something completely different instead of a Nomos i really liked .. bad choice .... .

Cheers,

Filip

... a date ready .... .... .

Will let you know more later !

Filip

. . . is vast as they've managed to buck the trend towards ever larger designs. While everyone acknowledges G O and A L & S, too little attention is paid to the third manufacturer in Glashütte, which is a shame as they produce honest watches at a very reasonable price. Congratulations on your latest acquisition, and may it not be your last from Glashütte ;-) . . . best regards, Art

. . . in my very humble opinion ;-) . . .

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. . . it was rather clever . . .

... but no more than we have come to expect from him.  

 

Cheers,

pplater.

. . . you made my day!