And Now for Something Completely Different - Lux Weißgold

This just announced from NOMOS Glashütte -

Courtesy of NOMOS Glashutte 

I WANT ONE!

Is it Local? Part Deux

So let's talk about "down-home".  I have come to realize that fewer and fewer things are actually made where we assume that they are.  More car companies than I care to mention trade on the idea of a GERMAN car that is perhaps about as German as I am.  Point of clarification - I am not German!

But let's talk about something that IS German, and in a wonderfully eccentrically German way -
NOMOS Glashutte!

First Post Revisited - Where it all begins

I looked up the other day and realized that in a little over two years I had accumulated more than 1000 posts!  So it seemed as good a time as any to hop in the "way-back" machine and revisit the very first post.  You know, sort of bringing it all back home -

This post originally ran on June 29th, 2010


Courtesy of NOMOS Glashütte

Time is fleeting. To measure it is a nearly futile protest against its inevitable forward momentum. How do we measure time? The folks at Nomos have been good enough to share some images and some stories. The watch pictured above is the Nomos Tangente. I have always been obsessed by this watch. Beyond the obvious - i.e. the design, I had always found the name quite evocative - Tangente. I had always believed that the name had a design reference. As if Mies himself had lent a hand (albeit from the great beyond) in the design of this great watch. It was only many years later when traveling through Switzerland with my German speaking boss that it was explained to me. The name Tangente had nothing to do with design. In fact, the Tangente was named for the roadways that you must travel in your car on a daily basis in Germany. At first I was a bit bummed out. But then I thought about the genius of this name. I have been smiling ever since.

NOMOS' Zürich watch awarded Good Design Award

Courtesy of NOMOS

Glashütte, January 2012. NOMOS Glashütte is proud to have been awarded the Good Design Award 2011 by the Chicago Athenaeum for NOMOS' Zürich watch. The Swiss design legend Hannes Wettstein created this watch for the independent German manufactory as one of his last projects before he died.

"The Good Design Award is an internationally recognized prize with a long history. We are very pleased about it and about the American design scene's appreciation of beautiful and well made watches, " states Simon Husslein, Studio Wettstein chief designer.
While it is not its first recognition, the Good Design Award is a very special prize for the Zürich watch, which also won the Red Dot Design Award 2010 and the iF Product Design Award 2011.  This underlines NOMOS' aim to combine traditional watchmaking skills at the German watchmaking mecca Glashütte with a timeless modern design.The Good Design Award's legacy dates back to 1950, when the prize was created by Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., in Chicago.  Today it is awarded by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, and the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies in Dublin.

Manufacturer...

We all have, to some extent, a fairly grand and exalted opinion of what the inside of a true manufacturer must look like.  Sometimes that image is sold and packaged as part of a luxury image, and you almost expect the watch makers to be offered a hot towel and champagne as they arrive to start the day, emerging from their Bentleys.  I think in all of the hype and noise about luxury- what it is and what it means... we've lost sight of actual watch making and the real people who do this for a living.

I was shown this picture at BaselWorld by the folks at NOMOS, and this to me really summed it up -

Courtesy of NOMOS

It's nice to remember that real people are actually still making real watches.

NOMOS ENCYCLOPAEDIA - Todays entry is...

Once again it's time to turn to NOMOS Glashutte - The Great Universal ENCYCLOPAEDIA
Today's entry is - Orion!

Reprinted with permission from NOMOS.

Orion
The Orion is a much sought-after standard model by NOMOS (and secretly our favorite watch).  Its movement is the NOMOS Alpha movement.  Orion is available with a dial in white (silver-plated) and in anthracite.  These watches usually have silver index markers and hands.  The white version is also available with golden index markers and tempered blue hands.  All Orion watches are also available with or without a glass back.

( Page 184, NOMOS Glashutte - The Great Universal ENCYCLOPAEDIA, 1st English Edition, copyright  Kommunikationsverein, Berlin, 2006)

NOMOS Orion
Visit NOMOS at:  www.glashuette.com

At NOMOS, exceptions prove the rule...

As promised, I am trying to dip in once a week to the NOMOS Encyclopaedia to share with you who do not have it on your bookshelves.

Today's entry is:  FUSS

Reprinted with permission from Nomos.

Fuss
Roland Schwertner, part of the management duo, wants nothing to do with fuss.  So you'll find none of it here, at least not officially.  Exceptions, of course, prove the rule.

( Page 84, NOMOS Glashutte - The Great Universal ENCYCLOPAEDIA, 1st English Edition, copyright  Kommunikationsverein, Berlin, 2006)

NOMOS Tetra Power Reserve

Exceptions do indeed prove the rule!

Visit NOMOS at:  www.glashuette.com

Something a bit whimsical from Glashutte

As you have probably figured out by now, I have a tough time going more than a week without talking about NOMOS.  David has been kind enough to keep feeding me with great bits of information and has gone well above and beyond the normal scope of what a PR guy would usually do - or at least above and beyond what I used to do!  This is the greeting card you get when you receive a communication from the folks at NOMOS.  Think about this for a moment.  Usually the image and message you are receiving from a watch company is all about the history, the beauty, style, strength, accuracy, etc.  and as the guy who sometimes writes these messages - I am not necessarily disagreeing.  BUT - what happens when you take a classic watch from a company making their own movements, operating in one of the most famous sites in the world of horology... and let them really communicate with you?  You get the NOMOS Encyclopaedia.  And unless you are just a boring person - you smile!

This is 300 PLUS pages of pure fun!  Yes, there is a lot of information about NOMOS, watches, movements, etc., but there is more!  So this will begin my examination of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA and I will be sharing a weekly entry.  All credit for text goes to NOMOS Glashutte.  Today's topic is - 

Kissing with NOMOS - and why NOMOS is called "NOMOS"

From 1906 to 1910 there was already a company in Glashutte with the name NOMOS, founded by Guido Muller, and advertising specialist from Dresden.  He produced only pocket watches.  They were beautiful, tasteful models that very quickly became cult objects of the intellectual scene.  However, they were watches with a catch: the ebauche that ticked in them was very good - but it came from Switzerland.  So, after a few years, Muller had to shut his workshop.  A. Lange & Sohne had started proceedings against NOMOS, which ended with a settlement.  The company was no longer allowed to distribute its products from Dresden either because it did not submit to the rules that the court imposed.  

What had caused outrage in 1910 was necessary in 1990, when Roland Schwertner came to Glashutte.  Everyone who, like him, started making watches in Glashutte again, initially obtained components from Switzerland.  So too did the newly founded company NOMOS, which had nothing in common with the old company except for the name.  Schwertner, the managing director, simply liked the name.  Firstly because of what it actually stands for - "NOMOS" is Greek and means law, convention and just distribution.  Secondly, because Bruce Chatwin wrote about NOMOS in his book "The Songlines" and Schwertner likes Chatwin a lot.  And thirdly, "when you say NOMOS, your mouth forms a beautiful kiss."

From:  NOMOS Glashutte - The Great Universal ENCYCLOPAEDIA, copyright Kommunikationsverein, Berlin, 2006

   

And of course there has to be some watches!  These are three different versions of the NOMOS CLUB.

Not just Black or White

On the surface of things, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that NOMOS makes either white or black watches. But the great thing about NOMOS is that nothing is as obvious or "standard" as that.

To quote the NOMOS press release regarding these watches -

Exciting, Colorful Gray

Gray dominates, reigns, but in the most beautiful way. There is a limited edition of 20 Orion models - "Unification -NOMOS" - twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Each one in gray and each one carries the name of a town.

These were released last year 2009, and I got to view a few up close and personal while in Europe for BaselWorld.

For more information on this collection, please visit the NOMOS website:

http://www.glashuette.com/index.php?id=315&L=1

I would like to thank my contact at NOMOS - David, for his support and providing us with images and information.

Where It All Begins

Courtesy of NOMOS

Time is fleeting. To measure it is a nearly futile protest against its inevitable forward momentum. How do we measure time? The folks at Nomos have been good enough to share some images and some stories. The watch pictured above is the Nomos Tangente. I have always been obsessed by this watch. Beyond the obvious - i.e. the design, I had always found the name quite evocative - Tangente. I had always believed that the name had a design reference. As if Mies himself had lent a hand (albeit from the great beyond) in the design of this great watch. It was only many years later when traveling through Switzerland with my German speaking boss that it was explained to me. The name Tangente had nothing to do with design. In fact, the Tangente was named for the roadways that you must travel in your car on a daily basis in Germany. At first I was a bit bummed out. But then I thought about the genius of this name. I have been smiling ever since.