Followers of Nomos probably thought they would never see the minimalist Glashütte-based brand make limited edition luxury watches. But that is exactly what the brand has done with two new gold-cased collections called Lambda and Lux.
Nomos began developing these two polarizing models shortly after manufacturing the limited edition Wempe Chronometerwerke line in 2004. Now, as then, the luxuriously distinct timepieces offer the best that Glashütte’s traditional art of watchmaking has to offer: a Glashütte three-quarter plate, a hand-engraved balance cock, gold chatons screw mounted with blued screws, and a screw balance, to name just a few elements.
New design
To understand the new, distinctive cases, first we need to back up a few years. The Zürich line, now almost ten years old, was characterized by a larger case, slightly differentiated from the Tangente and designed by the late Hannes Wettstein, a prominent Swiss industrial designer perhaps best known for his work with Ventura.
Award-winning designer Simon Husslein,―a Wettstein collaborator,―has stepped in and, with Stephan Hürlemann, remains responsible for the fine contours of the new Lux and Lambda cases, which definitely display a relationship to the Zürich and Orion models. “For us, these two new Nomos watches suggest something of a longing for permanent values,” says Husslein.
Professor of Design at the University of Arts in Berlin and freelance designer Axel Kufus was responsible for the extraordinary new dials of the Lux and Lambda, which retain enough characteristic Nomos elements to immediately display the watches’ relationship to the rest of the line.
“I see the true opulence of these watches in their mature serenity,” Kufus expounds. “The complex precision inside is only visible to its wearer through the large sapphire crystal on the back, lending the face of time an eternity in its clarity.”
New movement designations
Hand-wound Caliber DUW 1001 powers Lambda and hand-wound Caliber DUW 2002 powers Lux. Both movements are the work of Nomos’ movement designer Mirko Heyne.
Heyne’s DUW calibers are the direct results of Nomos’ experiences with manufacturing Wempe’s luxurious limited-edition timepieces. Both of these new round and tonneau-shaped very finely finished movements contain a few of the same characteristics found in those Wempe models. These features include eighty-four hours of power reserve (created by twin spring barrels), swan-neck fine adjustment, rhodium-plated three-quarter plate, hand-polished and beveled edges, screw-mounted gold chatons, a screw balance and a hand-engraved balance cock.
The latter element is particularly Nomos-like, even if it is truly a staple of Glashütte-style horology: if you look closely, you can see individual engraving forming the words, “Mit Liebe in Glashütte gefertigt” (“manufactured with love in Glashütte”).
Since 1991, Nomos’ movements have undergone a continuous transformation, step by step, becoming true manufacture movements without this necessarily being visible from the outside, as the timepieces themselves have not changed (though new models are always being added).
Today, Nomos is a full manufacture with the capability to design, manufacture, assemble and finish all kinds of simple and complicated mechanisms fully in-house. And it’s time the watch-buying public became a little more aware of this, so Nomos movements will henceforth carry the prefix DUW, standing for Deutsche Uhrenwerke (“German Watch Factory”) Nomos Glashütte.
But make no mistake: Nomos has no current plans to sell movements to outside companies—barring the 30-40 Alpha calibers per year it sells to Daniel Malchert for use in his Schlossberg model (see International Watch, September 2013).
Lux and Lambda are not designed to touch the standing of the current stainless steel collection, which perhaps represents the best value for money in the luxury watch market today. These striking new timepieces also do not represent an inching upward of Nomos’ regular price structure. The new Lambda and Lux models stand alone as a proud new display of Nomos’ capabilities. Limited to just 100 pieces for each model, prices range from $17,800 for the Lambda in rose gold and $18,800 in white gold to $20,500 for the Lux.