Nomos Club Automatic Special Edition celebrates 175 years of Saxon watchmaking

28 February 2021 | NOMOS Glashütte , German Watches , Watch Reviews

In the first quarter of 2021, Nomos Glashütte keeps celebrating 175 years of watchmaking in Glashütte, a milestone the Saxon brand desired to celebrate with an event held in its small town. The "175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte" treatment is applied to its freshest-looking collection, the Nomos Club. The Nomos Club product portfolio already includes several unique and colorful limited series like the Club Campus 38 for Pride, for example; from a design perspective, they come packed with styles and colors uncommon across the Bauhaus-styled global offering. The California dial and vivid color palettes make it the most irreverent Nomos watches on sale.

When looking back at the commemorative Ludwig and Lambda watches, I reckon they aimed at raising the perceived value of both collections. If I had to pick one, I think the Lambda 175 years lineup had a staggering market success; the enameling process turned the Lambda into a more luxurious timepiece than ever before. Regarding the Nomos Club, designers opted for a classic take on the current 40mm large Nomos Club Automatic. Both the black and the navy blue palettes are not hitting the spot. In contrast, I find the olive green option quite attractive as it was when paired with the Orion neomatik 41 introduced in 2019. It is neither opaque nor vivid, but rather an intense green, quite distinctive in the industry if you ask me.

The case is 40 millimeters across, and I praise Nomos Glashütte for choosing the right size for any commemorative collection; let's consider a Nomos Club comes with diameters ranging from 38 to 41 millimeters. I'm quite surprised the brand didn't opt for different size options; they instead used the color code as a model identifier. The watch comes standard with a gray or navy blue strap if you opt for olive green or navy blue, respectively, whereas the black onyx Nomos Club comes standard with the one-piece-link and no-gap-in-between Sport steel bracelet. The brushed links are completed by a polished mirror cover with a folding clasp and finely embossed Nomos logo on top. Like it or not, its build quality is top-notch. The first time I ever tested the new Sport bracelet is when I got my hands on the Nomos Tangente; I admit it works better with a Nomos Club instead. The bracelet's edgy design perfectly contrasts the smooth round case and the other way round.

The three Nomos Club Automatic in olive green, onyx, navy blue house the glorious DUW 5001 in-house designed and manufactured movement; this self-winding mechanism turned Nomos Glashütte into a vertically integrated watch manufacturer, given its proprietary Swing System escapement developed in collaboration with the University of Dresden. Introduced in 2005, it took seven years of R&D and a twelve-million Euro investment but allowed the brand to create a wide range of automatic timepieces, ensuring seamless integration between style, case design, and technical specifications.

The outcome is the three timepieces' accuracy meets chronometric standards, and the caliber sits among the thinnest in its class of products, given it measures a mere 4,3 mm; please bear in mind an outsourced Sellita SW 200-1 stops at 4,6 mm, like for like. The DUW 5001 is well finished; the only letdown being the somewhat small power reserve. I expect the brand's engineers are working hard to increase it anytime soon. The Nomos Club Automatic Special Edition in navy blue, olive green, and onyx black cost 1,960 Euros, if you opt for the first two ones, and 2,240 Euros, respectively. However, when you're purchasing, the brand allows you to swap a bracelet with a strap and vice versa, if you like, with the final price adjusting accordingly.