The Nomos Tetra neomatik 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte watches hands-on

Let’s get the celebrations started again.

The Saxon brand, which we appreciate and recognize primarily for producing thin, round-shaped wristwatches, has a broad, under-the-radar offering of squared or tonneau-shaped timepieces, finally popping out of the dark in 2022. This year is about the Nomos Tetra, whose origins date back to Nomos Glashütte‘s foundation. Tetra is fostering the celebrations of 175 years of manufacturing watches in Glashütte, something we expected to celebrate downtown, alongside enthusiasts and international press media, and did’t do due to the ongoing pandemic back then.

Sharp edges belong to the Bauhaus’ design language and appear across the brand’s collection. Tangente is, for instance, more daring than a Tetra from this perspective; the case is round but adopts squared and spider-shaped lugs, while Tetra is square with straight lines and ninety degrees angles everywhere. The 175-year edition you see here comes in four colour variations, as once exemplified by the commemorative Lambda in steel. Back then, we only got our hands on one out of three options available; with this celebrative edition, we took the chance to place them all under our camera to offer a comprehensive review and help readers make one-to-one comparisons at a glance.

2022: the year of the Tetra.

In keeping with a strategy geared towards renewing one collection at a time, the Nomos Tetra grabs the headline news and gets the “175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte” treatment reserved for a select few. I have a soft spot for square-case watches; not only does it disrupt the universal round case design, it enhances eclecticism and breaks conventional rules.

A Tetra might not be everyone’s cup of tea; such design is a love-it-or-hate-it affair involving the most eccentric watch lover. Interestingly, Tetra sits atop the most colourful Nomos collections along with the young-catching Club Campus; it’s no surprise since vivid colours belong to the collection’s DNA. According to tried-and-tested golden marketing rules, a limited edition release helps revive the entire, somewhat forgotten, entire collection.

According to base specs, the perfectly-squared case side measures 33 mm and, placed atop a mid-to-top-sized wrist, sits on the small side within most wrist sizes. It’s a small watch; inscribe a circle into the square, and you’ll wear an ultra-flat 33 mm, measuring just 7,3 mm in thickness.

A one-size-fits-all timepiece, perfect on medium-sized wrists

In brief, the Nomos Tetra is a unisex watch fitting mostly a medium-sized wrist, yet too small on a wrist measuring between 19 and 20 cm, like mine, for instance. I’d love to see how it works when paired with a steel bracelet and turn it into all-around ultra-thin sports watch you might virtually wear all year long, swimming excluded, according to the specs’ sheet’s 30-meter water resistance.

The Nomos Tetra neomatik 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte comes in four iterations, each adopting enamel-like dials (hence, they’re not enamelled), whose most attractive options are red or blue, as far as I’m concerned. The latter is the most distinctive and right across the “comfort zone”; its blue tone is more vivid than Nomos‘ signature “Midnight Blue”, but the enamel-like treatment makes the dial look glossy, as exemplified by the light hitting the seconds’ counter.

A specific folding buckle

All options, including “Off white” and black, adopt a beautiful soft brown Horween leather strap with a folding buckle. The combo mentioned above is exclusive to the collection (a standard Tetra comes with a black leather strap and a pin buckle); remember that these combinations are a one-off proposition.

The technical equipment includes the prized, chronometric-precise and thin self-winding neomatik calibre we have extensively covered over the past years and reviews.

Listed Price and final thoughts

Usually, a limited series costs more than its standard sibling; it was a surprise that each model, assembled in a one-off batch of 175 pieces, retails for 3,060 euros, hence a –3% over an ordinary neomatik Tetra. Bringing the Tetra collection under the spotlight makes a neomatik VS Alpha Tetra comparison an expected follow-up with further evaluations.

In this regard, I would have kept the neomatik, and this collection, price tag under the three thousand euros threshold. While the commemorative Tetra neomatik triggers a comprehensive collection’s rediscovery (and is unique), you’ll easily compare self-winding and hand-wound Tetra. The former costs almost twice as much as the Alpha Tetra, a mind-blowing exercise raising questions on which to buy between the two and potentially driving people to get a colourful hand-wound model over the premium, limited edition one.

(Photo credit: Horbiter®)

Giovanni Di Biase @Horbiter®