A Brief History Of Nomos And Their Tangente Update
In Partnership With NOMOS
Bauhaus, Berlin, and The Wall
In 1919, the Bauhaus Design School was founded in Weimar, Germany, before relocating to Dessau in 1925 due to political pressure and issues with funding. The school was founded by Walter Groupious, an architect, with the intention of creating an environment where all of the different forms of art could be brought together (a concept known, in German, as Gesamtkunstwerk).
While the school would see not only a variety of prominent artists pass through its doors over the years, it also saw its fair share of directors, each passing on and adding their own touches to the school of thought that would become synonymous with the name Bauhaus. It would make one final move, from Dessau to Berlin, in 1930 before being shut down as a result of the rising Nazi regime in the country in 1933.
The wall, some 28 years later, had been the site of five days of protests denouncing the separation of Germany’s greatest city when, on that fifth day, it finally crumbled, quite literally. The reason for this final push to dismantle the thing for good came after a relatively simple bureaucratic misstep, a press conference in which Günter Schabowski, a simple spokesman, outlined that travel outside the country could be applied for “without prerequisites.” When asked by a reporter when this change would take effect, he scrambled through his notes only to state that, as far as he knew, the change was effective immediately.
With no real preparation, guards were given the only order they could have in the face of half a million angry Germans – open the barrier. And open it did. Millions the world over watched the wall come down, or at least watched reports of it on their televisions. It was a major world event, the kind night unseen in its generation, and it proved to be a social and political tipping point for the world watching.
One of those many Germans watching the event unfold in front of their very eyes was a man named Roland Schwertner, a photographer and computer aficionado. Two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schwertner, in the German city of Glashütte, would found a watch brand with no prior experience in the industry. And that brand was Nomos.
The brand is headquartered in Glashütte in a converted train station, located not terribly far from another notable watchmaker in the region, A. Lange & Sohne. Unlike Lange, who is now owned by the Richemont Group, Nomos has remained independent since its inception. This has given the brand a remarkable ability to explore any and all of their impulses, including being one of the first major luxury players to start selling their watches online themselves, rather than exclusively through Authorized Dealers.
The NOMOS Tangente Update
Case Diameter: 41mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Water Resistance: 50 Meters
Strap/Bracelet: Horween Shell Cordovan
Movement: Nomos Caliber DUW 6101
Price: $4,100
The Nomos Tangente Neomatik 41 Update is an impressive watch that is also every bit of what its name implies. At 41mm in diameter, it’s a larger Tangente than the original, but still contemporary for the times. The proportions of that original have remained in tact, though, with an impressive thinness of just 7.8mm tall, and an appropriate 20mm spacing between the lugs. While the Update comes stock on Nomos’ now signature Horween Shell Cordovan, it can also be purchased on their new bracelet for an upcharge.
At a glance, the dial is the same as on the other Tangente models, featuring Bauhaus Arabic numerals for the even hours, and stick indices (printed) for the odd hours. Where it becomes something special, though, is in the date execution. Rather than the standard date window, which Nomos does offer on some of their models, the Update features a date track outboard of the main dial with numbers from 1-31 printed and gaps of white space between them. There is a red disc that rotates beneath the dial and, when filling in some of those gaps, indicates the date by flanking the corresponding date numeral in red on either side. The end result is a discreet way to deliver useful information without disturbing the balance of the Tangente’s dial.
Powering the watch, we have the Nomos in-house caliber DUW 6101. It’s an automatic (or, in Nomos parlance, Neomatik) movement that is 35.2mm in diameter, larger than the overall size of the original Tangente. This means that, when viewed through the sapphire display back, the movement takes up plenty of space within the case, remedying a common complaint among watch enthusiasts that some of the movements found in watches of much higher price points simply don’t fit the size of the case they’re in. The movement is also beautifully decorated with simple, but stark finishing throughout, and blued screws. It features 27 jewels and a 42 hour power reserve.
Overall, the watch is an impressive piece of design from one of Germany’s leading watchmakers. Its contemporary size, classic Bauhaus aesthetic, and unique interpretation of an existing complication are all emblematic of the way Nomos views watchmaking, and it all comes together to create a watch with nods to the past, and a foot firmly planted on the path to the brand’s future.