Gleich fünf Mal schaffte es NOMOS Glashütte bei der feierlichen Preisverleihung, die am Nikolaustag in Wien stattfand, auf die Siegertreppe. Mit den Modellen Zürich Weltzeit, Ludwig Automatik und Tetra+ Erzgebirgsperle stellte sich die Manufaktur in den Kategorien „Kleine Komplikation“, „Klassische Eleganz“ respektive „Diskreter Charme“ dem Urteil von insgesamt etwa 24.000 Besuchern zweier Uhrenmessen, die diesen Herbst in München und Wien stattfanden – und räumte ab. Keine andere Marke gewann bei den Publikumswahlen von Munichtime und Viennatime so viele Preise wie NOMOS Glashütte. 



Den Münchnern gefiel am allerbesten Modell Zürich Weltzeit – diese Uhr wurde von ihnen auf Platz eins gewählt, während die Wiener sie mit einem dritten Platz honorierten. Gewonnen haben außerdem folgende Uhren: Ludwig Automatik wurde in München Dritte in der Kategorie „Klassische Eleganz“, das Damenmodell Tetra+ Erzgebirgsperle errang ebenfalls in Bayern Platz drei in der Gruppe „Diskreter Charme“ – und wurde in Wien Zweite.



Ein schönes Vorweihnachtsgeschenk für die Glashütter Uhrenschneiderei – und ein krönender Abschluss eines wieder erfolgreichen Jahres: Mit diesen Auszeichnungen wurden Uhren von NOMOS Glashütte bereits 85-mal für Design, Qualität und Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis prämiert.

Informationen und Bildmaterial:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Deutschland

Telefon +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-Mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

A manufactory (from the Latin manus = hand and facere = build, make, do) produces primarily by hand—and in the best quality: things that make life more beautiful, luxury goods, especially exclusive items—these are what come from manufactories today.

Two small, grand German manufactories that produce with the greatest precision not only by hand, but also for the hand and wrist, are NOMOS Glashütte, from the timepiece mecca of the same name, Glashütte near Dresden in eastern Germany, and Roeckl, the tradition-steeped manufactory in Munich in the south that has produced gloves from the finest leather since 1839.

In the watch industry, producers are called manufactories only if they not only fulfill the aforementioned criteria, but also design and produce the watch movements themselves, rather than buying them from third parties. An enormously difficult process and anything but normal: to this day, NOMOS is one of the very few watch manufactories in the world.

And just as we in Glashütte know how to turn craftsmanship into an art—or even better: a doctoral thesis—producing hundreds of the tiniest parts that later, when put together and wound by hand (once again: manus), are a timepiece, so too Roeckl knows how to sew gloves. Instead of tiny gears, screws, and plates, the traditional Munich establishment puts together, stitches, and lines almost equally small, fine pieces of leather. Here they flank the baby finger, there they protect the ball of the thumb, and in this place they span the back of the hand with a second skin—and simply look good; “Gloves can do so much more than keep you warm. They can start a fire,” as Annette Roeckl, the head of the family business, formulates it.

That the two independent German manufactories preserve their traditions, prefer quality to mere size, and produce contemporary luxury are only a few of the qualities the two brands have in common. In the series Tetra+, with its watches in the colors of mushrooms and berries and gloves in the same tones, the two companies pay a bit of homage to each other’s manufactory art—and kiss the hands of their joint customers.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

Katharina Naehr
Roeckl Handschuhe & Accessoires GmbH & Co. KG
Isartalstraße 49 am Roecklplatz
D-80469 München

Tel. +49 89 7296926

E-mail: katharina.naehr@roeckl.com
www.roeckl.com

Burgundertrüffel (Burgundy truffle), Erzgebirgsperle (Cranberry), Blasser Zonenmilchling (Lactarius zonarius milkcap mushroom), and Mäusedorn (Butcher’s broom): this autumn, NOMOS Glashütte is collecting mushrooms and berries.

The watch manufactory in Glashütte, Saxony has named four new watches with colored dials after native Saxon forest plants and mushrooms. All four are square, hand-wound timepieces of the finest pedigree and are now coming into the shops as the mini-series Tetra+. The colors—those of mushrooms and berries—are also highly topical as fashion: these beautiful shades can be seen everywhere now. And yet they are also timeless and fit almost any wardrobe—harmonious natural tones with a lot of character.

NOMOS watchbands whose suede is reminiscent of forest hares hopping through the mushrooms complete the picture—along with new gloves: Roeckl, the famous manufactory producing in Munich since 1839, now complements NOMOS wrists. The customer receives gloves made of exclusive hair sheep nappa leather matching the watch in the same shades of mushrooms and berries: for a timely stroll in the woods, as the Glashütte watchmakers would say, but also for a rendezvous in the English Garden and a colorful and chic start in the cooler season again.

These four watches from the new series Tetra+, accompanied by Roeckl gloves, will be in selected watch shops beginning in September for the price of 1,200 or 1,340 Euros. What makes them different? The Burgundertrüffel and Mäusedorn models have a little something extra: they display the fine manufactory caliber ticking in them—through a sapphire crystal back. Blasser Zonenmilchling and Erzgebirgsperle are a little shyer, with a steel back. All four are very beautiful.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

Katharina Naehr
Roeckl Handschuhe & Accessoires GmbH & Co. KG
Isartalstraße 49 am Roecklplatz
D-80469 München

Tel. +49 89 7296926

E-mail: katharina.naehr@roeckl.com
www.roeckl.com

“Heimat” stands to the right of the dial of this worldly watch—a minor contradiction, a wink that is very German but understood in many other countries, too. And that the watch’s testers felt to be “very NOMOS.” Wherever the watch’s wearer happens to be, the “Heimat” indicator shows what time it is at home—whether the meeting at headquarters has begun, whether the suppliers can be reached, and whether one’s darling is asleep. What makes this possible is a 24-hour disc integrated in the caliber. It beautifully complements the work of the elegant hands.

This watch enables you not only to demonstrate your ties to home, but also to be a bit lazy, because you don’t have to calculate. Every foreign time zone can be called up rapidly by pressing a button repeatedly until the desired place appears in the 12 o’clock position. Then the hands show what time it is there.

Two years of development, 23 completely new precision parts, and umpteen design hours were required before this watch was finished. The case, a creation by the exceptional Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein, is all that existed before; its construction is almost identical to that of the Zürich and Zürich Datum models. The manufactory movement Xi and the dial were developed anew for the Zürich Weltzeit.

A broad-based test with a limited prototype edition concluded this developmental work at the end of 2010. A very few technical and optical details were altered after the test, for example the kind of oil used to lubricate the caliber. The concept paid off: the wearer is spared the guessing that complicated indicators require, the hours of studying complex instruction manuals, and the despair of endlessly repeated attempts to set the watch. A simple button on the case, a small time disc, and the name of the place on the dial are all one needs to have an elegant and yet beautifully simple journey—in reality or one’s imagination. In Spring 2011, Zürich Weltzeit will arrive in the shops and cost 3,740 euros.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

Those who love the radically reduced, purist face of the Tangomat model but don’t want to relinquish a second time zone may choose the Tangomat GMT Plus and do as follows: shortly before landing in a foreign country, ask for the time difference, then press a button to set the new time zone on the Tangomat GMT Plus. It’s not necessary to count while pressing the button, because the difference is shown in a small window at the nine o’clock position. But first one has to let the watch know where it is at home. Or for mathematicians: where the zero and starting point is.

1. Press with some force on the button at two o’clock. The hour hand moves and at the same time the scale in the little window at nine o’clock moves a position further. Press as often as it takes until the display “+/- 0” appears in the window. This is the position where you are at home, for example Berlin, and the starting point for your travels through the time zones.

2. Now you need the adjusting pin for the recessed button at eight o’clock. When you press there and then retract the pin entirely, you move the hour hand—and it alone—one position further. Now, position by position, set the hour hand to the hour shown by the little time disc on the right. Now your watch is synchronized.

3. From this point on, continue as usual. The crown, pulled out, sets the time at your home, for example Berlin, quite conventionally. The hands and the little time disc move together thereby. But you have to pay attention to one thing: if the hour hand is on the ten, this can mean ten in the evening. It doesn’t matter to the hour hand—but it does to the time disc with its 24-hour display. 

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

People who travel a lot know them by heart—and they’re also on your ticket and baggage tag: the codes for the great airports. Instead of the entire names of the cities, these space-saving abbreviations appear in the indicator window of the new Tangomat GMT. And so the NOMOS classic, the Tangomat, which is the basis of this watch, can maintain its typically reduced face even in the version with a second time zone.

Such an additional function for a watch that, after all, is famous for its minimalism, for its “less is more,” for nothing inessential about it—wasn’t easy. All the more gratifying is this result of the meticulous fiddling on the part of NOMOS’ constructors, designers, and 150 people who tested this watch last year. A window in the nine o’clock position now shows what time zone you are currently in. A small time disc with a 24-hour face in the three o’clock position and a small red arrow beside it remind you of the time at home.

Now this watch is coming to the shops. For everyone who likes things comfortable and beautiful and simple. No more calculating differences in your head! Press the button until the desired time zone appears in the window in the nine o’clock position and the hands already tell you the local time. LON, BER, TYO, HKG, MOW, and NYC are the abbreviations for the corresponding time zones on this watch. But the indicator in the three o’clock position doesn’t change; here the Tangomat GMT remains faithful to the time at your home base, letting you know whether your call there should begin with “good morning” or “good evening”—or if you’ll be waking your colleagues.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

When our workers in NOMOS’ production halls mill, use a lathe, drill, or cut threads, a waste product is metal shavings so small that they can hardly be seen. And the workpieces that are the primary product are hardly larger: 0.4 millimeters in diameter or 0.8 millimeters long—dimensions like those of a computer monitor pixel, an eyelash, or a freckle are normal at NOMOS. A mechanic, who might elsewhere apply elbow grease, works cautiously here with an instrument called a spiral tweezers. Some sensor devices cannot be seen with the naked eye. Nor touched with a bare hand—the delicate instruments would not survive it. The parts for the fine watches must fulfill the highest quality criteria and meet tolerances often narrower than four-thousandths of a millimeter—and they also aim to be beautiful.

For example, the hour star-wheel of the Xi, NOMOS’ new world time caliber. It is made from a 0.3-millimeter-thick, round steel blank that is first drilled on the CNC machine and then EDM wire-eroded. The high-precision, elegant part is 4.995 millimeters long and has four cogs. Each cog must be at exactly the same distance from the center of the drill hole. That didn’t work on the first try at NOMOS Glashütte: first to be CNC-drilled and then wire-eroded—the hour star-wheel didn’t like moving from one machine to the other. You can’t see the problem, and the tolerances our precision mechanics measured were within bounds. But the watchmakers were unanimous: these hour star-wheels could not be used. Deviations of only a few micrometers had developed and the tips of the four teeth were not absolutely the same distance from the center of the drilling. That was too much for the gears of the world time mechanism. Now the wire-eroding machine does the finishing touches of the drilling—and the hour star-wheel is right.

This kind of work can’t be taken for granted in the world of watches. To produce independently and to offer constructors the best conditions for implementing their ideas, huge investments were made at NOMOS Glashütte. In this way, even the most pedantic watchmakers get the best parts for their calibers and the customers ultimately get unmistakable movements at moderate prices.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

Who is NOMOS Glashütte?

Roland Schwertner, 57, is the founder and majority shareholder; Uwe Ahrendt, 42, of Glashütte and with NOMOS since 2000, is the general-managing partner. More than 90 employees, almost half of them watchmakers, average age 38, work in Glashütte. Added to that are about ten freelance associates in the area of design and communication. The NOMOS Glashütte Roland Schwertner KG is not a part of any concern.

What has happened so far?  

January 10th, 1990: Roland Schwertner founds NOMOS Glashütte.

1992: NOMOS has three employees and begins production in private quarters. The enterprise produces the four manually wound models Tangente, Orion, Ludwig, and Tetra.

1997: The company grows to 14 employees and moves into its own office spaces on Altenberger street. With the construction of its own stop-seconds mechanism, NOMOS Glashütte sets off on the path to becoming a manufactory.

2000: Uwe Ahrendt becomes the second general manager. NOMOS Glashütte now has 31 employees. “The Chronometry” becomes the company’s second location.

2001: NOMOS Glashütte introduces its own date mechanism, which is patented.

2003: NOMOS Glashütte introduces its own power reserve indicator, which is likewise patented.

2004: The special edition Super30 is a huge hit—the watches completely sell out in a very short period of time.

2005: The former Glashütte train station becomes the company’s headquarters. With the construction of its first automatic caliber (Tangomat), NOMOS Glashütte officially becomes a manufactory.

2006: NOMOS Glashütte presents its first chronometer watches and a watch with tourbillon which are made for the Wempe Chronometerwerke.

2007: A new watch arrives on the market: the Club model. From 2008 onwards, there are three more variations: Club Datum, Club Automat, and Club Automat Datum.

2009: Another automatic watch comes along: the Zürich model, available in the following variations: Zürich, Zürich Datum, Zürich anthrazit, and Zürich Datum anthrazit.

2010: The NOMOS classics are now all available also with (an extra large) date and in smaller sizes. The palette of self-winding watches expands to include the model Ludwig Automatik. And a new caliber is unveiled—movement Xi with the world time indicator. NOMOS Schweiz AG is founded and opens its own retail shop in Zurich’s Niederdorf district.

2011: The serial watches with the world time caliber Xi—Zürich Weltzeit, Tangomat GMT, and Tangomat GMT Plus—arrive in the shops.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

1. Origin

NOMOS Glashütte was the first trademark after 1990 able to produce a mechanical watch with the Glashütte designation of origin: In 1992, the company, then two years old, brought its first collection of four hand-wound watches onto the market. Today, the term “Glashütte” is a protected designation of origin. Only watches in which at least 50 percent of the value added to the movement takes place on site—in Glashütte—can carry the name. But the value added to NOMOS calibers has long since reached up to 95 percent.

2. Design

Common to all NOMOS watches are the tidy dial, the elegant (and usually slender) hands, the narrow bezel, the clear form; many of them are meanwhile considered classics and, see also Point 5, have won important awards for their outstanding form.

3. Production

Since 2005, NOMOS Glashütte has been a manufactory. Because NOMOS Glashütte designs, constructs, and builds its own movements.

4. Numbers

The manufactory now employs a staff of more than 90 on site in Glashütte. They build watches with seven different proprietary calibers. The prices for NOMOS models—in the steel versions—lie between 900 and 3,740 euros.

5. Awards

Watches from NOMOS Glashütte have won many prizes. In 2011, NOMOS Glashütte twice won the Goldene Unruh (Golden Balance Wheel, for the models Tangomat and Zürich Datum) as well as the renowned Red Dot Design Award for the model Orion Datum weiß). Status as of March 23, 2011.

6. Who’s Behind It

NOMOS Glashütte is an independent, stand-alone, owner-managed company belonging to five partners—not a huge concern. This is an exception in the world of fine watches.

Information and pictures:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Germany

Telephone +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com

Die Leser des renommierten Kinomagazins epd Film finden: „Die kommenden Tage“ von Lars Kraume ist der beste deutsche Film des Jahres 2010. Als Belohnung und für weiterhin gute Zeiten stiftete die Manufaktur NOMOS Glashütte Modell Tangente, seinerseits Sieger vieler Abstimmungen. Von nun an gehört also auch Lars Kraume, 37 und bereits Träger des Adolf-Grimme-Preises, zu den Trägern dieser Uhr, und das nicht nur, weil er gerade eine neue braucht: „Der Preis ist wie erfunden für mein Thema – eine Uhr zu bekommen für einen Film, der in der Zukunft spielt, das passt“, so der Regisseur, offensichtlich hocherfreut über diese Anerkennung für seinen Streifen, der bis ins Jahr 2020 reicht. Zwischen Familiendrama, Liebesfilm und Terroristenthriller verhandelt er die Frage: „Können wir etwas ändern? Sogar zum Guten?“ (epd). 

Tangente von NOMOS Glashütte ist als Auszeichnung noch nicht ganz der Oscar, aber immerhin: renommiert und längst schon Tradition. In den Vorjahren gewannen etwa Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Fatih Akin und Andreas Dresen die Publikumswahl und damit den Klassiker von NOMOS Glashütte. Bereits zum sechsten Mal wurde die Handaufzugsuhr mit dem feinen Manufakturkaliber im Rahmen der Berlinale an einen epd-Film-Preisträger überreicht. Preisgekrönte Schönheit fürs Handgelenk kommt auch in der Filmwelt gut an – vielleicht sogar besser als mancher renommierte Staubfänger. 

Informationen und Bildmaterial:

Ute Fischer-Graf
NOMOS Glashütte/SA
Roland Schwertner KG
Ferdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 2
01768 Glashütte
Deutschland

Telefon +49 35053 4040
Fax +49 35053 40480

E-Mail presse(at)glashuette.com
www.nomos-glashuette.com