Photo Report: A Visit To Nomos Glashütte
Last month, I had the opportunity to hop on a plane (then a train, then a car) to Glashütte, Germany to spend a few days with the Nomos team at the 2024 Nomos Forum. The team presented several novelties, including the controversial Tangente 2date and the Orion and Tangente neomatik doré series, and some more stuff to be released. What I was most looking forward to, however, was the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of the manufacture.
Now, before we get to the meat and potatoes of this photo report, just a few takeaways:
1) The team is small. Now, that shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise, but Nomos has always said that they are the largest manufacturer of mechanical wristwatches in Germany, by numbers produced. With that in my head, it was surprising to see specific manufacturing and assembly tasks relegated to single individual watchmakers, not teams as I would have thought. It’s a testament to the brand’s watchmaking efficiency.
2) Speaking of efficiency, I took note of how the team seemed to be very open about the methods they take to produce relatively affordable watches almost entirely in-house. Take note of the several machines that replace hand work when it comes to incredibly menial tasks like placing rubies into a movement plate or oiling those jewels later on in the manufacturing process. Steps like these allow Nomos to allocate their relatively small watchmaking team to the places where they’re most needed.
3) Their manufacture is split up into two parts – one is the Chronometrie building, where you’ll find the teams in charge of R&D, the in-house Swing System escapement assembly, and more. The second is their building a 10-minute drive away in Schlottwitz (the official name of the town, though it belongs to Glashütte) – this is where the foundation of their in-house capabilities lie, where they produce the components that go into their in-house calibers.
4) Nomos watchmakers wear Nomos. All Nomos employees get a classic Tangente ref. 101 on loan when they start at the company, which then becomes theirs to keep after the first six months. However, many of the watchmakers I saw clearly had some personal Nomos collections of their own, with some of them wearing lesser-known limited editions from the past. I wasn’t able to capture everything, but I got a few wrist shots in.
Obligatory personal wrist shot. I brought my Nomos x Hodinkee Club Campus “Reseda” Limited Edition.
Where The Watches Are Made
A long winding road takes us to the top of Glashütte, where the Chronometrie building awaits.
The date wheels (usually color matched to the dial) get an inspection.
The brand new DUW 4601 (of the infamous 2date) being assembled.
A watchmaker wearing a Tangente “Picknick” limited edition for Wempe.
Nomos’ in-house escapement team.
Can we talk about how epic these watchmaker coats are?
Shellac is melted down into tiny strands to attach the pallet jewels to the pallet fork.
A Bergeon hot plate (because of course Bergeon makes one).
Again, the strands are tiny.
TINY!
Just a reminder on how small the pallet fork is.
The Club Sport neomatik “Petrol.”
A classic Tangente.
The assembly line conveyor is built into the watchmaker’s desk, popping out movements as they are worked on. When finished, the movement goes back into the line and the conveyor continues on to the next watchmaker.
A machine oils the rubies in the movements. It’s able to flip each movement over to get both sides in one go.
Casing up a Metro Datum Gangreserve.
A watchmaker wearing a Tetra.
A tray of cased-up Ludwig neomatik 41 Dates ready for the final touches.
The date functionality being tested on a Metro 41 Update.
The distinctive orange seconds hand of a Club Campus 38 night.
Testing the cased-up watches.
Where The Parts Are Made
This building sits in Schlottwitz, a ten minute drive away from the Chronometrie building.
Rods of raw materials await the machines (seen above) to be cut into smaller parts.
Crown wheel cores, produced by the machines above.
The gear cutting machine in action.
This machine takes from a tray of rubies (pictured below) and inserts them into a movement plate.
Snailing being applied to a ratchet wheel.
Hodinkee