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press: How people tell the time – and how watches measure it

The caliber of a good mechanical watch is made up of many small and tiny parts. As the wearer moves their arm, the rotor swings back and forth, winding a spring, which stores the energy and releases it bit by bit. Pictured here: the proprietary DUW 3001 automatic caliber from NOMOS Glashütte.

How people tell the time—and how watches measure it

A recent study shows most people read the time in the traditional way, from a wristwatch. However, watches measure time in completely different ways.

GLASHÜTTE, JANUARY 2023. A population-representative survey* conducted on behalf of the comparison website Verivox shows that 38 percent of Germans look at the screen of their smartphones when they want to know the time. A further nine percent use nearby clocks, whether that’s at home, at the station, in the car or at work. However, no less than 52 percent look at the watch on their wrist.

This is where the biggest number of mechanical watches Made in Germany are produced: the NOMOS Glashütte workshop. The best watches have been manufactured in this small town in the Eastern Ore Mountains and sold all over the world since 1845.

How time is measured

How is time actually measured? How do seconds, minutes and hours get into a watch? How do they get into hand-wound or automatic watches, into quartz watches, smartwatches and smartphones?

Mechanical watches are the crème de la crème, representing watchmaking tradition and craftsmanship, culture and prestige. They are valuable and usually have a long life. Such watches have movements that are hand-wound or automatic. In both cases, their energy store is a mechanical one: a spring. Automatic watches are wound using a rotor. The movement of the wrist causes it to swing, winding the spring. Hand-wound watches, on the other hand, are wound by turning the crown. The spring is then able to release the stored energy for hours—or in the best case, days—and keep the movement ticking.


Swing-powering the watch: The NOMOS swing system is to the mechanical wristwatch what quartz is to a quartz watch. This assembly, manufactured in-house, is the pacesetter, ensuring that the watch divides time extremely precisely into hours, minutes and seconds.

Quartz watches have battery-powered quartz movements. And smartwatches are purely electronic devices that are usually connected to a smartphone and are often not primarily intended to display the time at all, but rather to monitor health data, for instance. These watches also have batteries where they store energy, and these generally need to be charged via an outlet.

How precision is achieved

That all seconds are always the same length, that watches run neither too fast nor too slowly, is thanks to a pacesetter that swings at regular intervals and is consequently responsible for the tick-tock. In a quartz movement, a crystal—quartz—sets the pace, oscillating under voltage at high frequency and very regularly, like a tuning fork, only smaller and very quietly. Most smartphones get the time automatically from servers on the Internet. If they are offline, the time simply continues to run in a local clock. But what about the energy? For these, smartwatches and quartz watches need rechargeable batteries.

No quartz watches or smartwatches: Around 200 people work at NOMOS Glashütte as engineers, designers, toolmakers and, of course, as watchmakers. They build mechanical watches—both hand-wound and those with automatic calibers—in the tradition of 175 years of watchmaking.

Neither quartz nor a battery can be found in mechanical movements. Instead, an escapement, consisting of a balance spring, pallet fork, pallet and crucially the balance cock, keeps the time; the latter is a fine wheel that swings back and forth regularly. Very few watchmakers worldwide produce these escapements themselves: at NOMOS Glashütte, for example—the manufacture that produces the highest number of mechanical watches in Germany—watchmakers install a special escapement called the NOMOS swing system, which is developed and manufactured in-house. The finest watchmaking expertise, which guarantees the exceptional precision of these mechanical watches.

What else wristwatches can do

Either way, although most people still consult a traditional watch to tell the time, there are more smartphones than watches around. After all, almost everyone owns at least one smartphone, even those who wear a wristwatch. And another finding of the study reveals that the likelihood of a person wearing a watch does not correlate with age, but increases with income and level of education. Jens-Uwe Theumer, Vice President at market analyst Verivox explains: “Wristwatches aren’t just timepieces; they’re also status symbols.”

*Online survey of 1,184 people in Germany in July 2022 conducted by Innofact on behalf of Verivox; population-representative in terms of age, gender and federal state.

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press release: NOMOS Club Sport 37

Hit models in polar and petrol

The demand was more than obvious. Now NOMOS Glashütte is expanding its Club series with two sporty models with a link bracelet and moderate diameter, and in new colors.

GLASHÜTTE, OCTOBER 12, 2022. Club Sport neomatik polar, Club Sport neomatik petrol—the names of two new NOMOS watches the manufacture just unveiled at its annual Forum in Glashütte. These models feature everything that matters on your wrist. Not only are they made by hand in the Glashütte watchmaking tradition, precise and extremely reliable, but they are also robust and beautifully presented. The comfortable stainless steel case and link bracelet (polished and satinated) fuse seamlessly with each other, framing the beautiful sunburst finish of the dial. They tell of an athletic day-to-day, of a sense of style and of success.

The model is already available in blue and black, each with a 42-millimeter diameter. The two new watches measuring a moderate 37 millimeters are perfect for many wrists, both male and female. “Demand for Club Sport with this diameter was more than obvious,” says Sven Schönberger from NOMOS Product Management. “It simply fits the times.”

The new colors of the dial are strikingly beautiful. Polar blue and petrol green are not only refreshingly different and truly radiant with the luxurious NOMOS sunburst finish, they are also colors that harmonize while being full of character and vibrancy. On top of that, the luminescent numerals beneath the domed sapphire crystal are easy to read even at night or under water. And thanks to recessed hour numerals (which hold more luminescent material), the new NOMOS watches glow for a very long time.

It goes without saying that the two new Club models are no snowflakes: Club is the sportiest of the NOMOS watch families anyway; the new models are seawater-resistant up to 20 atm and equipped with a deployant clasp, making them the perfect watches for sports by and in the water—and more.

The energy these high-performance watches require to display the time is generated by even the tiniest movement of the wrist: the high-precision caliber, measuring an ultra-flat 3.2 millimeters in height (in-house DUW 3001 neomatik caliber) works efficiently; the rotor winds the caliber with movements in both directions.

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press release: Horween Shell Cordovan, the best leather you can find

Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan, one of the finest leathers in the world, is used to make the exclusive watchstraps from NOMOS Glashütte. And this leather has a secret: It is made from very specific, dense parts of the hide that protect the horse from flies.

GLASHÜTTE, SEPTEMBER 2022. This leather is like the watch it fastens: Made patiently following old traditions—by people who love their craft. The resulting products belong to those rare items which, as they change in time, only get better: The colors deepen; sun and wear alter the material—a beautiful metamorphosis. This leather is made by a tannery in Chicago: The Horween Leather Company.

Straps made from Genuine Shell Cordovan, as this leather is called, are only found on watches from NOMOS Glashütte. It is true that other manufacturers use equine leather as well, but only NOMOS Glashütte uses the finest, most supple, and durable part of the hide; two small ovals, the existence and distinctive quality of which only few people are aware. Two thick, smooth, shell-shaped parts located to the right and left on the rump above the tail. The leather shells are small—some just the size of a palm or two, others slightly larger, and they are thick because the parts are located in the horse’s “blind spot”: An area the horse can’t reach with its tail or teeth to get rid of pesky flies. The hide is thicker there to prevent the flies from being a nuisance.

Horsehide is rare, because horses themselves are becoming rare as machines have largely replaced workhorses. The animals are not raised for their hide—no horse dies for this purpose. This makes the Horween tannery in Chicago the last of its kind. A world-famous family-owned company, established in 1905. They also make the leather used in the footballs of the National Football League (NFL) and basketballs of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Artisans scrape and cut the hides by hand at the workshop in Chicago. The leather is then vegetable tanned, air-dried on glass frames, curried with bark dyes and oils and burnished with heavy rollers. Afterward it is stored to allow the oils to penetrate and darken the hide. The process is elaborate, requiring over a hundred individual steps and at least six months to complete. Today, things are done much as they were 120 years ago. But patience pays off: This smooth, yet robust leather yields straps for watches which bring joy to their wearers for years and years.

NOMOS luxury, artisanal from start to finish: The watch model Lambda. Prominent: The sophisticated fine movement with its rubies and hand-engraved balance cock. And the beautiful brown strap made from Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan: Remborde and cushioned, fitted with the specially designed gold NOMOS clasp.
The more they age and the longer you wear them, the more beautiful they become: NOMOS straps made from Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan. Once tanned, the Cordovan is cut, keeping only the best part of the equine leather to serve as straps for NOMOS watches: Small, shell-shaped patches taken from the horse’s rump, above the tail. The hide there is especially supple, durable and water-resistant. 
The shells: These oval patches consist of leather that is thick enough to prevent pesky flies from annoying the animal. This is made necessary because the horse is unable to brush them away from this area above its tail.
Quality assurance: Done in person, with each detail subject to scrutiny—such as the stitching on the NOMOS straps made from Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan. However, the NOMOS straps are not stitched in the USA, but in Bavaria. Photo: Fluco.
It’s the overall impression that counts—and for watches, that includes the strap. Watch model Metro neomatik midnight blue by NOMOS Glashütte with a strap made from Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan, dyed, oiled and burnished by hand.
A remborde strap made from Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan with a steel clasp: perfect for a NOMOS watch. This leather is made in Chicago with oils, bark and plant extracts using time-honored techniques. An effort on par with the work involved to make a NOMOS Glashütte watch.
In brown and black with a gold NOMOS clasp: Cushioned and remborde straps made from Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan, arguably the finest equine leather in the world. The remborde technique closes the strap edges seamlessly, protecting against water, oil and perfume. Straps like these are exclusive to NOMOS Glashütte watches.
At the Horween Leather Company in Chicago: The shells are ready to be processed. A few other manufacturers use equine leather as well. But NOMOS Glashütte is the only one to reserve the best part of the hide, that small area above the tail, for its straps. The hide there is especially dense and of high quality—making the straps particularly durable. By the way: No animal is deprived of its life for its hide.
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press release: NOMOS watch swims with scientist from the Alps to the North Sea

1,235 kilometers (768 miles) in 25 days: Two Saxons—an extreme swimmer and his NOMOS manufacture watch, Ahoi—swim the Rhine from its source to its estuary. In the name of science—and quick to boot.

GLASHÜTTE, JULY 2022. He swam from Corsica to Sardinia, from Europe to Africa, and now Dr. Joseph Heß, project leader at Chemnitz University of Technology, swam the longest river in Germany, the Rhine. It took him 25 days to swim the 1,235 kilometers (768 miles) from its source in the Alps to its estuary in the North Sea; passing through Constance, Basel, Karlsruhe, Wiesbaden, Bonn, Dusseldorf and Rotterdam—between 28 and 75 kilometers (17 and 47 miles) each day. And with him the entire time: Ahoi Atlantic from NOMOS Glashütte. 

“The key factors for me were the comfort and the weight. Even after more than twelve hours in the water, the watch still felt great to wear, and it was light enough to not affect my swimming style over such a long period. I’m amazed that something so beautiful and graceful can withstand such a battering without it leaving a trace. You can rely on Ahoi even in extremely strenuous situations,” raves the swimmer. “When you emerge from the Rhine, worn out, the Glashütte watch makes a stylish statement.”

The project Heß is swimming for is Swim4Science, which aims to make various projects and research by colleges and universities in Germany accessible to the public. For example, those on water quality. The river is a mirror of the people who live along it, say researchers. The water reveals whether pesticides are used in the fields and what medications are in use. But questions of physical exertion and how to deal with stressful situations were also investigated along the way. Heß did not notice very much from the riverbank: “It’s a lonely sport because you don’t hear or see anything.” Shipping traffic, cold, heat, enormous calorie consumption, faulty escort boats, and currents were also challenges that the native of Chemnitz had to overcome. However, Heß and his NOMOS watch were not the first to swim the length of the Rhine. In 1969, Klaus Pechstein conquered the river in this manner over the course of 30 days.

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press release: the renewed NOMOS Ahoi Atlantik

New watches for all occasions

Not only can the new Ahoi Atlantic swim, but it can also join you at the office or adorn your wrist at the gallery opening; it is an all-rounder, capable of everything all at once. The 24/7 watch from NOMOS Glashütte is now available in three versions.

GLASHÜTTE, 23. JUNE 2022. Clear and refreshing design for all occasions: The three versions of the new Ahoi Atlantic, which NOMOS Glashütte is releasing just in time for summer, never have to leave the wrist. These watches are attractive and elegant on the wrist 24/7, and also robust. Timepieces that can be worn on all occasions, for people who have packed schedules and many responsibilities. 

Now all you need is the wind in your sails. Stainless steel, sapphire crystal glass, and the screw-down crown, protected on both sides, make AHoi Atlantic a versatile sports watch.

Sports watches come in all shapes and sizes. Classic watch models are a dime a dozen. But watches that compellingly unite the two are few and far between. A typical feature of NOMOS watches has always been that they can be worn to work or any social occasion, day in and day out; Ahoi Atlantic now adds the sporty aspect.

Bright white on dark blue – the dial of the sporty Ahoi neomatik Atlantic is designed with crisp colors and is easy to read. Numerals, hands and indexes illuminate green.

Ahoi Atlantic, Ahoi date Atlantic and Ahoi neomatik Atlantic are the full names of these watches. They are waterproof—up to 200 meters. While the first two are driven by the in-house DUW 5001 caliber and DUW 5101 date movement in a slightly larger case, the smaller Ahoi neomatik Atlantic runs on the new, particularly slim automatic technology from NOMOS Glashütte. All three feature a textile strap which is woven specially for NOMOS Glashütte in France.