NOMOS is proud to call Glashütte its home—a small town tucked away between forests and hills, south of Berlin and near Dresden, located in the eastern Ore Mountains. The timepieces made there are world famous, and the watchmakers also count among the very best of their kind.
Fine timepieces have been made in Glashütte for over 175 years; it has a tradition that’s hard to find anywhere else in the world. What the watchmakers and the designers, engineers, and toolmakers can do there are things that their peers elsewhere would struggle to do—because watches have been made in Glashütte for many generations; since 1845 in fact. Watches with many unique characteristics, and always of the very best quality. Watches that transport a love of handcraft and tradition within them—and are yet always contemporary: watches for life.
Only the designation of a few products around the world are as strictly protected as watches from Glashütte. To emphasize the stringent quality standards of this unique town, the appellation “Glashütte” was placed under special protection. Only companies that create at least 50 percent of the value of a watch’s caliber in Glashütte are allowed to label their timepieces as “Glashütte watches.” NOMOS Glashütte goes far beyond the required 50 percent—and makes up to 95 percent of each movement on site.
In 2014, NOMOS engineered and built their own escapement — the heart of a watch’s caliber — which they refer to as the swing system. Until this point in time, a single Swiss producer had supplied nearly the entire watchmaking industry with this assembly.
Thus, NOMOS became no longer dependent on third-party supply, meaning they’ve been able to grow independently, determine the quality of their timepieces themselves, and keep their pricing fair and affordable.
NOMOS timepieces are made by hand exclusively in Glashütte; but, in a certain way, they are born in Berlin. A two hour and ten minute drive north of Glashütte, Berlin is where NOMOS’ in-house design studio, Berlinerblau, is located.
One of the main responsibilities of Berlinerblau is, of course, designing new watches—about a dozen employees there do this all day, every day. Some watches are created in collaboration with renowned external designers such as Mark Braun—others are entirely the product of NOMOS’ in-house product designers.
