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Building movements that are as small and thin as possible is the ambition of many aspiring watch manufactures. Movements with comparatively compact dimensions are not only regarded as proof of exceptional skill, they also make it possible to produce particularly elegant, slim wristwatches. Nomos Glashütte offers several especially thin movements in its lineup. Here we introduce them to our readers.
Big, Bigger, Biggest? With Watch Movements, It's Exactly the Opposite...
In many areas, size seems to rule – whether it's a taller house, a bigger car, a longer boat or a larger flat screen. Even wristwatches have shown a trend toward ever larger cases in recent years. With mechanical movements, however, it's exactly the other way around. Here, the most prestigious model is the one that takes up as little space as possible while offering roughly the same functions and performance.
Watch manufactures therefore have two paths open to them when they want to demonstrate their particular horological expertise. On the one hand, they can enhance their movements with technically demanding complications. On the other, they can build movements as small as possible that match or even surpass their larger siblings in terms of performance. The royal road, of course, is to produce movements that are both more complicated and smaller. One manufacture that currently offers several particularly thin calibers is Nomos Glashütte.
The height is especially low in the hand-wound movements, of which the Glashütte manufacture currently offers no fewer than six. They come in tonneau or round form, without complications or with a date or power reserve indicator. Incidentally, each of these movements is one of a kind and is engraved with its own individual movement number.
Adjusted in six positions and decorated with Glashütte stripes or perlage, they all achieve the precision required for chronometer certification. All of them make it possible to pair the successful Glashütte automatic models such as the Orion neomatik or the Ludwig neomatik with particularly slim hand-wound sister models.
It All Starts with Alpha
The Nomos Alpha in-house caliber was the first in this series and earned high praise from experts for its outstanding precision, robustness and reliability. The 17-jewel hand-wound movement is still used today in models including the Club, Ludwig, Orion, Tangente and Tetra, and it also powers all of the brand's watches with a 33-millimeter case diameter.
A look at the models in question shows that they are all two-hand watches with a small seconds at six o'clock. The movement height is just 2.6 millimeters, and the diameter is 10 ½ lignes, or 23.3 millimeters. The power reserve is approximately 43 hours. Further features include a stop-seconds function, Glashütte click, Glashütte three-quarter plate and tempered blued screws. Added to this are rhodium-plated movement surfaces with Glashütte stripes as well as NOMOS perlage, and a ratchet wheel and crown wheel finished with Glashütte sunburst decoration.
DUW 4101, 4301 and 4401: Movements with Swing – a Glashütte Specialty
One innovation that has gained particular renown among watch connoisseurs is the Nomos swing system. With the first presentation of this assembly, recognizable by its blue hairspring, the watchmakers from Glashütte pulled off a spectacular coup in 2014 and broke the Swiss monopoly in this field. The trade press even celebrated it as an event comparable to the moon landing. One caliber that uses the swing system is the DUW 4101, which is also equipped with the brand's patented date mechanism and ticks, for example, in the Orion 38 Datum and Metro 38 Datum models.
Compared with the Alpha movement, the DUW 4101 is only 0.2 millimeters taller; its diameter is 14 ¼ lignes, or 32.1 millimeters. It also offers a power reserve of approximately 42 hours and finishing just as lovingly executed as on the Nomos Alpha. If you'd like a timely reminder to wind your watch, you should opt for a model with the DUW 4301 caliber. In addition to the swing system, it features a power reserve indicator that was likewise developed and patented in-house. At 2.8 millimeters high, the DUW 4301 is also extremely thin and at the same time particularly high-performing; it powers, for example, the Tetra Kleene and the Tangente Gangreserve.
The craftsmanship of the Glashütte watchmakers becomes even more evident, however, when you look at the movement designated DUW 4401, with which the Glashütte manufacture ushered in the swing era in 2014. The manufacture's 4401 movements combine no fewer than two patented Nomos complications – a date and a power reserve indicator – yet still do not exceed a height of 2.8 millimeters. If you'd like to wear a watch with this fascinating movement on your wrist, you'll find a suitable model in both the Metro and the Tangente collections.
DUW 1001 and 2002: The Luxury Class of Ultra-Thin Nomos Calibers
Anyone who reflexively thinks only of Switzerland when haute horlogerie is mentioned has clearly slept through a few years of recent watchmaking history. Among the products of Glashütte fine watchmaking are several movements and watches that can compete in every respect with the best Swiss products in this class – and even stand out from them.
One of these is the hand-wound movement designated DUW 1001, reserved exclusively for the gold Lambda model. The DUW 1001 has 29 jewels, six of them in screwed and polished gold chatons, a double barrel, a 297-degree power reserve indicator and an impressive running time of a full 84 hours. To keep the watch from stopping, you only need to wind it twice a week.
An elegant swan-neck fine adjustment, a hand-engraved balance cock, the captivating Nomos sunburst finish and hand-beveled edges delight the eye of the discerning and knowledgeable watch enthusiast. Despite all this, the 1001 movements remain remarkably thin at 3.6 millimeters. No less impressive is the DUW 2002, also a hand-wound caliber, which not only shares characteristics such as its height with the 1001 but, because of its tonneau shape, placed especially high demands on the skill of its designers and watchmakers.
Its double barrel gives the DUW 2002 an in-house Nomos record, with a running time of no less than three and a half days. With a power reserve this long, manual winding – which some watch enthusiasts see as a drawback and which leads them to prefer automatic watches such as the Orion neomatik or the Ludwig neomatik – becomes a complete afterthought. All the more so because the slim, elegant design of the hand-wound models more than compensates their owners for the small extra effort.
