« A New Globetrotter for Your Wrist »
Summer is travel season – and for many watch enthusiasts, a welcome excuse to take a closer look at world time watches while preparing for their trips. Nomos Glashütte recently launched an innovative creation in this category. In this article, you'll find a portrait of the new model line.
Stylish and Understated – the New World Timer from Nomos Glashütte
The new Nomos Zürich Weltzeit seems tailor-made for lovers of elegant understatement and style-conscious globetrotters.
Although it offers more functionality than a conventional two- or three-hand watch, it is by no means bulkier, nor does it come across as cluttered in any other way.
Instead, the world timer delights the eye with the understated, functional design for which the still comparatively young brand Nomos Glashütte is so prized by enthusiasts – and for which it is now known internationally.
A Proven Partnership with the Hannes Wettstein Design Studio
Given that Glashütte is sometimes regarded as a kind of German counterweight to the powerful Swiss watch industry with its many big names, it seems fair to ask why, of all things, a watch from the small Saxon watchmaking town of Glashütte has been named after the Swiss banking and financial capital of Zurich.
The answer quickly becomes clear when you look at the history of Nomos models. Zurich is home to the design firm founded by Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein, with which the watch manufacture has collaborated for many years.
The first watches bearing the name “Zürich” were designed for Nomos by the renowned and successful designer himself, before his untimely death in 2008. The latest world time models were created by the design studio carried on by his business partner Stephan Hürlemann. After Wettstein's death, the studio initially operated as Studio Hannes Wettstein AG before being renamed Hürlemann AG in 2016.
This Watch Knows No Jet Lag
Anyone who frequently travels between time zones for business or pleasure will quickly come to appreciate the Nomos Zürich Weltzeit. Jet lag is a foreign concept to this watch, because it lets you read local time and the time at home or at your destination simultaneously, with no hassle at all. This not only makes it easier to keep track of time when traveling, but also to stay in touch with friends around the world or business partners overseas.
Unlike watches with a so-called GMT function, which can display only one additional time zone – or two by means of a rotating bezel – the Nomos Zürich Weltzeit shows the current time in the reference cities of virtually every time zone. Whether New York, Rio, Hawaii, Sydney, or Athens – a single glance tells you whether people there are asleep, starting their workday, or just heading home for the evening.
To make this possible, the dial of the Zürich Weltzeit features a ring inside the minute track, on which the reference cities of the 24 time zones are printed in two lines.
It also has a 24-hour display at 3 o'clock. A pusher positioned on the side above the crown at 2 o'clock makes setting the watch remarkably easy.
Clarity and Legibility on the Dial
Despite the additional functions and the numerous city names, the dial looks decidedly clean and uncluttered. The slender faceted, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands dominate the overall impression, which aids quick legibility. The small seconds at 6 o'clock takes a back seat to them, as does the discreet 24-hour display at 3 o'clock. The round stainless steel case has a diameter of 39.9 millimeters – quite moderate for a men's complication watch – and a height of 10.9 millimeters.
Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides protects the dial and is also used for the caseback, which is secured with six screws. The watch is powered by the automatic caliber 5201, which is remarkably thin at 5.7 millimeters and offers a power reserve of up to 42 hours.
Further technical features include the Nomos swing system, a tempered blue balance spring, the Glashütte click mechanism, and the Glashütte three-quarter plate. Tempered blue screws, rhodium-plated movement surfaces with Nomos perlage and Glashütte ribbing, and Glashütte sunburst finishing on the ratchet wheel and double wheel lend the inner workings of the Zürich Weltzeit particular aesthetic appeal.
Silver-Plated White or Midnight Blue: Two Versions of the World Timer for Globetrotters
The Nomos Zürich Weltzeit is available in two versions that differ in dial color: either silver-plated white or midnight blue. Both versions of the Zürich Weltzeit are worn on an elegant black Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan leather strap, which the manufacture sources specially from Chicago. It suits a formal business suit just as well as a relaxed casual look, making the world timer an effortlessly versatile companion.
It doesn't take much imagination to predict a positive reception for this model. Whether you're a globetrotter on a personal expedition, a businessman on the hunt for deals, or a diplomat traveling from embassy to embassy: with this Glashütte world timer on your wrist, you're equipped to meet a wide range of challenges.
And once the mission has been successfully accomplished, perfect timing will surely have played a good part in it – and if not, it certainly wasn't the watch's fault. Either way, the new world timer from Nomos Glashütte has likely further boosted the chances of the brand's loyal fan base continuing to grow.
