Post by timelessluxwatches on Oct 9, 2015 9:54:00 GMT -6
Nomos Neomatik Buyer's Guide
Nomos is releasing an entire special line of watches to bring in their new movement, the ultra-thin DUW 3001. There are 10 new Neomatik models, all featuring the new automatic, added to several existing lines of Nomos watches like Tangente and Orion. Read on to learn more about these new Neomatik watches.
The New Movement
The DUW 3001 is really the star of the show. It's Nomos' tenth new movement and certainly their most advanced, with the possible exception of their high-end DUW 1001 and 2002. These new movements feature beautiful decoration and, for the first time in a Nomos, a balance bridge instead of a balance cock.
The real source of the DUW 3001's acclaim, however, is its incredible thinness. It's about as thick as 9 stamps, as shown here, and it's one of the thinnest automatics in the world. Despite this, there were no compromises on accuracy or power reserve. We’ll go in-depth with the DUW 3001 in the second half of the article.
The Tangente Neomatik
We'll start with the Tangente, the original Nomos line. The new Tangente Neomatik is the first automatic Tangente and that makes it quite interesting. We had always assumed that Tangente was intended to be a hand wound collection and the Tangomat would take the automatics. It appears that Nomos really intended the Tangente to be the thin watch platform and the DUW 3001 makes that possible now.
The 35mm Tangente Neomatik is paired with a champagne counterpart, as are all the new models today. The aptly named Tangente Neomatik Champagner brings a champagne gold dial with neon orange accents for the seconds hand and subdial.
The Metro Neomatik
The 35mm Metro Neomatik may have experienced the smallest change of all the new Neomatiks, relative to its non-DUW 3001 brethren that is (the Metro Datum). It does have some small changes, however, like the use of light blue minute ticks around the perimeter and the addition of the red Neomatik accent.
The Metro Neomatik Champagner is the more colorful alternative, once again bringing in some orange accents. This time it uses orange minute ticks in addition to the orange seconds hand, leaving the seconds ticks black.
The Minimatik
The Minimatik is also receiving the Neomatik treatment. The 35.5mm new Minimatik (interestingly not officially called the Neomatik, despite having it written on the dial) is probably the most colorful Nomos outside of the Tetra line. The blue numerals have been toned down to what appears to be a dark gray and the minute ticks around the perimeter are bright blue instead.
The Minimatik receives a more substantial deviation from the original in the form of this Champagner. This is an interesting model not just because of the orange neomatik writing and orange minute markers but the orange border of the seconds subdial.
The Ludwig Neomatik
The 36mm Ludwig Neomatik is certainly the most playful of the very austere Ludwig collection. It drops the railroad track minute markers in favor of small bright blue numerals. Furthermore, red accents are found in the neomatik writing and the seconds hand. You'll also notice that there are now numerals in the seconds subdial.
The Ludwig Neomatik Champagner is similarly unrestrained and features the most orange accents of all the Neomatik models, thanks to its bright orange Roman numerals.
The Orion Neomatik
The 36mm Orion Neomatik is perhaps the most striking of the new models with a combination of red writing and seconds and blue markers on five minute intervals. It's also the first automatic Orion.
The Orion Neomatik Champagner is also more than happy to utilize colorful accents. Here the minute and seconds markers are orange while the numerals are black.
The Straps
The straps on all Neomatik models are also new. The Champagner models receive an exclusive full-grain leather strap while the white dial models get a more conventional (for Nomos anyway) Shell Cordovan. I especially like the new buckles.
Nomos DUW 3001 Preview
We got the chance to see the all-new Nomos DUW 3001 movement uncased. Join me as I take you in-depth with this new movement and the first models that will carry it.
The DUW 3001 Ultra-Thin Automatic
Nomos' 10th in-house movement, the DUW 3001, is a big deal. This is going to be the underpinning of not just what has been announced so far, namely the Tangente Automatik and Minimatik, but also the new Neomatik models that are being rolled out. It will no doubt form the basis of many new watches in the future as well.
Before we really get into the new movement, it's worth mentioning the journey from outsourced to in-house that it took for Nomos to arrive here. Like virtually all watch companies, even legends like Rolex, Nomos began using outsourced movements, in this case the Peseux 7001. Over time, Nomos revised the Peseux 7001, eventually manufacturing most of it themselves and making it their own. Simultaneously Nomos was employing more radical revisions to create their first automatic. Special proprietary movements were made, the successors of which are enshrined in the current DUW 1001 and DUW 2002 that power the Lambda and Lux today.
The real revolution was actually much smaller, however. To this day, many, if not most, companies that produce "in-house" movements are still sourcing escapements from a third party. Nomos is one of the few exceptions, thanks to this,the swing system. Nomos has been steadily replacing the escapements in all of its movements with this swing system to turn them into the current generation of Nomos calibres. But, much more importantly, it gave Nomos the freedom to step out of the Peseux 7001 ancestry of their movements and design something completely new.
The DUW 3001 is the result, or at least, the first of many results. This movement, from the ground up, is now in-house.
The most important fact about the DUW 3001 is that it's automatic and it's thin. Very, very thin. Indeed, it's just 3.2mm thick. This is just 0.6mm thicker than Nomos' thinnest manual wind calibre (manuals are inherently thinner than automatics), the Alpha. The most popular ultra-thin men's watch in the world today is very likely to be the Jaeger LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Moon. The 925 automatic inside of it is 4.9mms, 1.7mm thicker than the DUW 3001, although in fairness to JLC, this is with a moon phase and date complication, contributing at least some to that difference. In the end, however, the DUW 3001 is thinner, and it should be added, far more affordable.
One of the more noteworthy changes in the DUW 3001, as compared to all other Nomos movements, is the use of a balance bridge instead of a balance cock. I've mentioned this decision in quite a few of my recent articles as both Tudor's new movements as well as all current-generation Omega movements have adopted this approach. I spoke with Nomos about this decision and they said that, although the bridge may indeed provide a more rugged superstructure than the balance cock, the real reason was for space management. Apparently, there just wasn't enough room in this condensed movement for the alternative design, which extends much further on one side.
The winding system has been apparently revised as well. This is a very simple approach that allows turning the crown in one direction to wind the mainspring but allow it to harmlessly freewheel in the other direction. Basically, when turning the correct way, the final gear is pushed into contact with the rest of the movement, allowing its motion to be transferred. In the opposite direction, the gear is pushed away and therefore rotates harmlessly.
Up close we can see that Nomos has stuck with their regulated design. This is no surprise as Nomos has been a somewhat vocal defender of the regulator and stands along some fairly prestigious company, like Grand Seiko, Zenith and Vacheron Constantin. The ultimate effect will be that it will be very easy for watchmakers to adjust the rate of this watch. As with other Nomoses, a Triovis fine adjustment mechanism is used which actually gives it a bit of a free sprung look.
The balance wheel is now made in-house by Nomos as a component of their swing system. It is of the "smooth" variety, but this isn't precisely accurate as, along the rim of the balance, there are evenly spaced, tiny cylindrical extrusions bored out. This allows Nomos to precisely poise the balance. The owner won't be able to appreciate this with the balance inside of the movement, but it does look pretty neat if you get the chance to see it up close, certainly a lot better than most laser poising jobs you find on the underside of smooth balances these days.
Here is the new blued hairspring used in the swing system. I'm really glad I got to finally see this outside of the watch as it's so tiny that it's almost impossible to appreciate in the movement. It is, as you'd expect, very blue when you allow light to hit it. Blued hairsprings used to be a mark of quality in antique watches, a trend that has since died out, although thanks to Rolex's Parachrom Bleu springs, it has seen a bit of a resurgence. It's nice to see Nomos taking up the torch, even if it is a decorative flourish.
We're now looking at the rest of the swing system, the pallet fork and escape wheel, essentially the most fundamental functional unit of a watch. The design of these components is not revolutionary but instead quite traditional, as is Nomos' way. The only significant difference here is that they are now made entirely by Nomos and apparently to a higher degree of precision. Nomos was initially tight lipped about any performance advantage these parts might have, but today they have announced that they apparently entered movements in for chronometer testing (presumably alongside identical movements with the older escapement) and the swing system watches outperformed the competition. I should note here that these new watches are not certified chronometers, I take it that they used chronometer certification as a benchmark during development.
Even the dial side of the movement is quite attractive.
The DUW 3001 is an amazing movement. While plenty of companies are now beginning to churn out their various ETA 2824 clones it's really nice to see a company that wants to mix it up and produce something different. The 3001 is not a radical departure from design, but it does something unique, namely be extremely thin without any compromises in convenience or accuracy.
