NOMOS Glashütte Tangente Neomatic

Tangente by NOMOS Glashütte has been a favourite since 1992, loved for the purity of its Deutscher Werkbund-inspired dials and its in-house movements. Up until now, Tangente has had a hand-wound movement. Now it is available with a new automatic calibre, DUW 3001, slim and with a chronometer-level of precision.

NOMOS Glashütte Tangente neomatic

The dial is pure perfection, with tiny details that bring it to life, such as the orange seconds hand, the cyan-blue numerals for the minutes, the beautiful typefont. I personally love the fact that there is no date window. The case is 35 mm in diameter, 6.9 mm thick, in stainless steel, and so suitable for both men and women. The strap is in black Horween cordovan leather with the NOMOS pin buckle. Water resistance 3 bar, 30 metres.

The movement is a superb piece of design and engineering. DUW 3001(DUW stands for Deutsche Uhrenwerke) is 3.2 mm thick, and it has many characteristics that enable it to reach the precision of COSC chronometer-certified movements. The company tests all its movements in-house, but doesn’t obtain official chronometer certification in order not to increase the price of the watches. Its proprietary escapement, Swing System, is designed to enable the balance spring to be assembled into the escapement without coming into contact with the spring. The result is higher precision in series.

NOMOS Glashütte Tangente neomatic caseback

The movement provides a power reserve of about 42 hours. It is visible through the sapphire caseback, and has rhodium-plated surfaces with Glashütte ribbing, NOMOS perlage, and blued screws. An indication of the design quality is shown by the movement’s energy efficiency: only 5.8% of the energy from the mainspring is wasted in friction, as compared to the 20% of most other calibres. Another interesting feature is a rotor brake that blocks rotor swinging when the mainspring is fully wound. This reduces wear and extends the life of the watch.

Tangente has a number of close relatives, all with the new automatic movement, and all with the classic Bauhaus-style design. They are named Minimatik, Metro, Orion and Ludwig. All are available with white silver-plated or champagne-coloured dials, the latter more feminine.

Reference and price

The NOMOS Glashütte Tangente neomatik is reference 175. The most remarkable thing about this watch – like all other watches by the brand – is its price. €2,580. For a mechanical watch with an in-house automatic movement, this is exceptionally low. See this and the other watches in the neomatik family at http://www.nomos-glashuette.com

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