With Club Campus, NOMOS Glashütte have identified a section of the market – watches for celebrations – and have created a package specially for it, at an attractive price. Baume & Mercier do the same sort of thing, targeting their entry-level Classima and My Classima watches at customers who want to celebrate something, a degree, a marriage, whatever. While Baume & Mercier’s Classima with a mechanical movement costs just under €2,000, and My Classima with quartz movement retails at about €990, the NOMOS Glashütte proposal compares favourably: a watch with an in-house mechanical movement starting from €1,000, a price that includes the engraving of a celebratory message on the solid caseback.
Unusual dial
The Club Campus has a dial rather different from the usual Nomos Bauhaus-style minimalism. In this piece, the numerals are larger and coated with SuperLuminova, and have the quirky touch of mixing Arabic and Roman, the “California” arrangement famous above all in watches by Panerai.
Two case sizes
The case is robust, in steel, with a curved sapphire crystal watch glass, and a 100-metre water resistance rating that makes it an everyday watch that can withstand rain and splashes without any problems, and can even be worn swimming. The watch is available in two sizes, Club Campus at 36 mm, and Club 38 Campus at 38.5 mm. The Club Campus is slim at 8.17 mm thickness, likewise the Club 38 Campus at 8.45 mm. The strap is in velour leather.
Caseback for engraving
The stainless steel caseback provides space at the centre for the engraving, and the NOMOS Glashütte website allows you to try out your message to see whether it fits. You have four lines of about 4-5 words on each line, plenty enough for a brief message or a quatrain.
Movement
The α (Alpha) movement is designed and built in-house by NOMOS, extensively based on the Peseux 7001. It is a hand-wound movement running at 21,600 (3 Hertz), with a power reserve of about 43 hours. It has the stop-second function so that when you pull out the crown to the time-setting position, the seconds hand stops moving. The movement is decorated with Glashütte stripes, perlage and wheels with sunburst finish, but of course only the watchmaker sees this. If you like the idea of a NOMOS watch with Alpha movement visible through a sapphire caseback, you can opt for another of the brand’s watches such as the Orion, €1,820.
Prices
The price of the NOMOS Glashütte Club Campus is exceptionally low, considering the level of finish, and the in-house movement. NOMOS CEO Uwe Ahrendt says, “We’ve subsidized these watches a little.” The 36 mm Campus costs €1,000, the 38.5 mm Club 38 Campus costs €1,100. The price includes a box in poplar wood, cleaning cloth, engraving, tax and duty, and delivery. Order on the NOMOS Glashütte website.
