the Nomos is a Yuppie's watch - change my mind if you can.

It's a bit overcast today and so I pulled out the Nomos Ahoi because I felt like adding a splash of a warm color will cheer me up

Feeling a bit guilty because I usually don't pay much attention to the underside of my watches, I flipped the Ahoi over to appreciate the movement and it made me realize two thing: Firstly, display case backs are completely wasted on me since I don't really care about how a movement look.

Image

After reaching this conclusion and sadly removing myself from the ranks of true watch lovers, I righted the Ahoi back to look at the dial and came to the second conclusion: I think I get it why so many people don't like Nomos watches.

Image

It's not only because they all look the same and that potential buyers would probably appreciate more design choices. It's not only because of the decision to use weird looking lugs to make them appear different. I think that it's because the price doesn't match the style.

Nomos like to use bright colors and catching names to appeal to a younger target audience, that's great and I'm all in favor of enrolling the kids into wearing watches like they are supposed to do instead of planting their noses on their phone's screens. The problem is with the price strategy that would match an affluent younger generation (what we would call yuppies' back in the 80's) that is attracted to something like what Mondaine has to offer but at a higher tier - and this audience doesn't really exist anymore because they are more likely than not debt ridden students that can barely afford a toaster, and would rather spend their money on a more expensive phone.

Boomers like me that do have the means to own a Nomos and don't plant their noses on a phone are usually more attracted to elaborate polish finish, more complicated case design and less weird lug's shapes. Something that looks more premium in the classical and boring way. So there it is: The Ahoi match my bank account but it would probably be better on the wrist of someone 30-40 years younger than me.

Image

Which is a conclusion worthy of another coffee and concluding that I really don't care if the Nomos also came with training wheels. I like it, I wear it and that's it.

Reply
·

From now on, all posts should end with “I like it, I wear it, and that’s it.”

While I like (some) Nomos watches, I see your point. Part of the reason I don’t own one is that it feels wrong to pay “premium” prices for such simple designs. I get that work goes into the design, and that it’s not always easy to make a simple watch look good, but somehow it feels wrong. It’s like how I can’t understand paying for an IWC…it’s a field/pilot’s watch. Somehow I can’t see the price for the same thing others do for much less. All those great, cheap field watches issued to the military, and here comes IWC wanting $4k for one? Nope.

Obviously this is an emotion thing, as I’m fine with the price of a Sub even though it’s just a diver. Well, watches are nothing if not about emotion.

·

I love that dial color. Previously, I'd stayed away from Nomos because I'm wary of in-house movements. They are still less tested than ETA/Sellita/Miyota. I like being able to have my watches repaired locally. But still, that dial color is now really calling me haha.

·

I have a fundamental problem with Nomos: they make Bauhaus style watches for luxury (by most people's standards) prices. These two things do not go together, Bauhaus is meant to be affordable, the simple style is meant to ease mass production and lower the cost of ownership for the great unwashed. It feels like a form of endo-German cultural appropriation.

There are several companies that make watches that look like they'd be a Nomos. Yes, that includes homages and fakes by Chinese companies, but the likes of Dugena, Junkers, Dufa, and Stowa also make watches that look as they could have been made by Nomos. Interesting case here is the Stowa Antea, which looks like another Nomos variant, but... Stowa has been making this watch since the 1930s, predating the existance of Nomos by over half a century.

·

I tried on a 36mm blue faced Ahoy and I liked it until my wife commented “ It just looks like a fossil watch !? That took the wind right out of my sails ….. I still loved it , the worse part was I could see what she meant…. damn it doesn’t look like what it costs , i get it ….. still love em ….. damn

·
thekris

From now on, all posts should end with “I like it, I wear it, and that’s it.”

While I like (some) Nomos watches, I see your point. Part of the reason I don’t own one is that it feels wrong to pay “premium” prices for such simple designs. I get that work goes into the design, and that it’s not always easy to make a simple watch look good, but somehow it feels wrong. It’s like how I can’t understand paying for an IWC…it’s a field/pilot’s watch. Somehow I can’t see the price for the same thing others do for much less. All those great, cheap field watches issued to the military, and here comes IWC wanting $4k for one? Nope.

Obviously this is an emotion thing, as I’m fine with the price of a Sub even though it’s just a diver. Well, watches are nothing if not about emotion.

Of course it's emotional, there is no practical value in owning or wearing a wristwatch.

·

Yes, Nomos watches are somewhat of an "inside joke", meaning that luxury Bauhaus is indeed a contradiction, because mass production was at the core of the movement. Now if somebody makes a more elaborate watch but uses a design that looks mass produced, does it diminish the effort? Anyhow, I think the watch looks great on @Catskinner .

·
uhrensohn

I have a fundamental problem with Nomos: they make Bauhaus style watches for luxury (by most people's standards) prices. These two things do not go together, Bauhaus is meant to be affordable, the simple style is meant to ease mass production and lower the cost of ownership for the great unwashed. It feels like a form of endo-German cultural appropriation.

There are several companies that make watches that look like they'd be a Nomos. Yes, that includes homages and fakes by Chinese companies, but the likes of Dugena, Junkers, Dufa, and Stowa also make watches that look as they could have been made by Nomos. Interesting case here is the Stowa Antea, which looks like another Nomos variant, but... Stowa has been making this watch since the 1930s, predating the existance of Nomos by over half a century.

Yes it's true that Nomos are not going to win any price for originality.

·
Tinfoiled14

I tried on a 36mm blue faced Ahoy and I liked it until my wife commented “ It just looks like a fossil watch !? That took the wind right out of my sails ….. I still loved it , the worse part was I could see what she meant…. damn it doesn’t look like what it costs , i get it ….. still love em ….. damn

Your wife got it in one. These are fashion watch for the affluent.

·

I have a Max Bill and am constantly tempted by Stowa Anteas, but Nomos leaves me cold. In a world of $15k dive watches it's not the "luxury bauhaus" thing that bothers me that much. It's just something about the design.

·
DukeMo

I have a Max Bill and am constantly tempted by Stowa Anteas, but Nomos leaves me cold. In a world of $15k dive watches it's not the "luxury bauhaus" thing that bothers me that much. It's just something about the design.

I too have a Max Bill and I think it's a better watch than the Nomos. The Ahoi is fun but the Max Bill is class.

·
Tinfoiled14

I tried on a 36mm blue faced Ahoy and I liked it until my wife commented “ It just looks like a fossil watch !? That took the wind right out of my sails ….. I still loved it , the worse part was I could see what she meant…. damn it doesn’t look like what it costs , i get it ….. still love em ….. damn

Oof, that is harsh. Once seen, impossible to unsee.

·

Good analogy there as the yuppies are pushing into their 50's and have not embraced the Apple watch yet. Road signs on your wrist used to be cool and now they wear fitbits to track everything but passing gas.

·

I'm mostly fine with Nomos on other people's wrists (and it looks great on yours!). On my wrists, those long lugs just slip around like crazy.

·

NOMOS is not a Bauhaus company and they don't really claim to be at this point. The only NOMOS that has any links to Bauhaus design is the Tangente (and I guess the Ahoi to some extent), but one shouldn't confuse using aspects of Bauhaus design as a launchpad for a watch design with the watches themselves following Bauhaus tenets like affordability. In the early days they did feel that the core four watches they initially launched with were watches that the old Bauhaus designers would design and wear today, but nowadays they minimize the link to Bauhaus. Arguably a hand-wound Tangente in its normal price range still probably holds well to Bauhaus principles.

Anyways, if you want to read some interesting stuff on Bauhaus and how it relates to various German watches and watch design, I'd highly recommend this article.

https://nomoswatchclub.com/bauhaus-watch-myth-en

·

I'm not sure where all this was going. As far as people "don't like" Nomos watches, sure, some don't, as is true of any brand. I don't know what that means as a general matter. Nomos is almost always talked about with respect among watch peeps whenever it comes up, even if they sometimes add, "though it's not for me." Yes, Nomos watches are offbeat and quirky, so do not have the same mass appeal as say Tudor or Omega, but then they're not they're not trying to compete with the big mass market brands on their turf; they seem to have found their own niche.

As for "they all look the same," they have many distinctive designs within their niche. Sure, someone not draw in by their design language can take a quick glance and say they're all the same, but someone who's interested enough to look a little deeper will find lots to choose from. Divers to me look pretty much samey samey, and I don't care enough to figure out the differences, even though lots of folks will go on ad nauseum about all the myriad Seiko divers.

Whatever the financial state of young people in general these days, there are plenty who can afford a multi-thousand dollar watch. Nomos is not trying to sell to every young person, they're just trying to reach a fraction of the fraction who can afford Nomos prices. Nomos is still at the low end of luxury, so a good place to start once you get past the "affordable" brands. They do seem to be pushing this part of their market with their emphasis on the Club line, their entry level line with more approachable designs and prices, presumably with some success since they keep doing it.

As for me, at the long end of Gen X, so boomer adjacent. I'm an urban professional, but no longer young, and I don't think my income rises to the level of the prototypical yuppie. Nomos spoke to me, more so one watch in particular, the Metro Gangreserve, so I bought it.

All in all, looking at them from the outside, Nomos is a niche brand traveling a narrow lane, but with the parameters they've set for themselves they've found success.

·

At the end of the day, mechanical watches are purely jewellery and can't even tell time as well as a cheap quartz or, god forbid, a phone. And considering how useful smartphones are in the current day and age, a student or young adult spending a fair chunk on a powerful, multipurpose phone is a far better investment than them spending hundreds or thousands of $ on a piece of jewellery.

This hobby is one that's pretty expensive and decadent to partake in, so I think we should all be grateful we're in a position to indulge in it, and not be snobby about other's interest/disinterest.

Watch design is pretty subjective and I suppose it's only a matter of time before cheap fashion brands start making other designs. It does certainly suck when people mistake a simple, thin mechanical for one of those fashion pieces though, but I always believe that shouldn't dissuade people from buying what they like.

·

I like the fact that they have their own movements and have tried to like them but in the end the dials just are not to my liking. It may be that I have not seen them in person and they may look more luxurious in person.

·

I didn't think there were any yuppies left, we now have millennials which is an entirely different thing. You buy a Nomos watch because it is simple & functional. It goes with just about anything, and is a finely made Bauhaus work of art.