When people ask what’s so special about mechanical watches, we go on about the miracle of keeping time with gears and springs, the artisanal tradition and the importance timepieces have played in great historical events. If anyone listening hasn’t walked away by then, eyes are usually glazed and the subject quickly changed. Now we can just point those people to this video.
Located in that small Saxon town that is home to no less than 14 watch companies, NOMOS Glashütte does things a little differently. Their designs are a markedly Bauhaus and clearly Teutonic, but also display a clever “wink” — they don’t take themselves too seriously. NOMOS also makes all their own movements in-house, right down to the escapement; for them, in-house means the old Glashütte train station that now serves as their workshop. This video is a quietly meditative look over the watchmaker’s shoulder, giving an inside look at how a NOMOS watch gets made, from start to finish.