NOMOS Club Sport Worldtimer ‘Grid’. Credit – NOMOS
I fell hard for the Volcano, Glacier, and Magma back in April. Since then, the Dune has earned its place among them, with the Canyon not far behind. I remain undecided on the Jungle variant and the silver-dial core model, but the real surprise has been the midnight blue sunburst from the standard collection. When it was first released, I thought it hadn’t just missed the mark—it had missed the dartboard altogether. Now, it seems NOMOS was aiming at a board hung on a distant wall in another room of a pub I didn’t even know existed. And somehow, it landed squarely on the bull’s-eye. More improbably still, it changed my mind.
At first glance, the Club Sport neomatik World Timer can feel like a tangle of colour, elements, and functions. Give it time—second, third, fourth looks, however many it takes—and the logic of the layout begins to reveal itself. The way the 2 and 4 numerals overlap the home-time dial initially drove me mad. Months later, I realise I was mad for missing the ambition and harmony of the design. After all these years, I should know better. Never doubt NOMOS. Perhaps that should be my first tattoo.
The Sixth NOMOS Forum. Credit – NOMOS
I’m typing this while hurriedly shovelling a succession of genuinely excellent small plates into my mouth, attempting to refuel before the afternoon session of the sixth NOMOS Forum gets underway. We’re gathered in the church NOMOS acquired nearly a decade ago, beneath the now-iconic “cloud” lights. Suspended overhead, they form an aesthetic bridge between the folksy, backwater charm of Glashütte and the slick Kreuzberg cool of Berliner Blau, the brand’s design studio two hours away in the capital.
For the first time in six years, I’ve been grouped with the German contingent, having lived in Dresden long enough to qualify as something approaching a “local”. Unsurprisingly, it changes very little. The watch industry is small, and I recognise most of the faces smiling up at the stage. The format, too, is reassuringly familiar—formulaic in the best possible way—and easy to settle into.
The programme opened with a refreshingly technical presentation by Mirko Heyne, whose name graces the dials of the brand he co-founded with Marco Lang many years ago, and whose influence runs deep through the DUW calibre family of which NOMOS is rightly proud. Next came Katrin Bosse-Foy, who unveiled an update to a classic model line—one we’re sworn to silence on until November (though do check back when the news breaks). Anabell Oeynhausen followed with a preview of the new Tetra colour set, slated for an October debut. Finally, my good friend Robert Ahrendt took the stage to present the models we are allowed to discuss today: a new limited-edition trio of NOMOS Glashütte Club Sport neomatik World Timers, collectively known as the “Night Navigation” series.
NOMOS Club Sport Worldtimer ‘Vector’. Credit – NOMOS
As I mentioned at the top of the article, I’d already been through something of a spiritual conversion when it comes to the Club Sport World Timer, but had I still been undecided on the model’s viability, the Night Navigation capsule would’ve convinced me. It’s superb. Not only are the three colourways inspired by the cockpit of an aeroplane, which, let’s face it, is every aviation nut’s happy place, but they also represent the most legible interpretation of the dial layout yet.
There’s an argument to be made that the starkly contrasting colours of the earlier models played an effective role in demarcating the different “zones” of the dial, but seeing this somewhat more subdued approach works infinitely better in my mind.
Unlike the original six limited editions launched in April, the colour usage on these models follows a consistent “paint by numbers” pattern. All three dials use black as a primary base and orange as an accent colour for the time zone indicator and the home time hand. This isn’t the same blazing orange (RAL 2005) that NOMOS used for the original neomatik “champagner” releases in 2015 and the standard Club Campus seconds hand (or for the two Panda Weltzeit models I worked on for Fratello), instead, it is a softer shade that complements rather than dominates proceedings, allowing the secondary colour of each design to shine.
The three models use either an orange/brown, blue/turquoise, or green/yellow colour palette. Each one is inspired by the glowing buttons, knobs, and levers of the cockpit as well as the nighttime vistas viewable through the cockpit’s windows when coming in to land. This kind of inspiration is not uncommon, but the application of the colours here is so sensitive it feels uncommonly connected to the source material. It is a runaway (or maybe that should be runway?) success.
NOMOS Club Sport Worldtimer ‘Vector’. Credit – NOMOS
The city ring of each model is a darker shade of each secondary colour, so the text stands out against it. The upper hemisphere of the home time sub-dial is a lighter shade than the background of the city ring, but still darker than the secondary colour. The Western Arabic numerals are luminous and in the secondary colour. This ties everything together superbly. Using white numerals here might have been tempting if the brand were overly concerned with achieving the best and most consistent glow-in-the-dark performance across the collection, but the designers clearly chose to lean fully into the concept. The result is fantastic. What we have here is another no-holds-barred, full-blooded approach to concept execution that few brands in the world can pull off as well as NOMOS.
The only drawback? Each colourway is limited to 175 pieces. That means you might have to fire up your jets if you want one. And while this is a good thing for your wallet, the price point of these beauties will no doubt make competition all the fiercer, as these versatile watches are priced at just €3,940 each.
And when I say versatile, I mean it — at just 10 mm thick with a water resistance of 100 meters and the option of a metal bracelet, fabric strap, or leather band, these watches are designed to go anywhere and do anything with their wearers. Powered by the DUW 3202, another stellar in-house movement from the darling of German watchmaking, owners can be sure they are buying a top-quality horological machine from a vertical manufacture built to exist for generations into the future.
NOMOS Club Sport Worldtimer ‘Trace’. Credit – NOMOS
Final Thoughts
As a lover of fine watchmaking, I’m sure details matter as much to you as they do to me. They clearly matter to NOMOS. Frivolous and non-functional as it may be, the small globe motif that is not just engraved but rather CNC-machined into the rotor is a wordless reminder that you are buying a well-considered product from a brand that will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of perfection.
And with this release, it’s possible NOMOS has achieved just that.
