NOMOS Glashütte: The World on Your Wrist, Holidays in Sight

In mid-August, watches sometimes seem to have another way of telling the time. That of a plane to catch, a train heading south, a dinner booked on a Mediterranean island, or a call placed to those who stayed several thousand kilometres away. For these moments when time zones stop being an abstraction, NOMOS Glashütte has a particularly horological answer: the travel watch. And with its recent Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer, the German manufacture today delivers what is probably its most accomplished interpretation.

There are complications that are admired more than they are used. And then there are those whose value becomes obvious the moment you cross a border. GMT, second time zone, world time: behind different mechanical architectures lies the same idea. Continuing to know what time it is “here”, without losing sight of the time “there”. A concern particularly relevant during this “mid-August” period, when a good number of French wrists temporarily change latitude, sometimes continent and, with a bit of luck, rhythm. At NOMOS Glashütte, however, the exercise is by no means a pretext for piling on indications. The German brand remains true to one of its historical obsessions: making simple what is not.

From Glashütte to the rest of the world

Founded in 1990 by Roland Schwertner, NOMOS is an independent company based in Glashütte, the historic cradle of German watchmaking. There, the brand develops and produces its own calibres and takes its industrial integration remarkably far, all the way to its proprietary escapement, the NOMOS Swing System.

This mechanical mastery has never stood in the way of a certain aesthetic restraint. Quite the opposite. At NOMOS, sophistication likes to remain discreet. That is precisely what makes its travel watches interesting. Rather than showing off the complexity of their mechanics, they seek to erase it behind almost instinctive use. The range dedicated to this exercise now counts three interpretations: Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer, Zürich Worldtimer and Tangomat GMT. Three watches, three personalities and three ways of travelling.

And for the summer holidays, one of them naturally takes the lead.

Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer: the watch that might never leave your wrist on holiday

Presented in 2025, the Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer brought something that was still missing from NOMOS’s world of travel watches: a genuine sporty dimension. The point seems almost obvious once the watch is on the wrist.

Its steel case measures 40 mm in diameter for a mere 9.9 mm thickness. The crown is screw-down, the integrated metal bracelet adds to its rugged character and the whole offers water resistance to 10 atm, enough to keep the watch on the wrist while swimming. The hands, numerals and indexes also feature Super-LumiNova to remain legible as light fades.

Here, then, is a worldtimer that can accompany the traveller from the airport to the beach, from the pool to a terrace, before slipping under a sleeve for dinner. This versatility changes a great deal. Because the best travel watch is not necessarily the one that displays the most information. It is, above all, the one you never need to take off.

One click and the journey continues

The way it works is true to NOMOS’s spirit.

A city disc runs around the dial, representing the different time zones. The pusher at 2 o’clock lets you move from one to another: a single press advances the local time by one zone. Meanwhile, the counter at 3 o’clock keeps the reference time on a 24-hour display, with a day/night distinction that is especially useful when several thousand kilometres separate the holiday destination from home.

Leaving Paris, landing in New York and adjusting the watch therefore requires neither stopping the movement nor lengthy crown manipulations. Click after click, the local time simply follows the journey. This is perhaps where the true achievement of this watch lies: the complication disappears behind its use. One small detail also deserves mention. A red ring appears at the crown as long as it is not fully screwed down, a particularly clever way of reminding the owner that the stated 10 atm water resistance naturally assumes the crown is properly closed.

On a watch liable to go straight from the sun lounger into the water, this attention to detail is far from anecdotal.

DUW 3202: 4.8 millimetres to travel the world

The feat naturally also lies on the movement side.

The Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer is powered by the in-house automatic calibre DUW 3202, whose world time complication is directly integrated into the gear train rather than added as an extra module.

The movement measures just 4.8 mm thick for a diameter of 31 mm and offers around 42 hours of power reserve. This slimness largely explains how NOMOS managed to keep the watch’s total thickness under ten millimetres despite the presence of the complication.

This is a decisive factor.

World time watches easily become bulky. Here, though, slimness contributes as much to elegance as to comfort. At 9.9 mm, the Club Sport retains the proportions of a watch that can genuinely be worn all day. The Red Dot Design Award jury was not fooled either. In its assessment, it specifically praised this unusual combination of low thickness, mechanical complexity and ease of use. The Silver version received the Red Dot: Best of the Best in 2026, after already earning an iF Design Award the same year.

Two major awards within a few months for a watch that had appeared only the year before.

Design according to NOMOS: plenty of information, never any confusion

One problem remained: fitting the whole world onto a 40 mm dial without turning it into a dashboard. This is probably where the work of designer Michael Paul and the NOMOS teams truly makes sense. City disc, minute track, indexes, numerals, central hours and minutes, small seconds, 24-hour display, day/night indication… The amount of information is considerable. Yet none of it seems to try to dominate the others.

The Silver dial thus plays on a sunburst rhodium-plated background, a blue city ring and a few red accents. The Red Dot jury also highlighted the care given to visual hierarchy and to the balance between the different levels of information.
The complication becomes almost graphic. And that is undoubtedly very NOMOS: making sure the user understands the watch first, before seeking to understand its movement.

Zürich Worldtimer: travelling in a suit

Not every journey leads to a beach, however.

For those whose destination is more likely Singapore, London or Tokyo, with a shirt in the suitcase and a few meetings in the diary, NOMOS keeps a more dressed-up interpretation of world time in its catalogue: the Zürich Worldtimer. Its steel case measures 39.9 mm in diameter for 10.9 mm thickness. The curved lugs, faceted hands and Shell Cordovan strap give it a more classic look than the Club Sport. Its water resistance is 5 atm. Here too, the time zone change is made via a pusher. The city disc is built into the dial, and the 24-hour display provides a second time reference.

Inside beats the DUW 5201, an in-house automatic calibre 5.7 mm thick, fitted with the NOMOS Swing System and offering up to 42 hours of power reserve. The philosophy is different. The Club Sport seems ready to jump on a plane with a polo shirt and swimsuit in the cabin bag. The Zürich prefers the passport to travel in a jacket’s inside pocket.

But both speak the same mechanical language.

Tangomat GMT: the essentials, and nothing more

The third traveller in the family is probably aimed at the NOMOS enthusiasts most attached to the house’s historic sobriety. The Tangomat GMT takes up the instantly recognisable lines of the Tangente family: a light dial, pared-back typography, blued hands and long angular lugs. World time is shown here through codes corresponding to the time zones and through the second time zone indication. Pressing the pusher lets you move from one to the other.

Its case, 40 mm in diameter and 10.9 mm thick, also houses the automatic DUW 5201 calibre. Its 3 atm water resistance nonetheless suits it more to planes, trains and city breaks than to water activities. It is probably the most intellectual of the three, and also the closest to NOMOS’s original identity: an extremely understated watch that reveals its sophistication only to those who take the time to observe it.

Three watches, three ways to set off

This is ultimately where the NOMOS travel collection becomes interesting. Tangomat GMT speaks to the purist. Zürich Worldtimer to the traveller who wants to keep a certain classic elegance. And Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer to the one who would like to travel with a single watch. One for catching the plane. One for walking all day in a foreign city. One for swimming. One for dinner. And one for knowing, when it comes to calling those who stayed behind in France, whether it is really reasonable to make their phone ring. This last point seems especially fitting for the season. In mid-August, when the suit stays in the closet, the days grow longer and diaries empty out, high horological complication can also shed a little of its solemnity. It can become practical.

Holidays as the best testing ground

A successful travel watch perhaps should not constantly remind its owner that they are wearing a complication. It should simply make their life easier. This is precisely what NOMOS seems to have understood with its new generation of Worldtimer. The mechanics remain sophisticated, the construction stays deeply rooted in watchmaking and production remains anchored in Glashütte. But once the watch is fastened to the wrist, all that is left is a pusher to press the moment the plane has just landed.

With its case under ten millimetres thick, its in-house calibre, its 10 atm water resistance and its 24-hour second time zone display, the Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer thus turns a traditional complication into a genuine holiday watch. And while a good watch is often recognised by its ability to make you forget the technique driving it, this one perhaps manages one more feat. Making you forget the time you just left, without ever really losing sight of it.

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