{"id":4106,"date":"2023-08-13T13:50:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-13T13:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/?p=4106"},"modified":"2023-08-13T13:50:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T13:50:22","slug":"nomos-glashutte-ludwig-33-gold-is-the-perfect-homage-to-glashuttes-watchmaking-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/?p=4106","title":{"rendered":"NOMOS Glash\u00fctte Ludwig 33 Gold Is The Perfect Homage To Glash\u00fctte’s Watchmaking Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 175th anniversary of watchmaking in the small Saxon town of Glash\u00fctte may have been two years ago in 2020. The celebrations, however, are still rolling, well into the 177th year of horological activity taking place in the M\u00fcglitz valley. With the release of the limited-edition Ludwig 33 in solid gold, NOMOS Glash\u00fctte looks to honor the history of the town it has called home since its foundation in 1990.<\/p>\n

I was born in 1985. I have it in mind that I am very used to being told just how young I am by anyone even slightly older than me. However, it is only recently that I began to realize it happens rather infrequently these days. Throughout my twenties, I was uncommonly fresh-faced. Even in my early thirties, I still seemed to give off an air of someone younger than my years. Suddenly, somewhere around the age of 32 or 33, things changed, and I stopped being a \u201cyoung\u201d man and became just a man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now, that might not seem very shocking at all from the outside. That\u2019s normal! That\u2019s aging! It happens to us all! Of course, it does. But, crucially, it happens to us all only once<\/em>. There comes a point in our lives \u2014 and it is a different point for everyone \u2014 that we go from being defined by our youth to being defined by our character. The frivolities of nonage evaporate almost instantly, and the cavalcade of misdemeanors a younger man, woman, or entity could shoulder with ease suddenly become burdensome. We lose the ability to \u201cget away with it\u201d. Suddenly, we are forced to grow up. It is at this point, that the content of our character can truly be judged. And this doesn\u2019t just happen to people. It happens to companies too.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is time<\/h2>\n

If you would be so kind as to read that heading aloud in the voice of Mufasa (the big daddy lion from The Lion King<\/em>), I\u2019d be much obliged.<\/p>\n

NOMOS Glash\u00fctte is almost 32 years old. Ever since I\u2019ve been aware of the brand\u2019s existence, I\u2019ve referred to it as \u201cthe young upstart\u201d, the \u201cyouthful jester\u201d, the \u201cplayful newcomer\u201d, or something along those lines. Those monikers have seemed appropriate despite NOMOS having released some very serious watches and made some very impressive movements during its time. Perhaps those nicknames were born of the brand\u2019s relative<\/em> youth, surrounded by stony-faced legends of the game whose legacies tower above its own like the mountains that cocoon the town from the outside world.<\/p>\n

Nomos uses both the \u201cIIII\u201d\u2026 <\/p>\n

But as\u00a0relatively<\/em> accurate as those affectionate pet names may have been, they are starting to feel a little beneath the brand and all it has accomplished. Is NOMOS still an upstart? Yes, I imagine it always will be. Does NOMOS still have a sense of humor? Indeed, I\u2019m sure hell would freeze over before that changed. Has NOMOS demonstrated an ability to be simultaneously silly and scholarly? Yes, it has, in ways few other brands could. However, as the brand continues to extol the history of its hometown as it canters toward two centuries of Saxon watchmaking, it\u2019s starting to feel like it has ascended to full maturity. All I can say is that this is certainly a good thing for lovers of fine German watchmaking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The gloves are off<\/h3>\n

This Ludwig 33 Gold, which is the watch that inspired my current shift in perception, is not the first gold watch the brand has ever produced. It isn\u2019t even the first gold Ludwig.<\/em> In many ways, this is a soft remake of a 35mm model that tested the waters 15 years ago (reference 211, for anyone who\u2019s counting, available with either a white dial or a Mocca dial).<\/p>\n

This smaller, arguably even more classical interpretation draws its design from the past, and the use of precious metal \u2014 yellow gold, no less \u2014 is a mark of reverence from a very German and generally quite utilitarian brand. Now, I know 33mm\u00a0sounds<\/em> small, but reserve your judgment until you\u2019ve had a chance to try it on. The long, straight lugs of the Ludwig make it wear a lot bigger. Case in point: I wear a NOMOS Weltzeit, which is around 40mm in diameter, an Orion in 38mm, and, you guessed it, a Ludwig in 33 (I also wear a Tetra at 27.5mm, but the less said about that the better).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So why has it had such a profound effect on me? Truthfully, this watch is just the icing on a cake that NOMOS has been baking for six and half years since it first released the DUW 3001 caliber. That release was seminal. It marked a turning point in time for the brand. If NOMOS managed to pull off the shift to in-house manufacture, the brand would forever be free. It would have complete control over its direction. The visions of its leaders would be manifestable because of such autonomy. It wasn\u2019t guaranteed, however. And the times immediately following the DUW 3001\u2019s statement release were not always smooth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The road to maturity<\/h3>\n

A push for international expansion came on the 3001\u2019s heels. The brand experimented with that strategy for about five years. Since then, just before and during the pandemic, NOMOS has chosen to focus on already-booming markets and refine its internal processes to become even more streamlined, agile, and dynamic. What that means in a theoretical sense is that models like this \u20ac7,800 33mm 18K gold Ludwig (water-resistant to 30 meters) and the bright pink- and purple-dialed Club Campuses (or should that be Campi?) can exist side-by-side and still make sense. Practically, it means NOMOS can do whatever it wants, and it will feel as if it\u2019s always been doing the same thing because that\u2019s what the brand is known for<\/em>. It\u2019s an exceptionally powerful situation for NOMOS to be in considering that it began its journey from a standing start just over three decades ago.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This release is a really nice way to mark the 175th anniversary of watchmaking in Glash\u00fctte (that already passed two years ago\u2026). But it alone is not what gives me this sense of immense satisfaction when I look back upon the path NOMOS has traveled these past few years. This release smacks of a brand in the groove. NOMOS has figured out the lanes in which it can drive with its foot to the floor and is shifting between them with ease. Within every watchmaker\u2019s catalog, there should exist invisible but tangible threads, knitting the collections together. These threads needn\u2019t be explicit \u2014 perhaps the subtler the better \u2014 but they should be there, spinning a wordless narrative from one page to the next.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The future\u2019s bright, the future\u2019s golden<\/h3>\n

There have been outliers, missteps, and moments of downright madness along the way. The new NOMOS Glash\u00fctte Ludwig 33 Gold is not one of them. It is a watch built to the brand\u2019s exacting modern standards with its heart in the past that laid the foundations for NOMOS\u2019s creativity to truly flourish. Yes, this is one of the younger brands in Glash\u00fctte\u2019s 175-year history, but it is also one of the oldest in its modern<\/em> history, with operations commencing before the re-foundation of both Glash\u00fctte Original and A. Lange & S\u00f6hne became official.<\/p>\n

In its emerging role as, if not an elder<\/em> statesman, certainly a stately presence at the top table, NOMOS Glash\u00fctte could, after another 32 years of operations, find itself the best-known brand Germany has to offer if it continues to play its cards right. Right now, however, it seems likely the brand is content. Perhaps it is no longer the punk of the scene. Perhaps it has cut its mullet and removed its piercings. But when it comes to keeping an audience on its toes, few brands do it any better. Learn more about NOMOS Glash\u00fctte here.<\/p>\n

This is a preferred position post.\u00a0<\/em>Learn more<\/i><\/u><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 175th anniversary of watchmaking in the small Saxon town of Glash\u00fctte may have been two years ago in 2020. The celebrations,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[347,348,117,349,350],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportandhealthy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}