When you’ve spent as much time in and around a company as I have with NOMOS Glashütte, you’re often able to predict what’s coming. However, brands rarely reward your foresight with an immediate response. Instead, they often take several more product release cycles than seems necessary to unveil the model you always believed would plug whatever gap you’d identified in their collection. 

In recent times, I’ve had a lot of success at predicting what NOMOS in particular would eventually do. Back in 2017 when NOMOS released the Aqua collection, it was a journalist’s dream: two headlining models — the Siren Red (Signalrot) and Siren Blue (Signalblau) boasting blazingly bright dials paired with a Goldilocks-sized 37mm case, and the brand’s greatest ever technical achievement, the DUW 3001 neomatik caliber — were born attention grabbers. The arresting images NOMOS created for the campaign quickly started popping up on blogs around the world. The only problem? The seemingly perfect storm of color and caliber meant a much higher price than the existing clientele were used to paying for a Club model. Up until then, it had always been the most accessible and the most youthful. The grown-up movement and the carefree dial was an ambitious union that didn’t meet with the commercial success it perhaps deserved. 

I said at the time, as we packed away our stand at Baselworld that those dials would fly off the shelves if they had alpha calibers behind them. Last autumn, when NOMOS dropped the Club Campus Nonstop Red and Endless Blue, it felt like the Siren Red and Siren Blue finally got the redo they deserved. Sure, the colors aren’t identical, but the spirit is there. 

It was a satisfying moment. I was glad the brand had seen the potential of that popping pair that collectors and fans alike look back on fondly. But you know what? It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as what happened to me at the 5th annual NOMOS Glashütte Forum, held just a stone’s throw away from my home city of Dresden.

The new Tangente 2date at the 5th annual NOMOS Glashütte Forum

The revelation of NOMOS’s newest model, featuring a new and improved movement (the 2.8 mm thick DUW 4601), blindsided me. I could feel my jaw hanging open in surprise. Not because of the quick-set date that NOMOS has finally added to its manually-wound calibers. Not because of the beefed-up power reserve, which now stands at 52 hours. Not even because of the superior, off-center sun-ray finish, elegantly emanating from the heart of every NOMOS caliber, the in-house swing system escapement. And even though the orbital date support had been thoughtfully integrated into the finishing of the central engine, my breath was snatched by a dial display that will, admittedly, leave some people scratching their heads, trying to figure out the point of it, and others giggling with glee at the wonderful whimsy, and oddly emotional resonance of it all.

The NOMOS Glashütte Tangente 2Date is a 37.5 mm 316L stainless steel watch adhering to Bauhaus principles. It is water resistant to 50 ATM and is delivered on a black shell cordovan leather strap from the world-famous Horween tannery in Chicago. It has a centrally-mounted hour and minute hand, a sub-seconds register at 6 o’clock, and … two dates.

Different dates? No. The same date. Twice. Displayed in two different formats. Once at six o’clock through a subtly redesigned aperture sporting slightly more curvaceous bevels from previous iterations (that I can’t help but think have been included to mirror the new, more organic lines of the movement’s exquisite anglage), and once around the periphery of the dial, a la the DUW 6001-powered Tangente UpDate that made waves upon its release in 2018. 

There are two models in this new model line. One with a traditionally silvered dial and red accents, and one with a refined sunburst blue dial, colored with a galvanic coating, expressing the date in white. My personal preference is for the silvered dial because of the striking contrast of the red date indications against the otherwise austere surroundings, but during the unveiling at the Forum itself, public opinion was split pretty much down the middle.

But the big question. Why? Why on earth would anyone need to see the same date expressed twice? I can well imagine skepticism abounding in principle, but, in practice, being able to quickly read the date via the display at 6 o’clock is effective; seeing the more graphical date moving around the edge of the dial is, in comparison, emotive. In some ways, it reminds me of IQ tests that focus on either verbal or spatial intelligence, with the traditional date perhaps appealing more toward the former, and the outer track resonating with the latter. Together, the reading experience is extremely intuitive, allowing the wearer’s eyes to favor the mode of display that is easiest for them to read personally.

Is it necessary? No, not really. But does it feel like the most comprehensive way to communicate the date I’ve ever encountered? It does. And, as such, I am eagerly awaiting the fleshing out of this exciting sub-family over the coming years.

Tech Specs: NOMOS Glashütte Tangente 2date 

Movement: Manual-winding caliber DUW 4601; 52-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours and minutes; small seconds; double-date dislpay
Case: 37.5mm × 6.8mm; stainless steel with steel caseback or sapphire crystal; water-resistant to 50m
Dial: Galvanized dials in silver-plated white or sunburst blue
Strap: Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan black leather
Price: US$2,760 (stainless steel caseback) or US$3,020 (sapphire crystal caseback)