Visiting One Of The Most Underestimated Brands In Watchmaking

modern watchmaking is dominated by brands that are like the craft itself being centuries old in Germany specifically their Dee rooted tradition permeates throughout the few streets of the small town of gluta the region responsible for its initial Ascent back in the 19th century however like many tales of history there are different chapters and since 1990 2 months following the fall of the Berlin Wall to be exact the next chapter for this stored region began and coincided with one of the most impressive success stories in modern watchmaking with the creation of a brand informed by outstanding German design principles and a heart for manufacturing at their core this is Nas [Music] glass [Music] so Enis thank you very much for leading us through this tour one thing I want to start with when it comes to nomos so many people Overlook the concept of your manufacturing capabilities we're in a place that is very special when it comes to that could you explain where we're at yes we're currently in schlotz this is where all the caliber parts of our in-house calibers are produced it's very important to sa for us and really to stress that uh we really produce every tiny part ourselves so that is really important for us and I'd love to show you more of it love to see it let's go yeah let's go so the first station of the manufacturer of the Coga par prodution is our turning shop there are five CNC turning machines where you put in large bras or stainless steel or whatever material you need for the according caliber part you put it in these machines they will turn the rod and there will be different tools that lay or Mill or drill out the according caliber part for example on this machine here we have screws tiny little screws that are coming out and every single you know day something new is potentially being cycled through these machines exactly exactly so schlot bit is functioning like our own in-house suppliers so the facility is all ours but of course we have orders for them we need screws we need balance Wheels we need some kind of Wheels second Wheels whatsoever and then they produce it for Num no excuses and just to give the scale to this we're talking about pieces that are we're talking the Micron of getting down into the details we going into the moo moo moo is 1,000 of a millimeter so really really really tiny uh so you have this big machines I always think it's very impressing and these tiny little things run out and I want to stress you're producing this here in gluto yes maybe it's very important to say that Nas is an independent watch brand so there is no major cooporation behind us flooding us with money we have to make smart Investments and one of the smartest one was probably invest in our caliber prod produc production where we do everything ourselves and where we can also control the quality of the watches and of the caliber parts the better the caliber parts are the better and the more accurate the watch can be which is the most important thing because we want a wellworking watch which is accurate and which is fun so after the caliber parts the wheel and everything is produced especially the wheels usually still do not have teeth on them MH so my colleague Kula is now applying the teeth on the component that gives the drive on the second wheel it's really tiny how you will see in a second you can hardly see them she's using the pin set to apply it into the machine that is then Milling out the teeth of the component here you can also see a lot of oil you have seen it in the Turning shop before so you always need lubricant while operating with machines and caliber parts and also to cool it down we use oil that is also filtered in here so it is filtered and reused then in order to avoid uh unnecessary waste so this is the one that is raw still that has no teeth and the upper one is the one that really has teeth so we have the wheels now but we don't have a main plate yet this is happening here here are three generations of laes that produce our main plate so they're basically magazines you can see them there see it there later uh where these raw plates are put in they're blanks the blade blank raw plates and the lasers put in the different levels and they lathe out um the main plate of the watch which all of these little holes are being cut all they drilled and laed out there are different these machines have every machine different tools but this machine has over 200 Tools in it it works 24/7 it can do all our caliber plates from alpha to 60101 everything there are a bunch of magazines in there and every mag magazine can be a different uh main plate so we really can have decide okay if we need more Alphas then we'll do more Alphas we need more 60101 then we do more 60101 this machine does it for us which is pretty amazing and it always does one side you see this side is still blank and here we have one side and here is the other side so it has to go in [Music] twice now we have produced our caliber parts it's also very important to say that after every step of the way there is quality control so not every part but after a certain amount of Parts every part is measured and checked if they really are fine if they really have the quality that we need to have high quality watches and this machine uh it's like a rattle plate it rattles it makes a picture of it first and with the camera the caliber part of the machine knows in which position it is and which one it can grab then it grabs it it puts it into the little tray which we need for the next uh part that we have that is machine operated so this once we have the little trays set they come over here um these are obviously different caliber parts we are C current ly placing rubies on the main plate of the alpha movements there are little holes in it that you can see and the robot is placing in the Ruby at the right hole with the right amount of pressure in the right position right in the main plate that's a little preassembly for the watch makers so they don't have to do it in the numbers we produce uh we have to be very efficient so this machine guarantees efficiency and also quality because it's always the same amount of pressure always the same that's like quality control and um efficiency at one [Music] step so after all the producing and all the quality controlling we are refining our calers also and that is happening actually by hand so we can see it here the retched Wheels where you can see this beautiful Sunburst finishing and she's doing that by hand she's applying a little bit of of diamond paste with a very special mixture top secret um on the machine and has the wheel on the other part and then she has to put the right amount of pressure at the right time really has to have serious skills it looks like she can do it with closed eyes but there is serious skills behind it how many people at the company can do this work because this is a defining characteristic of Nas you turn your movement around you see that rationing Crown wheel with a spiral finish how many people can actually do this two just two just two so every single person has a Nomas on their wrists all going through the same hands was either her or my colleague back [Music] there so we we have produced all the caliber parts we just need to assemble the watch and this is what happens here in the K tree inos glut and at this particular station that's the preassembly of the watch so there are different components of the of the watch that can be preassembled like for example the barrel with the feather inside that's happening here so she places the Barrel in the tool and then she puts in the feather the feather comes like this and she really has to put it correctly in because the end of the feather has to go into the right position within the barrel because they will be connected and then she cuts it off with the tool checks it so that's the barrel core that she's applying now into the core where the main spring will surround exactly where the main spring will surround uhuh this is an O lubrication small lubrication at the center so that the main spring will eventually be able to coil she's closing the case closing the barrel closing the barrel just with the right amount of pressure again and then we have yes this is a barrel in addition to seeing the barrel there's another other steps such as this where we're seeing some riveting of components it's important also to say that not every day every caliber part is produced it's always on demand and we just assembled the barrel completely and you can see here how one wheel is riveted so one thing I think is important to also establish is your swing system you've been doing this for now close to decade and this is your proprietary escapement yes for context for those this is a common aspect of a watch that is really that heartbeat of transfer of energy it's allowing a watch to run and most brands are going to Outsource this you have been producing this in-house and these components themselves um the swing system is very important to us some people ask us why did you want to do a proprietary escapement uh when you could buy it from a supplier well there are two problems with it first there was a monopoly and Monopoly are always a little problematic and second we want to be completely independent so Independence comes also with Independence for caliber parts and crucial parts of the caliber duw can you give us a sense of what that actually refers to d means which is translated into German watch calibers so that says it B basically that's how we name our calibers and then there's the number behind it so this is shellock shellock is actually the excrements of lice which is very interesting to do so and you can see how she's heaing the shellock up here so this comes in a cube and you have to heaten it up to then later pull off a fine like a thread like a thread like a fine thread and this is used as a adhesive type of material or like a wax it's used as a wax where it will solidify the pallets in the anchor itself here we are adding we added the shellac already to the pallets and we heaten it up so it can run into where it is supposed to be and then he has to visually check it and has to make sure that the shellock is in the right position because sometimes there's a little bit of excess and then you have to um clean it away yeah I think the important Point here is that these small little pallets which are the highest points of friction for a movement are being held together by essentially glue this but essentially glue made of lice experiments so what's she's basically doing she's putting thing in the machine and there is coming a light Air Stream out to rotate it and then it can calculate this way where it needs to be balanced because of the different um material components it might look visually okay but the weight is not okay and she's classifying them so she is checking what they're doing how they are rotating and she's putting them in a different category so we have 4 to 15 and she's classifying them what does each one of those numbers indicate the bigger the number the heavier is the balance wheel got it so it's weight it's weight yes exactly because it obviously depends how many you la how much you laed out mhm so this is the balance wheel in the tool and she's assembling the hairspring you have to be very very careful because the most delicate part of a watch is the hairspring so now the balance wheel is assembled and connected with the hairspring and now you have to make sure that it runs evenly that's a quality control and usually they run pretty good but you can still see on the monitor that it's not as even if it should be in the caliber you don't have a lot of space in height so she visually checks it in different positions and then with her little tools he's able to she's able to correct it if necessary and this is a very challenging task because if you look at her she hardly moves and on the monitor there is a lot going on uh and it tookes about a year to train a trained watch maker to correct and even out the [Music] hairspring so now we preassembled certain components of the watch and we assembled the swing system and corrected the hairspring now we're at the assembly lines so this is where the main plates and the different components and wheels that are still spare are really gotten get assembled so really here the caliber comes to life so what you're seeing here she's grabbing the main plate and she is putting in different components of the watch so this is like real caliber assembly so she's basically doing this and they come back here and the robot is actually at First measuring the heights you can see it over there at the monitor so this is Alpha there are five different levels that need to be measured and it's turned also the measurement is also some kind of quality check because if it doesn't if the measurements aren't right it goes back to the watch maker to readjust um and now you can see how the oil is floating in there are two different oils with different viscosities being applied by the machine because the machine is quicker and we can maintain the control that there's always the right amount of oil at the right place so this is some kind of polarity control again it starts with a person continues with the robot and it ends with a person so you can see here very well he's putting in more Wheels lay components and areas that just lubricated exactly and so everything is getting assembled now this caliber will have its first tick so everything has been preassembled she's putting in the escapement so this will be the first time that uh all of these caliber parts have come together and have been built together and assembled and where you can really see where it comes to life now we're already almost at the end of the tour and the watch head is first tick but of course the caliber uh needs to be cased in so this is this is all Happening Here and Now you can see what watch actually is this is a Tetra model and she's putting on the hands on the dial at first and then there is a visual quality control again he has to see that the hands are in the right position this is happening very fast and it looks like it it's easy but if you look at the Steady Hand she has it's really not it requires a lot of skills so now we already applied the hands to the dial and the caliber and this is where he comes in where we get fully cased up where they get fully cased up so you can see there is also a visual control and a little cleaning cuz at this point if there's any dust in the case there's no way hanging out case exactly so it's like a Hoover and with pressure ear also the dial needs to get cleaned up again you'll Pat it down with this slight little putty that will track any of a small little fuzz debris anything of the sort and this is really the final line of defense as a watch maker it goes through all these different steps the producing of the components from these raw materials The Cutting to have the pre-assembly then final assembly and then we're encasing up so all these hands have been passed through so you have to make sure that everything's perfect at this point you're making sure that this is done so that every person that was a part of the process before was able to uh make sure their work was well done yes exactly in addition to upholding their German manufacturing ethos with their work in gluta nomos is also a brand that is a leader for their recognizable and thoughtful design as a way to successfully bring together the bifurcated elements of traditional watchmaking with forward Concepts the brand has additional operations above the Lively and socially diverse streets of Germany's capital Berlin Thomas thank you for walking us through some of the design process now to begin we're in Berlin it's noral gluta so what is the thought process and methodology behind splitting the quaint town of gluta with a very vibrant City like Berlin what's why does Nas do this um was that up here in Berlin but it proved to be just right to do the Creative work here in this big City vibrant City not only capital of of Germany but of course it's like the cultural center in in Germany and where everything happens and you have loads of young people coming here loads of exhibitions and uh clubs and stuff and um the opposite you have in in gluta there you you have the knowledge and the knowhow of watchmaking for many generations now and um of course it's a quiet little place and when we go there it's uh it's just like it feels like holidays you you step out of the car and it's just quiet and Countryside and this is what you need for building watches when I think of nomos I think when many people think of nomos one aspect that is like the first entry point for many people is design and when you're talking about where does this brand get inspiration we hear things like you know bow house we hear about the do of bbin like where does noos get the inspiration for design like where is the key characteristics where things start and then I'd love to be able to go through you know what is your process as you start to look at a design well yeah that's that's true in the first place we are associated with German design very straight and very very rational in a way and uh of course we we are associated especially in in in foreign countries we associated with German design and bow house for us noras is also it it it is not that straight in terms of rationality we we also for us it's always important and I think it's one of our key elements in our D in our DNA that um that we we love colors we we love playing around with uh different kind of ideas and Inspirations to make sure we we are not taking ourselves too seriously too serious in the end it's about watches and uh it it's there to to show the time in the first place but actually the it's much more important to you know to enjoy your watch every day there's a decent amount of color and fun and irony in there so that's very important to us as well where does the design inspiration start with and maybe we can start to go through like what goes through your mind as a designer and the designers here at nomos when you're beginning do you start with outward inspiration from a source maybe even outside of watches do you start with a dial do you start with a color where does that begin for you for us it starts inside out so the most important core element to us is glass huta and it's our inhouse buil movements and the craftsmanship that we show in in the watch that shows all the elements of glass watch making we want to look modern and clean and so I think for us watches are in the in the first place we consider watches to be an instrument a well-made product one other area for nomos is like there's this expressive nature to your cases they they have this silhouette that's quite recognizable and they're all very distinct like you know you're looking at something that has more of this curved style lugs you have a like a crown guard position then you have like the Orion that has these more elongated thin tapered lugs how do you think about as part of the design where does the case fit in in terms of how it should look and tell the story it was the initial idea to have uh recognizable watch U archetypes the Tanga with the flat round case and the flat sapphire crystal MH and then was the oron which which is more like a little Pebble and round and and soft and then there is the Tetra which is similar to the Tanga but Square so it was very basic formal ideas that's that started that that we started with and it still is the idea of every detail has its function like this typical term form follows function which is sometimes too simplistic for us but um still it's uh it's where it's coming from so how the design process how long does it take typically so you have ideation to completed manufactured product what does that typically look like um it's very different from from Project to project but uh till we get the first prototype in our hands it's um easy one year that's passed and then then we work on from there so 2 years it's not too too much time actually you hear the word minimalist a lot when you hear noos do you find that as a derogatory term and how would you respond to people that just classify these watches as minimalists I think we are not minimalists at all like if you think of the art movement minimalism it's all about you know leaving things out and reduce it to the to the core idea and this is not what we do in the end we we transport our craftsmanship this is something that we put a lot of effort in to show that uh it's it's a watch made in glass hutter with lots of effort and craftsmanship and [Music] knowhow so from the quaint and quiet town of glass huta all the way to the vibrant city that is Berlin this was our window into gluta it's a brand that is hard to put in one box but it's one that I think is important to understand if you're trying to appreciate German watchmaking I hope you enjoyed the video and we'll see you all next [Music] time

Channel: Teddy Baldassarre

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Id: YNVeKBHIWiY

Length: 23min 50sec (1430 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2024