NOMOS Orion

If you haven’t heard of NOMOS, listen up! Over the past several years, the company has surged in popularity due to its minimalist, clean designs, German origins, and attractive price points. Few other brands pack such comprehensive horological value into their wares as the Glashütte-based firm, which was founded just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The example we have here is the minimal and beautiful Orion. Unabashedly Bauhaus in inspiration, it’s housed in a 35mm stainless steel case with ‘holey’ lugs, a sapphire crystal, polished bezel and an unsigned crown. It features a stealthy, matte grey dial with printed ‘hash’ indices, a subsidiary seconds register at 6 o’clock, as well as a matching ‘pencil’ handset. It also features a signed, black shell cordovan leather strap with a signed, steel pin buckle. Powering this Orion is one of the secrets to the NOMOS brand: their in-house, hand-wound Alpha caliber — one of many such in-house movements produced by the company - and is visible through an exhibition caseback. It’s simple, reliable and precise.  Highly considered in design and accompanied by its full set factory goodies — including its box, books, papers and polishing cloth — this is an everyday watch in mid-century dress that’s not to be missed.