From the boutique brands of German origin, Nomos was highly acclaimed for its new Club Campus collection introduced at the Baselworld 2017. The new collection is offered with a very competitive starting price of 1100.00 EUR.
With its timepieces sporting Bauhaus style simple but functional designs and amazing price/performance ratios, Nomos is one of the best known German brands of the watch industry. The brand was highly appreciated with its new Campus Collection once again during Baselworld 2017. Despite being designed for younger users who will meet the world of traditional watchmaking for the first time, the new collection -which is offered with a great starting price of 1100,00 EUR- includes stylish and useful models that almost every watch aficionado would want to have. Let’s take a closer look at the new collection which won our hearts.
“I practically cannot think about a watch enthusiast profile that I would not like to recommend those amazing timepieces which come with German Bauhaus design details, hand wound in-house movement, complementary engraving offering screw-in caseback and most importantly a starting price of 1100,00 EUR which redefines the “best watch for the bang” phrase.”
There are three different versions in the new Club Campus collection. The first one is the model with a case diameter of 36mm. This model, considered the smallest case size version of the collection, is accompanied by two versions with a new case measuring 38mm in diameter. Considering the previous versions, there are now five different versions in the collection as 36,37, 38,40 and 41.5mm.
All models come in stainless steel cases. The dials of the new models feature Arabic and Roman numeral combination indexes reminding us the California type dials that we know from Panerai. All dials have a small second sub-dial located at the 6 o’clock point.
At the beginning of my article, I mentioned that the Club Campus model has a very competitive price range. Let’s talk about the facts which helped the brand to achieve that starting price of 1100.00 EUR.
First of all, all models in the Club Campus series come with solid stainless steel casebacks. This detail, which also affects the wearing comfort positively thanks to the thinner structure of the solid caseback, appears as a great alternative to sapphire crystal display casebacks in terms of production cost. Not wanting to show this feature as a direct cost-reducing factor, Nomos offers NOMOS is offering complementary engraving on all Club Campus watches and turn-around time is just a couple of weeks. I think it is a very smart move because the Club Campus models offer more than enough quality and style to be a suitable gift alternative for special occasions like birthday, graduation, anniversary etc. which will be further special if crowned with a custom engraving at the caseback.
Another factor affecting the start-up price is undoubtedly the movement preferred for the new Club Campus collection. The brand that uses in-house movements in all its collections has not given up on this style for the Club Campus model. However, the movement chosen to power the new collection is Caliber Ref. Alpha. Don’t get me wrong here, Alpha is a perfect movement but it does not include technological updates such as the Swing System escapement and the Neomatik winding system. Hand-wound mechanism offers a very reasonable power reserve time of 43 hours when fully wound. The 17 jewels movement does not have much detail in terms of decoration but thanks to the solid caseback, that not-so-important disadvantage is gone.
The new models offer different color schemes, but mainly there are two dial colors in the new collection. The 36mm, which is the most compact version of the collection, features pink indices, while the 38mm model with the same background color displays a vivid blue SuperLuminova. My personal favorite the "Nacht" version offers a sporty and masculine posture with its matt anthracite dial and light color indexes.
All models are water resistant to 100 meters and come with suede leather straps in tow different colors.
I think we are all safe to say that Nomos did a great job with its new Campus Collection. I practically cannot think about a watch enthusiast profile that I would not like to recommend those amazing timepieces which come with German Bauhaus design details, hand wound in-house movement, complementary engraving offering screw-in caseback and most importantly a starting price of 1100,00 EUR which redefines the “best watch for the bang” phrase.
