Somewhere I heard the phrase that said “Start at the beginning, continue until you reach the end and there you stop.” Nice phrase, which illustrates the obvious... or not so obvious, because in this hobby, where is the beginning? For many newcomers to mechanical watchmaking, trying to decide what their first “good watch” will be is a daunting task. They have heard about brands from their elders, the ones they have always had; Then they have done their own research and have ended up discovering that there are names that they had never heard of, with absolutely sky-high prices, far above some luxury cars. Prices that skyrocket if we also talk about vintage… So what first watch should you buy?
Before continuing, I am going to admit that I am conditioned by what will be the watch to celebrate the 15 years of Special Watches: a Nomos Club Campus personalized both on the dial (color combination) and on the back, a special engraving referring to the anniversary. I chose that brand because it seemed to me to be one of the most honest in the (affordable) watch scene without this meaning that the others are not: with “honesty” I mean what one pays with their money, which in the case of Nomos Glashütte “equals material plus work and –almost- nothing else”.
Nomos is a young (less than 30 years old) manufacturing company (it produces 95% of the components of its watches) established in the watchmaking town of Glashütte in Saxony, where it shares the landscape with at least fourteen other companies related to watchmaking. It spends little or nothing on marketing (“almost nothing more,” he said) and is one of the first watch companies to have freed itself from the dictates of the Swiss industry. Especially in the technical part, because apart from being a manufacturer in its own right, it has developed its own regulatory body without having to depend on Nivarox, a Swiss company belonging to the Swatch Group that holds a de facto monopoly on spiral springs.
This is why it is surprising that the entry price of Nomos is €1,100, when it is difficult if not impossible to find manufacturing (more than 60% of the watch produced in-house) for less than triple that price. For €1,100, the 36mm Club Campus offers the manually wound Alpha caliber in a watch resistant to 100 meters (unthreaded crown!) and the possibility of engraving a dedication on its blind case back. If you want it in a 38mm diameter the price rises to €1,200 while the engraving remains a courtesy of Nomos. This is also why, if one is able to resist the call of marketing from other more powerful brands in that field, the Campus Club becomes a good candidate when asked what first watch to buy?
Nomos Club Campus
