The Gift of a Beginning
After the graduation ceremony at the design school, the studio had grown quiet. On the walls still hung the students' final projects: clean lines, forms with nothing superfluous. When the young graduate Jonas hung his gown on a chair and sat down at the table, his teacher Klara came over with a small box in her hand.
"We have a tradition," said Klara, smiling. "When a good designer graduates, we give them their first real mechanical watch. Because time is now a material you must take seriously." She opened the box: inside was a slim, elegant watch, its olive-green dial glowing warmly.
"This is a Nomos Club Campus," she went on. "Nomos is an independent brand from the German town of Glashutte; because it skips the middlemen and sells its watches at an honest price, it is one of the finest real mechanical watches a young person can afford. And the name 'Campus' is no accident: this series was designed for people exactly like you, people setting out on a new path."
The Bauhaus: Less Is More
Jonas took the watch in his hand and at once felt a familiar language. "This design is just like what we learned at school," he said. Klara nodded: "Because it is. Nomos is the purest representative of the Bauhaus tradition in watchmaking. Remember that famous Bauhaus principle: form follows function. There is not a single line on the dial placed there merely for ornament; every numeral, every hand, is there only to be read."
"Look closely at the dial," she added. "Some of the numerals are Arabic, some Roman; this mixture is unique to the Club Campus. Twelve, three, six and nine are in Arabic figures; those in between in slender Roman numerals. And the small seconds turns at six, in its own little world. The case is just 36 millimetres and 8.2 millimetres thin; with its domed sapphire crystal it seems to cling to the wrist. Unshowy, yet every detail considered."
format_quote"There is not a single line on the dial placed there for ornament; every numeral is there only to be read."
Klara
Two Colours, Two Souls
"This series comes in two new colours," said Klara, and drew a second watch from the box; this time the dial was a soft pink. "This is the 'full rose.' The one just now was 'all olive.' Both share the same sober skeleton, yet carry wholly different characters."
"On the olive one," she explained, "there is a fine yellow outline around the numerals, and small pink accents on the minute ring. On the pink one, that same yellow outline, but this time the minute figures are baby blue. And on both, that little orange seconds hand, like a coloured note in a student's notebook, adds a spark of joy inside the serious design."
Jonas held the two watches side by side. "One is like a meadow, the other like a dawn," he said. Klara laughed: "You have a designer's eye. That is precisely the mastery of Nomos: to take the most sober form and, with colour alone, dress it in a mood."
The Craft Within, and a Name
"So is it only its looks that make this watch special?" asked Jonas. Klara shook her head. "The real point is inside. This watch is hand-wound; that is, every day, like a small ritual, you turn the crown yourself. The movement within is a manufacture calibre made under Nomos's own roof, in Glashutte. Its screws are tempered blue, its bridges adorned with patterns particular to Glashutte; Nomos even developed the precise escapement at its heart itself."
"But my favourite detail is on the back," she said, and turned the watch over. Unlike the dial, the case back was solid, blank steel. "You can have something engraved on this steel back: a date, a name, a sentence. This series was conceived as a graduation gift, a gift for a beginning. So one day, when you give one to a student of your own, you can have their name engraved on the back. It is water resistant to ten atmospheres, ready for the hurry of life. A craft to last a lifetime, at a price a student's pocket can reach."
format_quote"Time is now a material you must take seriously."
Klara
Setting Out on a New Path
Jonas fastened the olive-green watch to his wrist and slowly turned the crown. The fine mechanical resistance that came from within let him feel the watch coming to life in his fingers. In the last light through the window, the green dial glowed as calm as a meadow.
"What was the first thing you learned as a designer?" asked Klara. Jonas thought: "To throw away what is unnecessary." "There," said Klara, "this watch does exactly that. It shows you time in its most honest form, with nothing superfluous laid upon it. Travel well with it."
In the silence of the studio, two coloured dials and a watch newly fastened to a wrist carried together the joy of both a graduation and of simplicity.
