Worldtempus tested Nomos's latest oeuvre: the Zürich Weltzeit, a practical and beautiful world timer.
WORLDTEMPUS - 3 January 2010
Elizabeth Lilly Doerr
The joy was enormous when the package arrived: the Nomos Zürich Weltzeit had finally come to the Doerr household. Since I was given close to five months to test this pre-series watch, my husband and I split the time testing it. In general, Nomos watches are conceived as unisex watches, so while this may sound unusual, it really is not. Their size and design make them non-gender-specific; in principle they appeal to lovers of pure design and interesting mechanics.
First, we spent about half an hour setting it. We seemed to have a few difficulties setting the small local time with the stylus (“Heimat” located at 3 o'clock), but after a bit of fiddling on our part it became clear and easy. Once the home time was set, all we had to do is push the button on the case to set the local time using the reference ring displaying cities of each time zone. This function can also be used to find out what time it is at any given time in any given time zone.
The Zürich Weltzeit is as comfortable as any Nomos watch despite its bigger size of 40 mm: it is flat, light, unobtrusive, and hugs the wrist – all of which makes it barely noticeable and ideal for use as an “everyday” watch. The Shell Cordovan strap sits perfectly, regardless of which wrist it is on. My little wrist always needs extra holes – and it was the case here too – but it still sat perfectly. The big advantage of the smooth Shell Cordovan, a leather that is often used for bespoke shoes, is that it shows almost no wear for an unusually long period of time.
Its biggest test came just a short while after its arrival: a three-week vacation in two different time zones of the USA. The Zürich Weltzeit turned out to be a practical companion during the family trip, easily allowing us to see at a quick glance what time it was at home (in case we needed to call grandma) and locally on our trip. Since we were traveling the West Coast, we hit a number of variations in temperature: from the humidity of the Hoh rain forest in Washington State to the sunny, but chilly weather of San Francisco and the 119°F we experienced in Death Valley – and everything in between. As usual, the Nomos withstood everything with no noticeable variations in rate and no sweat stains on the Shell Cordovan.
Even though Nomos introduced its in-house automatic movement in 2005, I had not yet had the chance to test the Tangomat. I was pleasantly surprised by the length of its power reserve. In fact, it is often so that I do not wear a watch for a few days at a time. However, over the course of this test period, my husband and I only had to manually get the Zürich Weltzeit going a handful of times after having put it down for two days or more, even though it only officially has 42 hours of power reserve.
One of the most prominent elements about Nomos is its timeless look. Based on a Bauhaus design from pre-war Glashütte, the original four stainless steel watches in Nomos's collection (Tangente, Orion, Tetra, and Ludwig) have not changed to this day and are still available in their original executions. First-hand experience allows me to say that these models all still look as fresh as the day they were released thanks to their classic, no-frills design. I have no doubt they will remain “contemporary” far into the future as well since good design has a way of remaining timeless: keeping it simple takes care of the rest. Although the Zürich Weltzeit is housed in Nomos's larger “Zürich” case designed by the late Hannes Wettstein (a prominent Swiss industrial designer most well known for his work with Ventura), it is also one of those classics that will look good for decades to come. Seeing as this watch is still in its test phase – a ritual Nomos has developed to rid its new models of teething problems – there is probably still some tweaking to come. Though my husband found the home time display not noticeable enough, I was of the opinion that its size is just perfect. Hopefully most testers were of my opinion, for I think the Zürich Weltzeit's design needs no tweaking whatsoever.
Perhaps the most pleasantly surprising thing about this “simply” beautiful watch with its small, very practical complication is its price. The hand-wound Nomos pieces all hover right around the 1,000 euro mark—an almost unbelievable price when you consider they are outfitted with manufacture movements. With an automatic movement and this practical complication, the Zürich Weltzeit remains more than affordable at 3,400 euros. All I can say to this is: bon voyage!Discover the experience of Louis Nardin, in French, with the same model by clicking HERE.
