FeatureNomos Glashütte Tetra: Celebrating Pink Dials And Square Watches

‘Pink’ as the bing on your cherry / Pink, ’cause you are so very / Pink, it’s the colour of passion / Cause today it just goes with the fashion’. This 1997 Grammy award-winning single ‘Pink’ by American rock band Aerosmith rings true even today as most things of this hue—candy floss, bubblegum, roses-tinted glasses, roses, cherry blossoms, your lover’s lips­—are considered desirable or even borderline saccharine. It, however, took an increasing tribe of metrosexual men to change the ‘un-masculine’ tag associated with this colour after baby pink shirts became their wardrobe staple. The same perspective has trickled into pink dials with recent launches like the Oris ProPilot X and TAG Heuer Carrera Date—recently unveiled at the 2023 Watches and Wonders—that can fall into the all-encompassing unisex watch realm.

Joining this league of rosy-hued watches, a new quartet of Nomos Glashütte Tetra watches was unveiled during the ‘pink moon’ (April’s full moon named after the spring wildflower Phlox subulate) and the Salone del Mobile Milano 2023, the largest furniture trade fair. Tetra is the only collection from the brand with square cases. Other trademark features are their plain, clean dials combined with stainless steel or silver-hued cases, casebacks, bezel, fluted crown, and lugs.

Nomos Glashütte Tetra Shop The Collection

Nomos re-invited colour specialist and interior designer, Thomas Höhnel, who had designed the Nomos Ahoi sports watches, to envisage this new range. According to Höhnel, the new Tetra models exude an “adult colour scheme revolving around the colour pink”. For Höhnel, a room is like a watch dial, and doing up the room’s interiors tastefully is akin to arranging the horological elements on a dial—hands, hour markers, brand logo, sub-dials, outer minute ring, and so on—to resemble a cohesive, uncluttered whole, inspired by the Bauhaus style of minimalism.

The new Nomos Glashütte Tetra dials are christened German names that mean defiance from conventional norms. These are: Die Unerreichbare or The Unattainable (silver-toned with sunburst polishing); Die Wildentschlossene or The Fiercely Determined (rose pink dial a silver sub-dial); the aubergine Die Fuchsteufelswilde, which means The Mad One; and the pinkish-nude Die Kapriziöse, meaning The Capricious.

On three Nomos Tetra models, for instance, the sub-dials have a rippled texture and a contrasting hue than the main dial

Between the new dials, it’s easy to confuse the two pink dials, Die Wildentschlossene and Die Kapriziöse, as both appear just one shade different from the other

Breaking the monotony of pastel hues on these watch dials is a small seconds hand at the sub-dial in bright blue or yellow

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This set of pink dials, however, share identical features with the previous Tetra range, Divine Spark, unveiled in 2022. In particular, the pink-tone models Tetra 27 Champagne and Tetra Pearl. But the differences are subtle. On three models, for instance, the sub-dials have a rippled texture and a hue that is in contrast to the main dial. Even between the new dials, it’s easy to confuse the two pink dials, Die Wildentschlossene and Die Kapriziöse, as both appear just one shade different from the other. Die Fuchsteufelswilde is not ideally pink, but the copper sub-dial is a subtle allusion to the tone. Breaking the monotony of pastel hues on these watch dials is a small seconds hand at the sub-dial in bright blue or yellow.

Die Fuchsteufelswilde is not ideally pink, but the copper sub-dial is a subtle allusion to the pink tone. All four Nomos Tetra models are fitted with velour leather straps

All four Nomos Glashütte Tetra watches runs on either one of the in-house movements. There’s the oldest in-house movement, the manually wound Alpha, offering a 43-hour power reserve, and comes is different case sizes from Nomos. The second option is the DUW 3001, an exceptionally thin automatic with 94.2 per cent efficiency. The minus points are because of the slight inaccuracy in the movement’s friction loss. Ordinarily, the loss goes up to 20 percent. These two calibres are incorporated in the Nomos Glashütte Tetra casebacks via the signature escapement called the Nomos swing system. Attached to these watches are sturdy velour leather straps that complete the circle of durability. In sublime grey, the straps perfectly complement the pastel hues of the dials. These pink and purple hues are ideal for brining colour to your look for spring/summer in a subtle but distinctive way, without being too bright or stark.