NOMOS Glashütte Lambda watches

The Nomos Glashütte Lambda is the brand's top-of-the-line watch: hand-wound, with a power-reserve indicator that sweeps a 297-degree arc and shows the remaining time to the hour. Nomos introduced it in 2013 as its first upscale model, in an 18k gold case only.

Its movement, the DUW 1001, is made in the Nomos atelier for the gold Lambda. Twin mainspring barrels give up to 84 hours, so it needs winding about twice a week. It is built and decorated to a higher standard than the typical Nomos calibre: a Glashütte three-quarter plate with sunburst ribbing and Nomos perlage, edges bevelled and polished by hand, a swan-neck fine adjustment, six jewels in polished, screwed gold chatons, and a balance cock hand-engraved with the words "lovingly produced in Glashütte".

The gold watches come in two sizes. The original Lambda is 42 mm across, in rose gold (930) or white gold (931), each also made with blued steel hands (932 and 933), and as the white-gold Tiefblau (935) with a deep-blue dial. The Lambda 39 is a 39 mm, 9.1 mm rose-gold case: the silver-dialled 952, the 953 with tempered blue hands, and the 954 Samtschwarz, whose velvet-black dial is ruthenium-plated and carries gold hands. The 952.DZ is a Lambda 39 ZEIT Sonderedition limited to 7 pieces.

In 2020 Nomos made the Lambda in stainless steel for the first time, to mark 175 years of watchmaking in Glashütte. The Lambda 175 has its own 40.5 mm case, 8.9 mm thick. In place of the galvanised dials of the gold models it has glossy lacquered dials that resemble fired enamel, in white (960.S1), black (960.S2) and blue (960.S3), 175 pieces of each. Inside is the same hand-finished DUW 1001.