Watch design is a little like writing. It looks easy enough, but just try doing it for a living. And, a little like writing, it?s not about how much you can ram in but how little you can use to make your point elegantly. So while other brands are slinging the bling at Baselworld (seriously, have you seen some of the stuff the haute horlogerie mob have been up to"), Nomos has quietly got on with doing its thing; designing watches that look stripped back and simple but make you smile every time you look at them.The new Tangente neomatik 41 Update makes you smile that little bit more broadly because it?s dumped the traditional date wheel in favor of running the date around the edge of the dial on a track next to the rehaut. Nothing new there; Oris are known for their Big Crown date pointers. Tissot had a pointer date back in the 1950s, as did Poljot along with many others.
But, typically, Nomos have decided to do it differently. In-house designer Michael Paul has made the date wheel to show two bars of red through tiny windows by each date number. The design “aha” moment only comes after a bit of thought though; there are two red markers, so which indicates the date" Then you realize the date is between the markers, essentially bracketed by them. Another smile.

Tech heads will be happy too. The new movement powering the Tangent is the neomatik date (DUW 6101), three years in the design and making. It?s a wide, thin movement at 35.2mm diame...