Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827), the legendary German composer, turns 250 this year, and Nomos Glashütte, a proudly German watchmaker is suitably marking the milestone with a collection of new timepieces named in tribute to Beethoven’s classical compositions. The four new models in the brand’s square-cased Tetra series — Gotterfünken, Ode an die Freude, Unsterbliche Geliebte, and Fidelio — all feature new, vibrant dial colors and in-house-made mechanical calibers.
Nomos describes the Tetra family from which this quartet of colorful timekeepers hails as a ladies’ collection, but its watches likely have fans among smaller, slender-wristed gents as well. All the new models have square, stainless steel cases measuring 29.5 x 29.5 mm in diameter and 6.5 mm thick; sapphire crystals in the front and back, and dials with gold baton hour and minute hands and small seconds subdials at 6 o’clock. All are attached to gray velour leather straps with tone-on-tone stitching. Each model features a different dial color.
The Tetra Götterfunken (the German translation of “Divine Sparks,” a reference to the chorale finale of Beethoven’s famed Ninth Symphony) has a copper dial; the dial of the Ode an de Freude model (for “Ode to Joy,” the poem referenced in the Ninth Symphony’s Fourth Movement) is in olive green; the dials of the Unsterbliche Geliebte (the mysterious “Immortal Beloved” of a Beethoven love letter from 1812) and Fidelio (named for the only opera penned by the composer) sport turquoise and dark blue colors, respectively.
All four watches contain Nomos’s manually wound Alpha caliber, made in-house at the company’s atelier in Glashütte, Germany’s ancestral home of high watchmaking, itself marking a significant anniversary this year, 175 years since its founding. Just 23.3 mm in diameter and 2.8 mm thick, this movement’s notable attributes include a stop-seconds mechanism with the brand’s familiar Glashütte stopwork; a ratchet and crown wheel with a decorative sunburst finish; tempered blue screws; plates and bridges decorated with traditional Glashütte ribbing (a German take on the Swiss côtes de Genève) and the brand’s own perlage motif; and a 43-hour power reserve.
The watches — collectively dubbed the Nomos Glashütte Tetra Symphony series — will debut at retail at the end of February. They will only be available for a limited time, according to Nomos, and priced at $2,380 each.
