Nodus Returns With The New And Improved Avalon II

Before the Nodus Avalon made its first appearance on the pages of Worn & Wound in 2018, the microbrand was already developing a strong following within the enthusiast community. An argument can be made that it was the release of the Avalon that propelled Nodus to new heights and opened up the brand to a larger audience. Four years later, the story for the Nodus Avalon continues as they announce the release of their new and refreshed flagship diver in the Avalon II.

It’s worth noting that Nodus is among the group of young and successful microbrands that set out to produce their very own watches several years ago. From my in-person conversations with multiple brand owners during the Windup Watch Fair in NYC last year, I’ve gathered that it’s never smooth sailing when navigating the seas of the microbrand world. That being said, It’s exciting to see a brand like Nodus establish themselves early on and to watch their own story unfold as they continue to make strides as a brand and evolve their foundational pieces like the Avalon.  Let’s take a closer look at the new and improved Avalon II.

The case design language of the Avalon II stays true to the original. The Avalon II still maintains the cushion case form and displays a combination of well executed brushed and polished finishing. A close-up image of the side profile below really shows the detailing that went into the case. Check out how the thin polished finishing on the case flank widens towards the lugs and then layers on top of the horizontal brush finishing. The Avalon II also has this dramatic angular undercut towards the caseback making the 43mm wide and 12.5mm thick case look slimmer while on wrist. The ceramic bezel markers are minimal and direct, and come equipped with the traditional Avalon wide sawtooth grooves for easy gripping.

The distinct waffle pattern on the dial seems to be the major refresh for the Nodus Avalon II. That, paired with the applied markers with polished surrounds add a dynamic texture and depth to the dial. Looking more closely, you’ll notice that the cardinal hour markers get a little change as well. The markers at three, nine and twelve still keep the thick base, but now sharpen towards the center of the dial. A trapezoidal date window with a color matched date wheel takes up the six o’clock position and sits atop a partial applied marker. And as you look even closer, you can catch the shiny reflective rehaut that displays the printed vertical black minute markers and a red marker at each cardinal hour, matching the little flare of red on the seconds hand arrow and the ‘Avalon’ name presented at the bottom of the dial.

It’s well documented that I appreciate a well made steel bracelet and it seems the one that comes on the Avalon II just got a whole lot better. After a couple years of refinement, Nodus will finally feature their NodeX clasp. The brushed clasp is sleek and modern looking with the dual clasp buttons engineered in a way where they’re built into the clasp. The NodeX clasp comes equipped with a quick-adjust feature which activates via a ‘PUSH’ button (another nice detail) located on the underside of the clasp. This is something I’d like to check when we get these watches in hand and will most certainly include our interaction with the NodeX clasp in a later review. I give a lot of credit to Nodus for finding ways to innovate the Avalon. The Avalon II definitely takes cues from the classic cushion cased divers of the world (think Seiko and DOXA), but it’s the details like the finely engineered clasp, dynamic case finishing and textured dial that make the Avalon II its own thing.

Nodus offers up four different colorways for the Avalon II: Seaspray White, Pelagic Blue, Trench Black and what I’m sure will be a crowd favorite (it’s definitely mine), Coral Yellow. We all know that great watches develop well known and creative nicknames, so I want to give credit to our very own Media Producer Patrick Marlett and Nodus for dubbing the Avalon II Coral Yellow in the IG comments a while back as the ‘Banavalon’. Now that’s a nickname that I can get behind.

These watches are available as of today and retail for the price of $700. We’re also expecting more from Nodus as the Contrail and Duality are also set as future releases but dates are still TBD. You can check out the newly refreshed Avalon and the rest of the Nodus catalog right here.