Hands-On Impressions of the Nomos Glashütte Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer

Nomos is always a safe bet when someone who isn’t very into watches but is perhaps interested in dabbling is looking for a recommendation. That is not to say that those of us who are very into watches don’t appreciate them either. A darling of watch enthusiasts, the Glashütte manufacture manages to package watch nerdery into easy-to-digest, colorful, modern morsels. But, and I say this only as an adoring fan (my first manufacture watch was a Nomos I still own), in the last few years, their novelties have felt mostly iterative, focusing on colors and sizes (and don’t get me started on calling a manual watch watch the Minimatik – what does -matik mean if not automatic?!). Thankfully, they broke this trend with the Nomos Glashütte Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer (Club Worldtimer from here out), which was easily a favorite from this year’s Watches & Wonders.

Typically, with a hands-on article, I would start with the watch’s case or dial, but the thing that stood out most to me about the Club Worldtimer was the quality of the click. Up, at 2 p.m. on the case, is a single pump-pusher that is used to jump the hour hand one hour forward and progress the city ring accordingly. I don’t know how many pushers I’ve pushed since I’ve gotten into watches, which, mind you, was when I was a child, but this was one of, if not the best, feeling pushers I’ve encountered.

It has a perfect, crisp action that is reflected in a snappy and satisfying jump of the hour hand. To make a comparison that I’m sure I’m not the only person to make, I’d liken it to pressing the shutter release on a Leica. This also highlights the newest feature of the Club Worldtimer, the DUW 3202. Based on their thin neomatik platform, the DUW 3202 is a 37-jewel automatic with 42 hours of power reserve. In addition to the jumping-hour hand and worldtime disc, there is a 24-hour hand for tracking home time. But, what’s most impressive about it is that the worldtime complication is integrated into the gear train, rather than being a module on top, resulting in a reasonable 4.8mm height.

A thin movement can mean a thin case, though it doesn’t always, but thankfully, here it does. The Club Worldtimer features a 40 x 48 x 9.9mm polished steel case with 100m of water resistance and a 20mm lug width, in the “sporty” Club design. To clarify the previous point about thickness, it’s not just the movement dimensions that matter, but also the hand heights. On the DUW 3202, the hour and minute hands are close to each other, and close to the dial. Similarly, the two sub-dial hands ride close to the surface. In contrast, watches that use the Miyota 9075, which is only 4.9mm thick, tend not to be less than 12mm in height, partially due to having four hands at the center, requiring more space between the dial and crystal.

On the dial side, the Club Worldtimer is one of the most maximalist designs from Nomos, bordering on hectic, but not crossing the line into overwhelming. Instead, you have a unique, sporty, and just odd enough layout to be quite special. The DNA of the Club line is clear in the large, printed hour numerals and markers, which are encircled by hash marks per minute. Rather than numerals indicating intervals of five, there is a 24-hour index written in terms of plus/minus 0-12 hours. This is used with the contrasting world time ring surrounding the dial. A particularly cool element, it gives the sense of a dial within a dial, and compresses the inner dial, like a bezel, making the watch look more compact.

Additionally, there are two very large sub-dials: small seconds at six, and 24-hour at three, where things are the busiest. Sub-seconds at six are standard on all Nomos models save the Duos, and is a sunken region that matches the dial color. The 24-hour sub-dial is new, and features a bi-color index around its edge to indicate day and night. Because of the scale of the sub-dials, they nearly touch. The day/night index also runs under the 2 and 4 numerals, instead of cutting them off. It’s a lot going on in a little area, and it comes close to being too much.

Nomos announced the Club Worldtimer in two fairly conservative colorways: silver and blue. Silver is the more playful of the two, with a silver sunray main dial, Mediterranean blue worldtime ring, and a blue and red 24-hour index, a deliberate reference to the Rolex GMT Master. The blue model is straight up dark blue, with matching main dial, worldtime ring, and sub-dials. The 24-hour index features two shades of blue contrasting with the sunray surface below. Both were handsome, though the silver was my favorite of the two. That said, Nomos also announced six limited edition colorways for the show that demonstrated the playful potential of this model.

Named Volcano, Jungle, Canyon, Glacier, Magma, and Dune, these lively combinations were inspired by, as their names indicate, locations and nature. Featuring matte surfaces for a more casual look, each featured filled-in 24-hour sub-dials with day/night split, contrasting the surrounding index. Thus, these sub-dials now have four colors, numerals, and marks, as well as contrasting hands. Once again, it was a lot in a little area, yet the palettes were so well chosen that it worked.

Two of the six stood out, making me thankful they didn’t take orders at the booth. Dune is a mix of burnt yellow and khaki colors, ranging from almost mustard to cream. The 24-hour sub-dial seems inspired by the sky, combining blues with a sunset orange and a duskier brown. It was super weird and oddly enjoyable. Glacier, however, was the star with its muted aqua dial, off-white worldtime ring, and bold red sub-dial. They used off-white lume on this model as well. There was something painterly and nostalgic about it, like the colors were taken from Edward Hopper’s Morning Sun.

Look. I won’t lie. When I first saw the press release for the Club Worldtimer, I thought a 40mm Club was not the ideal platform for it, even if it was great that Nomos had a new and thin worldtimer. As a fan of the original 36mm Club, 40mm seemed oversized (not as oversized as the 42mm version, but large for the watch’s mid-century field-esque style). The Club also has notoriously long lugs that one would expect would only become more of an issue as the diameter increases, which has some merit given other versions. On the 36mm model, the lug-to-lug is 47.5mm, on the 38mm model, it’s 48.9mm, on the 39mm model, it’s 49.5mm, and lastly, on the 42mm model, it’s 52.3mm. Logically, that would put the 40mm somewhere slightly over 50mm.

But instead, it’s a reasonable 48mm, which is proportionate and fits well. In addition to the surprise of seeing the six limited edition colorways, which were lovely, putting the watch on my wrist won me over. The 40mm case works because there is so much going on, and yet, it reads smaller because of the compression from the worldtime ring. The thickness belies the complexity of the movement, and there is just an impressive solidity to the watch. It’s worth noting that there is a screw-down crown with a red tube, indicating if it’s unscrewed.

Combine how it wears with what it does and its sporty build, and you get an excellent travel, if not just everyday watch. But one more impressive attribute of the Club Worldtimer is the price. Coming in at $4,510 on a strap and $4,720 on a bracelet, it’s a decent value. Its closest competitors are the Frederique Constant Worldtimers, which are larger and aesthetically very different, and Nomos’s own Zurich Worldtimer, which is priced higher at $6,100. Unless I’m missing something, this positions the Club Worldtimer very well. Nomos