Hodinkee and Nomos Reveal the Club Date Limited Edition Collection, with Four Vibrant NYC Inspired Dials

The holiday season truly is collab season in the watch world. We’re seeing an almost daily drip of news involving watch brands teaming up with companies of all stripes on limited edition watches built to appear to that perfect cross section of customers. The latest collaboration news to come across our desks involves Nomos, one of our favorite German brands, and Hodinkee, hot on the heels of their recent drop with Mido. All collaborative watches are somewhat unexpected by their very nature, but this one takes it to another level by using a watch that Nomos had previously discontinued: the Club Date 38. 

The Club Date 38 is very much part of a previous generation of Nomos watches. When it was introduced, 38mm was on the larger side for a Nomos watch, and watches with date displays were similarly uncommon. In the last few years, Nomos has filled out their catalog with watches in a variety of contemporary sizes, including plenty that are over 40mm, and have built collections around their next-gen in-house automatic movements that feature quick change date displays. The Club Date 38, by contrast, uses a manually wound movement (the DUW 4101 caliber) with a date display that is placed somewhat unusually right below the subsidiary seconds register at 6:00. It’s a distinct look, if a little off kilter, that has also shown up in the Orion, Metro, Tangente, and Ludwig. Nomos references with date displays and automatic calibers that have been introduced since have what are arguably more inventive and cohesive date displays, including a Tangente with an inventive display around the dial’s perimeter, and a limited edition Ludwig that displays the date in Roman numerals.

This new limited capsule collection finds the Club Date 38 in four dial variants, each inspired by nature found around Hodinkee’s NYC headquarters. The options here are Sienna yellow, Pacific blue, Reseda green, and Terracotta red. The hues are light and casual, and the dials are all matte in their finish. Each is offset with a subsidiary seconds window in a contrasting silver shade at 6:00, and numerals, hour markers, and hands are rendered in white (and lume filled). As a finishing touch, each dial is signed “New York” right under the Nomos wordmark, which is a nice way to differentiate this limited edition from others, and remind owners of the inspiration behind the dial colors. 

The case is actually slightly larger than the name of the watch implies, coming in at 38.5mm. Thanks to the thin hand wound movement, the Club Date 38 measures just 8.45mm tall. Water resistance is an impressive 100 meters for a watch this thin without a screw down crown, and the movement is nicely decorated and visible through the sapphire caseback. The caliber offers 42 hours of power reserve on a full wind and makes use of the Nomos Swing System escapement, their in-house built escapement that paved the way for their first truly manufacture built calibers. This third Nomos collaboration with Hodinkee marks the first time a movement that is Swing System equipped has found its way to one of their limited editions. 

A total 75 watches in each color will be made, making this a limited edition of just 300 pieces altogether. They are available beginning today in the Hodinkee Shop with a retail price set at $2,250.