Nomos Glashütte

A German watchmaker that competes on taste rather than budget, and has barely touched the watch it started with.

Small and new·Global·Founded 1990·Members

At a glance

Founded: January 1990, two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.⁹¹
Founded by: Roland Schwertner, an IT expert and photographer from Düsseldorf, who registered the trademark NOMOS Glashütte/SA.⁹
Home: Glashütte in Saxony, the old centre of German watchmaking, where the firm works out of five buildings including the town's former railway station.¹
Owned by: Private and owner-operated. The European reported in 2025 that Uwe Ahrendt runs it as chief executive and managing partner alongside Schwertner and other shareholders.⁷
What it sells: Mechanical wristwatches, both hand-wound and automatic, on calibres it develops and makes itself.⁹⁴
Size: 240 staff in 2025, and the largest German maker of mechanical watches by volume, according to The European.⁷

How it got here

1990

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Roland Schwertner registers the NOMOS Glashütte trademark in January, two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.⁹ Ahrendt says he got there just before A. Lange & Söhne did.⁵

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Sources for what is above

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