NOMOS Autobahn

Introduced at Baselworld 2018, the 41-mm Nomos Autobahn is enough to catch anyone's attention. Bright, eye-catching colors characterize its appearance, as is common in some Nomos collections. Its design is a result of a multi-year collaboration with famed German designer Werner Aisslinger. Aisslinger has earned numerous awards over the course of his career, including the Red Dot Award.

One of the Autobahn's most distinctive features is the eight glow-in-the-dark boxes that create an arch from 8 to 4 o'clock. This arch resembles a tachometer and glows brightly in the dark along with the hour hand. As a nod to Germany's three-lane autobahn, the large, slightly bowed date window at 6 o'clock displays three numbers at once. The small seconds dial sits directly above the date display, while the thin minute hand could almost be mistaken for a central second hand. Its orange tip is the same length as the hour numerals and stretches all the way to the indices on the domed rehaut. On the other hand, the hour hand, coated in plenty of luminous material, reaches the outer edge of the tachometer-like arch. Overall, the dial's design is very tidy and feels quiet youthful and fresh thanks to the various colors.

At its inception, the Nomos Autobahn came in three varieties: white silver-plated, midnight blue, or sports gray. The blue arch and orange hour hand give the latter its particularly sporty feel. This is only further underscored by its woven, waterproof textile strap and 100 m (10 bar, 328 ft) of water resistance. Your Nomos Autobahn is at home swimming and on the road. In terms of water resistance, Nomos' top model is the Ahoi, which is water resistant to 200 m (20 bar, 656 ft). This model also has a French-made textile strap.

The automatic in-house caliber DUW 6101 powers the Nomos Autobahn. The letters "DUW" stand for "Deutsche Uhrwerk," which means "German movement" in English. This caliber is Nomos' second "neomatik" caliber after the DUW 3001. The DUW 3001 was released in 2015 and is especially flat at only 3.2 mm thick. It was first used in the successful Tangente line. The name "neomatik" refers to automatic calibers developed entirely in-house by Nomos.

The DUW 6101 marks Nomos' first use of a quick-set date. This makes setting the date via the crown especially easy, as it can be set both forward and backward . Since the date disc is on the edge of the movement and not on top of it, the caliber maintains a comfortable thickness of only 3.6 mm. However, at 35.2 mm, it is 6.4 mm larger than the 28.8-mm DUW 3001. Due to the remarkable thinness of the DUW 6101, the Nomos Autobahn itself is only 10.5 mm thick.

Thanks to the sapphire glass case back, you can view the DUW 6101 in action including its three-quarter plate with Glashütte ribbing – a typical feature of Glashütte watches. A skeletonized winding rotor winds the mainspring in two directions, making it very efficient. It also features this same ribbing as well as gold-plated embossing that reads "NOMOS GLASHÜTTE DEUTSCHE UHRWERKE." What's more, you will find tempered screws, Nomos' typical perlage, and a balance bridge above the Nomos "swing system." An engraving on the bottom plate reveals that the entire watch is regulated in six positions. When fully wound, the DUW 6101 has a power reserve of 42 hours.

The crown is easy to operate and is used to set the date as well as the time. Thanks to a stop seconds mechanism, the time can be set to the exact second. The balance frequency sits at 21,600 alternations per hour (A/h). Unlike most other companies, Nomos sources their tempered balance springs from the German manufacturer Carl Haas instead of relying on the Swiss company Nivarox-FAR for this component.