A square that doesn't apologise for being square
By Sam Okafor, London ยท
Square watches have a proportion problem. The corners make them look bigger than a round case of the same width, and most brands fix it by softening everything until it looks like a bar of soap. Nomos leaves the Tetra almost brutally square: flat sides, short stubby lugs, a dial that is basically a square within a square.
At 33 mm it's small, and the blue dial is a deep, slightly inky colour that lifts it out of the dress category. The small seconds, the hands and the minute track are all arranged so the eye moves from corner to corner rather than round in a circle, and I find that genuinely refreshing. It's like moving from a domed chapel into a Le Corbusier room.
7.3 mm thick, an automatic with 42 hours, 18 mm lugs. What gives me pause is the price: 3,300 to 3,600 dollars is a lot for a small dress watch, and the Neomatik movement is a nice thing to have rather than a reason to buy. I'd also say it suits slim wrists far better than broad ones, where 33 mm looks like a postage stamp. It's for the person who wants to wear something nobody else in the room has.