NOMOS Glashütte wins the 2021 Green Good Design Award

Tangente Update from NOMOS Glashütte has received the 2021 Green Good Design Award for innovative and sustainable product design.

The Good Design Awards have been celebrating exceptional product design for over 70 years. Presented annually by the Chicago Athenaeum, it has become the most prestigious international design prize—and NOMOS Glashütte has been honored to receive this award six times for its mechanical timepieces.

Now, the Green Good Design Awards highlight products that are not only produced well, but sustainably too. Under the banner, “Build A Better World Now,” designs for buildings and products that use the most sophisticated methods and technology to reduce environmental impact and promote sustainability are given the recognition they deserve. The German city of Hamburg has been been announced as Green City of the Year 2021.

In the product design category, Tangente Update from NOMOS Glashütte is among the winners—the fourth major award for this timepiece, following the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, iF Design Award and European Product Design Award.

Tangente, the iconic NOMOS timepiece, has been a design classic since its launch in 1992. This new iteration, Tangente neomatik 41 Update, features a unique ring date placed far out around the edge of the dial, with two red markers that frame the current date.

This new kind of display, now patented, was created by NOMOS’ R&D and product design departments before being handcrafted by expert watchmakers in Glashütte, Germany—demonstrating the brand’s commitment to in-house production throughout. Like all NOMOS timepieces, Tangente Update was made to last a lifetime—using high-quality materials such as stainless steel, sapphire crystal glass, and brass.

When it comes to in-house production, NOMOS Glashütte works as efficiently as possible before recycling waste materials responsibly. For example, the cooling oil, metal filings and used brass blanks generated by the production process are all returned to the suppliers to be converted back into raw materials. The water used to rinse newly produced parts is also purified before being returned to the wider water supply.

The vast majority of watchmaking parts, down to the smallest pinion, are produced in-house by NOMOS in Glashütte. In fact, up to 95% of a caliber’s value is generated on site—which is an exceptional achievement in itself. This sustainable approach to watch production shortens supply chains, and therefore emissions generated by transporting materials. It also allows the company to determine the quality of its timepieces in every detail.