I always find it encouraging when watch brands listen to their customers, and after receiving countless requests to bring back the original Club, NOMOS has given the public exactly what it wanted and revived this fan-favorite model as one of its latest new releases of 2023. Originally launched in 2007 as the brand’s most affordable offering, the inaugural NOMOS Club quickly gained a cult following among collectors and became a staple within the world of affordable luxury watches. Over the years, the NOMOS Club collection has expanded to include a fairly wide assortment of different models, and after enjoying a full decade of production, the classic Club was ultimately discontinued in 2017. Based upon the original ref. 701 and ref. 703 watches that first pioneered the brand’s entry-level collection, the new NOMOS Club doesn’t aim to completely reimagine the original models, but rather to simply update them with subtle refinements that make an already successful design even better.

Like the original model that was available with the option of either a solid caseback as the reference 701 or a display-style caseback as the reference 703, the new NOMOS Club is also available in both configurations, although the reference numbers have been updated to ref. 701.1 for the solid caseback version and 703.1 for the display caseback model, with the latter of the two being the variation that is featured in this review. Aside from their casebacks, the two new NOMOS Club watches are otherwise identical, and while they largely adhere to the fan-favorite design of the original, everything about them has been subtly updated to create a more modern and functional timepiece. At a quick glance, you would be forgiven for confusing the new Club with its discontinued predecessor; however, the closer you look at the new model, it becomes immediately apparent that NOMOS has implemented a number of small updates that ultimately make the new version of the Club feel like an appreciably more contemporary offering.

As far as I can tell, the new NOMOS Club is based upon the core platform of its current production Club Campus models, which more-or-less replaced the original Club as the brand’s entry-level model when they first debuted back in 2017. Featuring a traditional round profile with thick curved lugs, the case of the new NOMOS Club is crafted entirely from stainless steel with a high-polished finish, and it offers the exact same proportions as the current Club Campus series, measuring 36mm in diameter by a rather svelte 8.2mm thick, with 18mm lugs and an overall lug-to-lug profile of 47.5mm. Protecting the dial is a slightly domed sapphire crystal that slightly sticks up above the rim of the bezel and accounts for about a millimeter of its total 8.2mm height, while a simple signed push/pull-style winding crown sticks out from the side of the case at the 3 o’clock location and offers access to the internal movement.

As with the original discontinued Club and the current Club Campus series, the new 2023 NOMOS Club watches are available with either a solid screw-down stainless steel back (ref. 701.1) or a display-style caseback that features a flat sapphire window (ref. 703.1), and buyers also have the option of opting for a complementary caseback engraving when purchasing the model directly from NOMOS’s website. Additionally, despite its standard push/pull-style crown, the new Club still offers users 100 meters of water resistance, which the brand states is suitable for swimming (but not diving). That said, given how the gaskets located at the crown assembly will inevitably receive a fair amount of wear due to daily manual winding, I would personally recommend getting the NOMOS Club routinely pressure tested if you plan on using it in the water regularly. Regardless, it is still incredibly reassuring that NOMOS supplies the new Club with enough water resistance to withstand virtually any type of moisture contact that you might encounter on a daily basis.

The dial fitted to the new NOMOS Club largely follows in the footsteps of the original model, although it features a number of refinements that are intended to help promote legibility while giving the watch a slightly more contemporary overall feel. The dial, again, like the original, features a white silver-plated surface with dark gray printed hour markers and a recessed register for the small running seconds hand located on the lower half of the display. However, the running seconds sub-dial now features small numerals placed at the 20, 40, and 60 locations, while the bright red Arabic numerals that reside within the minute track have been updated to a slightly darker color to create a more mature overall appearance. Similarly, while the printed hour markers are still dark gray in color, they have been made slightly larger on the new NOMOS Club, and the dark gray material is now Super-LumiNova to further improve at-a-glance legibility.

The hands have also been slightly updated on the new NOMOS Club, and they are now slightly larger with bigger luminous sections embedded into them. Continuing its stylistic reference to the original Club, the handset on the new model is finished black for maximum contrast, while the luminous material is a deep red color that matches the small numerals placed within the minute track. Although the Super-LumiNova on the hands appears red in the daylight, while the lume on the dial is dark gray, all of the luminous material on the new NOMOS Club emits an aqua-blue colored glow when viewed in the dark. With that in mind, due to the relatively small amount of luminous material (a natural result of the indexes being printed, rather than applied), the dial and hands on the new Club don’t glow all that brightly compared to something like a purpose-built diver, although the increased size of the markers and additional lume ultimately go a long way towards improving the low-light visibility of the watch.

Powering the new NOMOS Club is the same manual-wind Alpha caliber that you will find inside both the original Club model and the various Club Campus watches that are part of the brand’s current lineup. Built in-house by NOMOS, the 17-jewel Alpha caliber is the first movement produced by the German brand, and it still serves as the go-to option for the majority of its manually-wound models. Running at a frequency of 21,600vph (3 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 43 hours, the NOMOS Alpha caliber is adjusted to six positions, and it features the typical German watchmaking approach of a three-quarter plate structure, along with the added convenience of a hacking seconds mechanism. Additionally, should you opt for the display caseback version of the NOMOS Club, you will be able to admire the Alpha caliber’s decorations, which consist of rhodium-plated surfaces adorned by perlage and Glashütte ribbing, along with heat-blued screws and a sunburst pattern on both the ratchet and crown wheels.

Fitted to the lugs of the new NOMOS Club is a two-piece leather strap made from Horween shell cordovan that appears in a dark reddish brown color with burgundy contrast stitching running down either side. As a whole, the strap offers much of the same overall appearance as what can be found on the original discontinued Club watches, and its dark red tones help to accentuate the small red highlights on the dial and hands. The strap tapers from 18mm at the lugs to 16mm where it connects to its signed tang-style buckle that is crafted from polished stainless steel to match the case. While the strap itself is incredibly soft and supple right out of the box, the number of available sizing holes only permits about 30mm of total adjustment, which means that the standard leather strap for the NOMOS Club is slightly too long for my wrists. While I openly admit that I don’t have the world’s thickest arms, I typically don’t encounter issues getting straps to fit, so it is important to note that those with wrists smaller than about seven inches may find themselves in a position where they either need to swap out the strap or create a couple of additional sizing holes before they can properly wear the new NOMOS Club.

Nomos plays with fun and unconventional colors better than almost any other brand, although sometimes this can actually detract from the aesthetic versatility of certain models. Vibrant and playful colors are a terrific way to add diversity to a collection, although it is rarely the watches with quirky and unusual colorways that ultimately become a person’s everyday timekeeping companion. A key part of the original NOMOS Club’s success was that it struck a perfect balance of being traditional enough to integrate into daily life, while simultaneously being unconventional enough to stand out from the crowd. The widespread popularity of the Club Campus series is proof that collectors continue to have an appetite for an entry-level Club watch, although the California dials fitted to the Club Campus models make them inherently a bit more divisive than the classic Club. Reviving the original NOMOS Club simply makes a lot of sense and the return of this fan-favorite model restores one of the cornerstone offerings in the brand’s Bauhaus-inspired catalog.

When it first debuted back in 2007, the Club was the single most affordable NOMOS watch and the updated version continues to occupy a similar role as one of the brand’s entry-level offerings. The new NOMOS Club is accompanied by an official retail price of $1,500 USD for the ref. 701.1 with a solid caseback, or $1,800 USD should buyers opt for the ref. 703.1 that features a sapphire display caseback, and these are the exact same prices that NOMOS charges for its current Club Campus models. Other watches within the greater Club collection such as the Club Sport and Club Neomatik already do an excellent job of reimagining the core design of the inaugural model, and the entire concept behind the new NOMOS Club was simply to take everything that collectors loved about the original and simply improve upon it without altering its signature aesthetic. The updated dial and hands provide the watch with superior legibility and a slightly more contemporary overall appearance, yet the new NOMOS Club still offers much the same overall look and feel that you get from the original, and that is exactly the goal of this particular model. For more information on the NOMOS Club collection, please visit the brand’s website.