The following is response I wrote to the editor of the wonderful watch site and newsletter, Rescapement, in response to their article “Nomos Tangente Sport for Hodinkee: Hype or horology” If you don’t already, I highly recommend you subscribe to Rescapement’s weekly newsletter that really discusses some interesting and different topics and perspectives around the watch world as well as some excellent deep-dives into various topics.
Backstory: I purchased the Nomos Tangente Sport Limited Edition For HODINKEE within the first 30 minutes of its launch and subsequently returned it. Since then, thoughts of writing an article had been stewing, though I didn’t want to post something negative, especially for a watch that might be enjoyed thoroughly by someone else. After reading Rescapement’s thoughtful article, I realized it didn’t have to be a negative post of the watch, but rather some thoughts on why I didn’t connect with it, and most importantly, being honest to yourself in collecting for yourself and what speaks to you. Ultimately, Tony and I reached the same conclusion on the watch, but from different approaches: he was sold on the hype, I was sold on the stats and thinking it was exactly what I wanted. Here’s the letter to the editor of Rescapement:
I wanted to write a reply because I had a somewhat similar experience where I ended up buying and quickly returning the Nomos Tangente Sport for Hodinkee, but from a different perspective. I appreciate your honest and candid take on the topic at large, and wish more "collectors" would share in that mindset. In the days of Instagram fueling the steel bracelet sport watch hype, it's a great reminder and difficult question to be honest with yourself about. As for my experience with the watch...
I had actually been searching for my next watch. I was experiencing some fatigue in seeing the same pieces over and over again in every post and at every meetup, and was finding it difficult to justify some of the seemingly sky high prices of many of the vintage watches that made up "my list" over the years. As mentioned, my wife and I were also expecting our second child in early 2020, and as with our first, I found it to be a good, meaningful excuse to buy a watch. More on the backstory of the 14270 Explorer I purchased when my son was born here: https://www.meticulist.net/blog/falling-in-love-with-the-rolex-explorer-1
I had also been thinking about how even though I wear that Explorer for nearly all major family events and quite regularly in general, it still gets swapped out for a Seiko SKX013 every night for dishes and bath time duty, and every weekend for general banging around the house. This had me thinking that maybe I should get a truly new or at least modern watch to not have to think about or take off; something with trustable water resistance and functional lume to have on during the bulk of my time spent with my family and through the everyday activities as well. You hear the stories of people remembering their father with a Datejust or the like always on his wrist, and I started thinking maybe I should go that route when thinking of a future heirloom. This would mean something ideally with a bracelet, but bonus if it would work well on straps as well, something versatile with decent water resistance, and because we didn't know the sex of the upcoming baby, something that could be passed on to a boy or girl.
That criteria combined with my long love of Nomos, despite never having owned one, made it seem like the stars had aligned when Hodinkee announced the specs of the limited Tangente Sport. I've long been preaching 36 mm to be the ideal case diameter, prefer manually wound watches without a date, and this one was chronometer certified, had a bracelet, and was an LE, figuring even if for some reason I hated it, I would be okay for resale value. They even marketed it as being gender neutral and featured women wearing it in the launch photos! Despite being very methodical and planning out most big purchases, I hit buy early and received the watch just 28 hours later. Unboxing it I realized that, like a girl I dated that seemed perfect on paper, sometimes things that seem like they should be perfect just don't speak to you. I knew it in my gut right away, but the new watch high was real, and figured I just needed to get it home to size the bracelet and spend some time with it.
The lume filled blued hands might have been my favorite part of this watch.
This is where this (long) story takes a slight turn: the bracelet couldn't actually be sized small enough to fit. My wrists are small at 6-5/8" to 6-3/4", but certainly not tiny, especially considering the watch was marketed for women as well, and the strap options were also somewhat limited since the lug holes are set fairly far inward on the exaggeratedly long lugs. So now the sheer functionality of the watch had deflated, I also started to admit that the watch just left me somewhat cold. I was really sold on the description of the "warm lacquer dial" since I tend to like dials that really draw you in the more you stare and spend time with them, but this one just kind of sat there: flat, not that textured, and lacking the details to draw you in. Sure it's super clean and well executed, but it just didn't get me that excited. (I've long loved the great designs, wonderful execution, and overall great value Nomos and Grand Seiko provide, but now wonder if they're both the kind that are perfect on paper without really speaking to a deeper connection, but that's a whole other topic.)
I’ve never seen a 36.5mm watch wear so large!
I did come to learn that Nomos does make that bracelet in a short length, and they even offered to exchange it with the standard one I had for free, but opted to return it to Hodinkee instead due to some other factors involved with the after-sales experience. For anyone considering the watch, please don't let it deter you if it speaks to you. I will say it wears substantially larger than its case diameter suggests due to the thin bezel, case design, and length lugs. Those long lugs are what made the bracelet such a weird situation; even when trying the watch with the shortest length straps I had, I was needing to wear the straps 3-4 holes smaller than I would with any other watch I own.
So, to come full circle, I recommend going even further on your criteria of "it brings you genuine, personal joy" to make sure that joy goes beyond what's on paper and really speaks to you. As for what did I do for our second child? Well, a fellow collector friend pointed out that unless I'm only going to wear one watch for the rest of my life, my kids aren't going to think of me associated with one watch, they're going to remember me collecting watches. So, the practical side of using an SKX for all life's daily dirty work remains, and I ended up finding something that I can't stop staring at that even sticks with my made up theme of buying watches 20 years older than the child.
It was a good lesson overall, and a great real discussion about why we're drawn to these things in the first place.
Cheers, and thanks for the thought provoking article,
Colin
Special thanks to Tony at Rescapement for featuring this response and provoking and providing the creative outlet to write it.
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