As you all know, I’ve wanted to get my hands on a Nomos Alpha movement for some time. I’ve done a couple of Nomos watches in the past, albeit with the Peseux 7001 movement. In 2005, Nomos started producing their own in-house movements, and, as you will soon see, they are gorgeous… just like the owner of the watch, Dagmar, who has been a friend of my family for decades.
The watch had been serviced 2 years ago, but suddenly stopped working. When I turn the winding stem, the balance doesn’t start up, so I suspect a broken mainspring.
The bottom plate is nicely decorated as well. The movement is like the watch – the simplicity of its design makes it so beautiful.
Oddly enough, one of the crown wheel screws has a broken off head.
And the rest of the screw is still stuck in the plate.
The gear train. You can see the stop lever for the hacking second feature.
And yes, the mainspring is broken as suspected. If you zoom in on the barrel, you can also see that 2 teeth of the barrel wheel are missing.
And here is a close-up of the missing teeth.
So what happened? My guess here is that during winding, the mainspring snapped, and the sudden shock knocked the two teeth off the barrel. I can’t quite explain the broken off screw head of the crown wheel, unless huge force was used trying to overwind the watch, which isn’t very likely. My guess is that the mainspring that was put in during the last service was slightly damaged and snapped.
The components of the keyless works.
The parts go through the cleaning machine as usual.
I start off by putting the balance jewels back in.
I ordered a barrel and mainspring, and Nomos sent me a complete barrel for £22! Note the Nomos name etched on the barrel lid, a nice touch that the old lid doesn’t have. Now these are spare part prices you can only dream of if you have an Omega or a Rolex… 
I love this movement. Nice decoration, simplicity, and great performance. What’s not to like?
The broken off crown wheel screw came out easily, and I ordered a new one from Nomos.
After a first adjustment, I already have a pretty perfect timegrapher image. 
One of the most beautiful watches you can buy. At least in my opinion 😉
The Tangente with the Peseux 7001 is great, but having in in-house movement of such beauty and simplicity in this case makes the Alpha even more desirable. On top of that, Nomos supplies independent repairers like me with parts at very affordable prices. You know you want one 😉
Could you please tell how you ordered from Nomos? A independent watchmaker friend of mine could not since Nomos refused to sell. Thank you!
Nomos gives accounts to independent watchmakers. He just has to ask.
Ich würde da nicht so viele Superlativen schreiben.
Würden die Zähne auf dem Federhaus die richtige Form haben, würden sie auch nicht brechen. Wer sich jemals, in welcher Form auch immer, mit Zahnrädern beschäftigt hat, erkennt das sofort. Diese Zähne sind dafür angefertigt, um den Umsatz für Glashütte zu generieren, die Feder ebenfalls. Sie ist sehr stark und dick.
Deshalb bricht sie auch sehr oft. und dann müssen beide Teile ausgetauscht werden.
Die Schönheit der ist unbestritten. Die dient aber dazu den Nutzer dieser Uhr zu blenden und von den absichtlich eingebauten Fehlern abzulenken. Eine ganz fiese Masche, die heutzutage überall angewendet wird. Deshalb halte ich Abstand von den hoch angepriesenen Produkten und kaufe mir lieber einen Japaner, bei dem die Sorgfalt in die wichtigen Details eingesetzt wird und nicht um zu blenden.
Nomos zu unterstellen, daß sie mit Absicht Teile falsch konstruieren, ist doch ziemlich stärker Tobak… Das glaube ich nun wirklich nicht.
I need complete barrel with mainspring for nomos tangente139 parts !
Thank you!
I have one of these, a Tangente Sport, Alpha movement, with display back. It’s nice to see inside the elegant movement and thanks for the post. It is one of my most accurate mechanical watches; and very comfortable on the wrist, too.
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So happy, dass meine Uhr wieder heil ist. Und jetzt weiß ich Dank deiner Dokumentation auch, wie schön ihr Innenleben ist. Einfach klasse, Christian.
Stunning design, checked the website for an automatic version and re-assured myself that I could not afford it ………….
Back to the Tissot Seastars …..
Regards
Roj
Stunning piece of engineering and craftsmanship. And the exterior is not bad either.
It occurred to me that I didn’t know what “Glashütte” meant, so I looked it up. What an interesting little town that must be!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glashütte
Wow – that is some machining on the plates… does this one have the solid or display back?
Solid – http://www.nomos-store.com/out/pictures/z2/tangente_stahlboden_z2.png
Display – http://www.nomos-store.com/out/pictures/z2/tangente_glasboden_2013_z2.png
I would guess that Nomos would be interested in what happened to their relatively new movement… you should make them aware of it. Maybe they will send you a Free Thing 😉
It’s got the solid back. I don’t think I’ll get a freeby 😉
It’s rather the guy who put the mainspring in. My guess is that he put a small kink in it.