NOMOS Glashütte Club Campus 38 electric green 726

Imagen: NOMOS Glashütte, web oficial

The storyWhy this reference matters

The Club Campus was shown at Baselworld 2017 with a very specific brief: get an in-house mechanical watch onto the wrist of someone who has just finished a degree. Hence the name, and hence the solid steel case back, which keeps the case cheap and, above all, leaves a large flat surface to engrave. Nomos throws the engraving in with the purchase. It is one of very few upmarket watches designed literally as a gift from one person to another.

The dial is where the Campus parts company with the standard Club. Nomos takes the California dial — Roman numerals on one half, Arabics on the other — and flips the usual arrangement: Arabics up top, Romans below. Worn & Wound went to the trouble of counting the markers and got six batons, three Arabic numerals, two Roman, and nothing at six, where the sub-seconds sits. One of those two Romans is a IV, not the IIII of watchmaking tradition.

The colour is an annual ritual. Orange and grey in 2021, purple and pink in 2022, and in March 2023 came cream coral and this electric green, which Monochrome described as a punchier mint. It wasn't a limited run: it went straight into the permanent collection, and there it stays. The "electric" isn't hollow marketing either — in the official Nomos photograph the dial is a green that looks like nothing else in the catalogue.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

It measures 38.5 mm, not 38: the name is a rounding job again. But the number that really matters on a Club is lug to lug, 48.9 mm, because the long, drooping lugs on this case make it wear considerably bigger than the diameter suggests. Lug width is 20 mm. The smaller sibling, the Club Campus 36, drops to 36 mm, 8.2 thick, 18 mm between the lugs.

Count the markers to be sure you're looking at a Campus and not a plain Club: Arabic 10, 12 and 2 across the top half; Roman VIII and IV across the bottom; batons for the rest and nothing at six. The sub-seconds hand is neon orange, and the markers and hands carry white Super-LumiNova that glows blue. The outer minute track is numbered in fives.

Watch the suffix. The 726 has the solid steel case back — the one you engrave; the 726.gb is exactly the same watch with a sapphire back. From the front there is no telling them apart. And a clue to the production date: today's official spec sheet lists the DUW 4001 with 53 hours; units from before the changeover carry the Alpha, at 43.

CollectingWhat collectors check

There is a factor here that comes up on no other Nomos: the engraving on the case back. A "Congratulations, Maria — June 2023" is lovely for whoever received it and a millstone at resale. A virgin case back, or the .gb with sapphire, moves far more easily. Ask for a photo of the back before you start negotiating.

The grey vegan velour strap is comfortable and picks up dirt if you look at it; assume you'll replace it and don't pay extra for it. Check too that the orange on the seconds hand hasn't faded and that the lume responds: it is Super-LumiNova, but used sparingly, and Worn & Wound already warned that nobody should expect fireworks.

It is the most water-resistant entry-level Nomos at 10 atm, so plenty of examples have had a real life: pool, beach, gym. Look over the edges of the polished bezel and the crown, which on a hand-wound watch gets handled every day. And check that the seconds hand stops when you pull the crown out — that is the first thing to give away an abused calibre.

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