Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

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TimelessLuxWatches
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Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

Post by TimelessLuxWatches » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:35 am

Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

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It's finally here! The Timeless Ludwig is our sixth collaboration with Nomos, our long-time brand partner. The Timeless Ludwig might not be our first limited edition Nomos, but it is our first limited edition with Roman numerals. Join us as we explore the new watch.


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Our process in designing Nomos LEs (and yes, all of our LEs are designed right here, in-house) is pretty consistent: figure out what we think the core essence of a model is and try to make that more apparent. When it came to the Club, we wanted to enhance its casual, everyday-friendly nature. With the Orion, conversely, we wanted to expand on its dressy character. But for the Ludwig, we chose to focus on its classic appearance and design in order to somehow make it even more timeless.


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The focus, as always, is the dial. We typically simplify dials, like with our Bremont or Zenith limited editions, but if you made a Nomos more minimalist you'd have nothing left, so that wasn't an option here. Instead, we turned to a truly classic combination that has been found in pottery for centuries.


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We wanted to capture the timeless look of blue and white pottery. To do this, we utilized a white lacquer dial which has a very beautiful and subtle shine to it, and combined it with a particular shade of blue.


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No area of the watch better shows our efforts than the subdial. There’s a gentle change in depth where the reflective nature of the lacquer can be easily observed.


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The soft, ever-so-slightly hazy nature of the blue was even more challenging to achieve. It may not look like it, but the Timeless Ludwig's dial has been the most difficult to produce yet. Nomos, certainly no newcomer to dial work, tells us that it took them about 60 attempts to produce just 20 viable dials, with more being made now.


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Yet, at certain angles, the numerals gain depth and a sheen all their own. The lighter blue also compliments Nomos' traditional blued hands quite nicely.


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As usual, we've gone with a mid-sized design around 38mm. The reasoning is the same as well, being that, in such a small run of watches (40, in this instance), we want to make it available to the widest variety of collectors possible, and we tend to like smaller watches in general.


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We always receive a few hundred complaints that our designs are both ridiculously small and absurdly large, depending on the complainer, but we've yet to find anyone upset about our attitude towards thinness. The Timeless Ludwig is around 7mm thin, and yes, it will fit under your sleeve.


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It's important to note, as any Nomos collector could tell you, that Nomoses do wear large, so you might want to treat a 38mm model as if it were a 40 from most other brands. This is due to its all-dial appearance and long lugs.


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Whenever possible, we prefer to use hand wound movements, and fortunately, with Nomos, this is basically always possible. We love hand wound movements because they're thinner and, generally speaking, prettier than their automatic counterparts.


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We're using the modified Alpha movement, which we've used in the Timeless Club II and Orion Midnight Editions. This is basically the most classic of Nomos movements but with their new in-house escapement, the swing system, installed. There are many things to like about it, like the six position adjustment and beautiful Germanic three-quarter plate, but our favorite is that it's surprisingly thin at 2.6mm.


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Here's a closeup of the hairspring and Triovis fine adjustment mechanism, but it's also a good place to appreciate the blued screws.


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But really, the charm is in its beauty. It's simple, old school, and it reminds of us why we always want a sapphire back with Nomos.


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As something of a last-minute change, we upgraded (at our expense) all of the Timeless Ludwigs with the "winged clasp," or as we call it, the wing buckle. There's no particular reason, just that we think it looks better than the standard buckle.


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So that's the new Timeless Ludwig, or, #19 of 40, anyway. As our LE runs get smaller and smaller, owing to the complexity of producing them, it's always a weird feeling writing the review. This is, in part, because there's a massive conflict of interest reviewing a watch that I designed, but that's nothing new. It's more knowing that months of work, from discussion, to design, to production, and finally to this very review, will be for a watch that is sold for no more than a very brief time.


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The Timeless Ludwig is priced at $2,460. Please click here for more details or to reserve yours.


• Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition
• 40 pieces total
• White lacquer dial
• Modified Alpha hand-wound movement
• 38mm stainless steel case
• Black leather strap
• Choice of 3 different strap lengths
• $2,460
• Free domestic shipping
• $50 international shipping

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JP Chestnut
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Re: Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

Post by JP Chestnut » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:53 am

There's an enamel like look to that dial which I like.

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TimelessLuxWatches
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Re: Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

Post by TimelessLuxWatches » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:54 am

That's exactly what we were going for. We'd have done enamel if we could, but it would have been prohibitively expensive. Still, the look is basically indistinguishable. It definitely exceeded my expectations.

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Panerai7
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Re: Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

Post by Panerai7 » Fri Dec 29, 2017 12:27 pm

Wonder if Nick's guy could drill those lugs :)

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dnslater
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Re: Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

Post by dnslater » Fri Dec 29, 2017 12:49 pm

Panerai7 wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 12:27 pm
Wonder if Nick's guy could drill those lugs :)
They look pretty drilled to me.

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TimelessLuxWatches
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Re: Timeless Ludwig Limited Edition Review

Post by TimelessLuxWatches » Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:41 pm

they're drilled for days.

on a serious note, super easy to change straps on these.

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