NOMOS Glashütte Twice Unique: 9 Artistic Dial Concepts Explained. 

NOMOS Glashütte Twice Unique is a 2026 collection that turns the dial of five classic NOMOS watches into a canvas for original art. There are nine dial designs in all, each made twice, once in a stainless steel watch and once in 18-karat gold, and sold as an inseparable pair. The designs featured here are exclusive to this year's release, with no confirmed follow-up planned.

That is the whole spirit of Twice Unique.

Here is how the collection works, and what each of the nine dials actually is.

The 5 Base Models of Twice Unique

Every Twice Unique dial is offered as a matched pair across five NOMOS classics. Sold exclusively as a set, each pair includes one watch in stainless steel and one in 18-karat gold. NOMOS describes them as two distinct personalities: the gold version warm and expressive, the steel version refined and understated, giving the same design a different character on the wrist.

Tangente 33

Nomos launched its first collection in 1991, featuring the Orion, Ludwig, Tetra, and Tangente.The collection’s success was led by the Tangente.

At 33 millimeters it is the smaller, more delicate version, hand-wound, with the Bauhaus-style numerals and a small seconds dial at six o’clock. In standard form it wears a clean white silver-plated dial.

Twice Unique leaves all of that alone. Same case, same hand-wound Alpha caliber, now known as DUW 4001. The only thing that changes is the dial, which is where the art goes. You get the Tangente you already recognize, with a face you have never seen on it.

Twice Unique Tangente 33 pair: $18,500

Tetra 27

Tetra is the square one, and the 27 is the smallest watch NOMOS makes, each side measuring 27.5 millimeters. It is hand-wound, with the same Alpha caliber (DUW 4001) as the Tangente 33, and a small seconds dial at the bottom. The standard Tetra 27 wears a white and grey silver-plated dial, so understated that some people miss the square shape at first glance.

For Twice Unique, that square format becomes a frame. A small canvas asks more of an artist than a large one, and the constraint is part of the appeal here. The case and movement carry over unchanged. The dial is reimagined.

Twice Unique Tetra 27 pair: $19,200

Ludwig

At 35 millimeters, Ludwig is the dressy one, the NOMOS that speaks Latin. In standard form it carries Roman numerals, with the traditional IIII in place of IV, and the hand-wound DUW 4001 (formerly Alpha) on view through a sapphire back, good for 53 hours of running. Where Tangente is all straight lines and modern type, Ludwig leans classic and quiet.

That calm makes it a good base for art. Several of the more painterly Twice Unique dials appear on the Ludwig, and the contrast between its formal reputation and an expressive face is part of the fun. The case and movement stay as they always were. The dial is what changes.

Twice Unique Ludwig pair: $19,600

Orion neomatik

Orion is NOMOS’s dress watch with a crown that sits a little prouder, and the neomatik version runs on the automatic DUW 3001, one of the thinnest self-winding movements in the world at just 3.2 millimeters tall. That slim caliber is the reason the watch stays elegant while winding itself.

For Twice Unique, the case and the DUW 3001 carry over untouched, and the dial is handed to the artists. Orion neomatik has one quirk worth knowing: it keeps its indexes across every collection, even in the designs where the other four models drop their numerals to let the art take over the dial. On the Orion, the markers and the artwork always share the face.

Twice Unique Orion neomatik pair: $25,700

Tangente neomatik 38 Update

The Tangente neomatik 38 Update is the most technical watch in the group. At 38.5 millimeters it is the largest, it winds itself with the automatic DUW 6101, and it carries NOMOS’s clever ring date: instead of a date window cutting into the dial, the date is marked by a pair of red indicators that travel around a ring at the dial’s edge. Nothing interrupts the face.

That uninterrupted layout is exactly why it suits an art dial. With no date window to design around, the artist gets a full, clean surface. The case, the movement, and the ring-date mechanism all carry over from the standard model. Only the dial is new.

Twice Unique Tangente neomatik 38 Update pair: $25,900

The 9 Twice Unique Dial Designs

Each design below began life as a one-of-one at Watches and Wonders, and each can now be commissioned to order and individually numbered. Some were created in-house, others with outside artists and artisans. NOMOS sorts them into three ways, by color, by technique, and by texture. Because a design can be ordered across the five models above, the price follows the model you choose, so treat the figures in the previous section as your guide.

Rive Gauche

Rive Gauche takes its red from a textile by Anna Diederichs, a designer whose 1960s Paris patterns mixed psychedelia and op-art. NOMOS reproduced one of her original sketches on the dial, pencil marks and all, using four-color pad printing to hold the detail. It reads like fabric caught mid-design rather than a finished motif: warm, a little raw, and unlike anything NOMOS has put on a dial before. First shown on the Ludwig and the Tangente neomatik 38 Update.

1966

1966 comes from the same partnership with Anna Diederichs, this time a floral textile pattern that bursts across the dial in overlapping color. Where Rive Gauche is loose and sketch-like, 1966 is dense and kaleidoscopic, closer to a printed silk scarf than a watch face. The square Tetra frames it like a single bright tile. It is the most openly decorative dial in the collection, and the one that most clearly announces NOMOS is doing something new. First shown on the Tetra 27.

Auric

Auric is gold leaf laid by hand. NOMOS worked with Michelle Sachs, one of the few gilders left in Germany, who applies the leaf with an ultra-soft squirrel-hair brush, a process with no margin for error. The surface ends up catching the light in shifting planes rather than a flat shine. Here is the detail worth knowing: the same gilded dial reads differently depending on the case, warmer in gold, cooler in steel. Shown on the Tangente 33 and the Ludwig.

Urania

Urania is a night sky. Named for the muse of astronomy, a figure NOMOS ties to science and to time itself, the dial is hand-speckled with silver stars using the finest mouse-hair brush, and some of them glow, painted with Super-LumiNova so the scene lights up in the dark. The Urania collection keeps each model’s typography, so the numerals stay in matching gold tones and the stars are scattered around them. It is the most romantic dial in the set, and it rewards a second look in low light. Shown on the Ludwig and the Orion neomatik, each with its own version of the sky.

Drift

Drift is a frosted, smoky blue, built with what NOMOS calls a pre-industrial airbrush technique, applied by hand rather than machine. The finish has depth, like looking into fog or deep water, with no hard edges anywhere. Unlike the designs that clear the numerals away, Drift keeps each model’s typography: on the Tangente neomatik 38 Update it carries gold numerals, indexes, and logo, with the hands plated to match the case. It is the quietest of the artistic dials, more atmosphere than image. Shown on the Tangente neomatik 38 Update.

Moiré

Moiré is a first for NOMOS: a guilloché dial, engraved with a repeating wave pattern that shimmers like watered silk as the light moves. For a brand that built its name on stripping ornament away, committing to guilloché is a real statement, the opposite of plain. NOMOS paired the pattern with a new dark blue that deepens the silk effect. It is proof the company can do traditional decorative watchmaking when it wants to. First shown on the Ludwig.

Now

Now is about polish, not pattern. The dial is mirror-finished by hand through polish lapping, several hours of work with three abrasive compounds that bring the surface to a roughness of about one micron, then a slightly matte lacquer that keeps it soft rather than glassy. The result reflects the moment around it without turning into a hard mirror. It is the most minimal dial in the collection and, in its own way, the most technical. Shown on the Tangente 33.

Scribble

Scribble is hand-engraved by Saskia Licina, an award-winning jewelry designer and master goldsmith, who cut looping, continuous lines into the dial by hand. The loops wander like someone doodling without lifting the pen, which is exactly the feeling she was after. In its lighter form the engraving catches the light softly across a pale surface. No two are identical, because a hand made them. First shown on the Tetra 27.

Scribble Dark

Scribble Dark is the same engraving idea turned moody. Licina’s looping lines run across a black dial, with the cuts picked out so they catch the light like fine threads against the dark. It is the dramatic sibling to the lighter Scribble, and the contrast is the point: same hand, same technique, completely different temperature. First shown on the Tangente neomatik 38 Update.

Discover more at Jewels by Love...

Getting your hands on one is easier than you'd expect. Twice Unique pairs are made to order and individually numbered, sold only through authorized NOMOS retailers, and the nine dials are committed to 2026 not promised for 2027 yet.

Contact us at Jewels by Love, we are an authorized NOMOS Glashütte retailer, run by the Mahtani family, who have been in the watch trade for six generations. If one of these dials has caught your eye, the move is to enquire about a pair while the year’s allocation is still open, since each is built to order rather than sitting in a case waiting.

For most of its life NOMOS has been the sensible answer to beautiful and luxurious watches at fair prices. Twice Unique is the company letting itself show off, and it does so without losing the plot. The cases and movements are the ones it already makes well, and the artistry sits where you actually look, on the dial. That is a very NOMOS way to make something extraordinary.