NORD ZEITMASCHINE VARIOCURVE V4
It start a few years back when I first meet Daniel Nebel at the Basel show. The watches he made get my attention at the first sight.
When he show me the Variocurve I was very impressed about the watch and how he have solved things to make it work as he wanted.
Daniel is a very great person that really burn for his watches and nothing seems to be impossible when he got the idea.
After the show I couldn't stop thinking about the Variocurve and when he show me the white rhodium/blue V4 I was lost.
He do most of the work machinery that contains most as a young watchmaker may need. He is born in 1971 and have work with
his own watches since 1998. He began his career with an apprenticeship as a mechanic and he told me how he get into watches
very early. He was 25 years old and got a beaten up Omega from his uncle and when he chat with a friend so ask his freind: Why
don't you made a new case to the watch at your work? No that sounds like a too big challenge Daniel says. The friend reply:
You trying to tell me you can't made one? When he come home and should sleep he can't stop thinking about his friends statement.
Next day he start made his first and his own watch case, a few days later he shows his "new" watch for his friend that was very quiet.
I don't know his friends name but I thank him anyway.
So that was the start that made Daniel Nebel made his own watches with the name NORD ZEITMASCHINE a few years later.
Ok, lets take a look at the Variocurve.
It comes in a black outer box with the name at the top.
The inner box is well protected.
A black piano lacquered top and high gloss blue marbled bottom gives a sober impression of the box.
Creamy leather at the inside.
And some tools and screws at the backside of the pillow.
Here Mr Nebel will show me the watch but he is just so excited as I so he can't stand still for a pic. :-)))
The new model V4 was ready only 2 weeks before the show.
So lets take a closer look at the watch. The dial/plate at Variocurve V4 is white rhodium coated with geneva stripes and hand painted.
Here are some pictures from NORD's webpage where we can follow his work.
The case of the Variocurve is made of one piece of stainless steel. 43.6 mm diameter so it's not a small watch.
The guy not even buy the screws. :-)))
He even made some of the gears too.
The plate that is the dial.
The unique minute and the only hand at the Variocurve the reminds me of the Mercedes wiper.
The sapphire crystal is slightly doomed and the backside have a flat sapphire crystal. The bezel is fixed by 7 screws.
The crown is huge, maybe a little too big for my taste.
But it's not a screw down crown so the problem with a Rolex crown that never line up with the case dosen't exist on this watch. :-))) The watch is water resistant to 100 meters anyway.
I love the sporty look with the blasted parts at the sides.
The clasp is huge too, it match the case pretty well. A 22 mm black calf strap give the watch a nice look.
The Variocurve V4 is limited to 97 pieces.
IMHO the white rhodium against the blue parts get a very nice contrast. The polished gears and the blue screws looks awesome.
NORD's webpage says this about the movement:
NORD N2 Minutes VARIOCURVE / double minute segment display / hours decentralized / date. 25 jewelsand 5 integrated precision microballbearings. Sliding parts as
the minute hand from the material ARCAP. Symmetrical 360° winding rotor with integrated winding weights, which are not visible by looking through the bottom. 28800 vibrations
per hour / power reserve to 42 h / basic ETA 2824
The work Mr Nebel have done with the movement is awesome, IMHO the nicest ETA I've ever seen. The rotor is unique too with a hidden weight.
He put a module at the ETA movement that contains 56 pieces that is his work and he have made in his engineering workshop.
So now I will enjoy this timepiece.
Many people say it's hard to read the time, I will say no. After wear the watch for a while so can you see very easy where the minute hand is at the
dial and then it's easy to tell the time IMHO. When you have learn the minute scale it's very fast to tell the time. The only problem I have notice
it it's hard to set the time when the minute hand is in the outer dials area. But it's only to wait a few minutes and the hand is at the dial scale again. :-)))
Finally I made a video where you can see how the watch works.
I will thank Daniel Nebel once again for he put this great watch together for med, he is a watchmaker with a very big heart.
Jocke