Nomos Glashütte Ludwig 38 Ref. 234

Reference 234 is the sapphire-back version of the NOMOS Ludwig 38, placing the hand-wound Ludwig design in a 37.5mm stainless steel case. It keeps the collection’s white silver-plated dial, Roman numerals, railroad minute track, tempered blue hands, and small seconds display, while using the larger case format of the Ludwig 38. The case measures 37.5mm in diameter, 6.8mm in height, and 47.5mm from lug to lug. It has a sapphire crystal front and a sapphire crystal case back, distinguishing it from the otherwise closely related closed-back version. Current specifications list water resistance at 5 atm, an increase from the earlier 3 atm rating. The galvanized white silver-plated dial follows the classical Ludwig layout, with Roman numerals using IIII instead of IV, a fine railroad minute track, and a recessed small seconds sub-dial at 6 o’clock. The tempered blue steel hands contrast with the pale dial surface. The display consists of central hours and minutes with subsidiary seconds. Power currently comes from the NOMOS DUW 4001, a manually wound in-house calibre measuring 10 ½ lignes in diameter and 2.6mm in height. It has 17 jewels and a power reserve of up to 53 hours. Earlier examples of this reference were fitted with the Alpha calibre. The watch is supplied on a black Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan strap with a 19mm lug width.