The Nomos Tetra is an interesting square timepiece, this is certainly a timepiece that is needed to be tried on in a boutique to see if it works for you. The square timepiece is not a new design, the first square timepieces were introduced in 1904 and square case sales are relatively modest compared to a round case.

Nomos was founded in 1990 in Glashütte, Saxony by Roland Schwertner, just two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The original designs of Susanne Günther were inspired by the minimalist bauhaus purist design. The square case Tetra was released in 1992 along with the round case Tangente, Ludwig, and the Orion as the four inaugural models.

The Tetra originally was fitted with a hand-wound ETA movement, from 2016 onwards the inhouse DUW 3001 was fitted to later versions. The DUW 3001 is an incredibly small movement, 28.8 mm in diameter and just 3.2 mm height. This 27 jewel movement has a 43 hour power reserve, a Nomos balance bridge, tempered blue screws, and rhodium-plated surfaces. So the questions are, would a square case work for me? I am not sure, but I love the appetite second hand and the wonderful dial colours. If I was in the market for a square case, my choice would be the Tetra.