You’ll find Glashütte, the small town that’s home to watchmaker NOMOS Glashütte, folded within the hills of rural Saxony, not far from the Czech border. The historic birthplace of German watchmaking, it’s a place of stillness, heritage and craft – where it feels as though there are more watch workshops than cars. However, to see the world where NOMOS watches are designed and conceived, you need to head three hours away to Berlin, and a loft studio situated amid the hipster cafés and galleries of the city’s vibrant Kreuzberg district.

In some ways, NOMOS watches are uniquely characterised by the coming together of these two distinct worlds. The quiet, measured quality of watchmaking that stems from the deepest of traditions is tangible and ever-present; but it’s worn lightly, reconfigured for timepieces that are sprightly, stylish and in tune with how we live today.

Over the past few years, this interplay has delivered an ever-richer collection of watches: more finely engineered, more versatile in function, more relaxed and indeed more colourful in style. The minimalist, Bauhaus aesthetic that NOMOS Glashütte was predominantly associated with since its founding in 1990 has quietly blossomed, while the company’s watchmaking – it produces every movement in-house – has deepened greatly in sophistication, for instance with the introduction of its redoubtable “Swing System” escapement (the beating heart of a mechanical watch) and a new generation of “Neomatik” self-winding movements.

Insiders will tell you that these changes are the result of a huge investment of resources and energy committed over the past decade. Not that you’d notice: the world of NOMOS is one that remains as ineffably unruffled and perfectly composed as ever. It’s notable that the profound value offer on which NOMOS Glashütte also established its reputations has not shifted.

It’s this elegantly transformed NOMOS Glashütte that’s the subject of our latest About Time film, which examines three NOMOS watches for three occasions. For “work”, we look at the Metro Date Power Reserve, a watch whose quietly offbeat style was dreamed up by the renowned Berlin industrial designer Mr Mark Braun. For “rest”, there’s the Club Campus, an automatic watch whose more fulsome contours and bold aesthetic details combine for a relaxed but characterful whole.

Finally, the Tangente Sport Neomatik – for “play” – is the timepiece perhaps most redolent of NOMOS Glashutte’s transformation: an activewear watch from a company for whom such things once seemed anathema. Its sleek, slinky bracelet and airy design touches mean that what it gains in robustness and water resistance is in no way at the expense of pure NOMOS style. It’s a watch that’s equally suitable in tough, rugged environments as it is the lively buzz of a modern city or the tranquil surrounds of the Saxony hills.