time for life uk

Time for Life. NOMOS Glashütte for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.

Aid with a Nobel Prize

After earthquakes or floods, during wars and outbreaks of disease, wherever and whenever possible, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières delivers emergency medical care to people in need. For 40 years now, the organization’s doctors, nurses, logis-ticians and other staff members have traveled the globe to provide life-saving assistance, both in places that dominate the headlines and in places no one is talking about.

Founded in 1971 in Paris by a group of doctors and journalists, Doctors Without Borders now has some 30,000 staff members in nearly 70 countries helping treat the sick, the wounded, the forgotten, the mothers-to-be, and the malnourished. Their work is funded almost entirely by private donations, which allows the organization to remain independent and impartial, free from political and economic interference. Fortunately, most donors provide unrestricted donations as well, ensuring that Doctors Without Borders can tailor responses to the medical needs alone, rather than any other considerations. Corporate donations are accepted, but

not from extractive industries, weapons manufacturers, alcohol and tobacco companies, or other businesses in sec-tors that conflict with the organization’s social mission. Furthermore, Doctors Without Borders works with the utmost transparency, and as its annual reports show, the vast majority of expenditures have consistently been directed to its social mission, minimizing fundraising and administrative costs.

The Doctors Without Borders staff treats people based on need alone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation. They do so because they believe that quality medical care is a right, not a privilege, and that neither geography, nor circumstance, nor pri-vation should disqualify someone from treatment.

In the pages that follow, we will share some of Doctors Without Borders’ sto-ries from the field. We will also tell you more about us, NOMOS Glashütte, our work, our principles, and the watches we’ve designed to both honor and support the ongoing efforts of Doctors Without Borders.


After earthquakes or floods, during wars and outbreaks of disease, wherever and whenever possible, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières delivers emergency medical care to people in need. For 40 years now, the organisation’s doctors, nurses, logis-ticians and other staff members have travelled the globe to provide life-saving assistance, both in places that dominate the headlines and in places no one is talking about.

Founded in 1971 in Paris by a group of doctors and journalists, Doctors Without Borders now has some 30,000 staff members in nearly 70 countries helping treat the sick, the wounded, the forgotten, the mothers-to-be and the malnourished. Their work is funded almost entirely by private donations, which allows the organisation to remain independent and impartial, free from political and economic interference. Fortunately, most donors provide unrestricted donations as well, ensuring that Doctors Without Borders can tailor responses to the medical needs alone, rather than any other considerations. Corporate donations are accepted, but

not from extractive industries, weapons manufacturers, alcohol and tobacco companies, or other businesses in sec-tors that conflict with the organisation’s social mission. Furthermore, Doctors Without Borders works with the utmost transparency, and as its annual reports show, the vast majority of expenditures have consistently been directed to its social mission, minimising fundraising and administrative costs.

The Doctors Without Borders staff treats people based on need alone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation. They do so because they believe that quality medical care is a right, not a privilege, and that neither geography, nor circumstance, nor pri-vation should disqualify someone from treatment.

In the pages that follow, we will share some of Doctors Without Borders’ stories from the field. We will also tell you more about us, NOMOS Glashütte, our work, our principles and the watches we’ve designed to both honor and support the ongoing efforts of Doctors Without Borders.


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What if they were our neighbours, our friends, or our relatives? Whether they are in Mali, Afghani-stan, Democratic Republic of Congo or a host of other nations; whether they are fleeing conflict or an epidemic, or dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster or a complicated pregnancy— millions of people need help, right now.

What does any of this have to with watches, and more specifically with the watches NOMOS Glashütte painstakingly crafts in Glashütte, Germany? It’s a fair question. The answer is: We at NOMOS Glashütte believe we can use our watches, carefully produced timepieces born of our own commitment and tradition, to support the work of Doctors Without Borders—providing people with life-saving services they would other-wise not receive. It is the least we can do. It is the right thing to do. Because it is within our capabilities, it is something we must do.

NOMOS Glashütte has been collaborating with Ärtze ohne Grenzen, the German Doctors Without Borders office, for a while now. Our coopera-tion with Doctors Without Borders is now being extended to the UK with 2,000 limited edition watches—1,000 each of two Tangente models, denoted by a red 12 and the inscription “Doctors Without Borders” beneath the 6. The price is the same as it is with our regular versions of the renowned NOMOS classic. The main difference is this: for every watch sold, NOMOS Glashütte will send £100 to Doctors Without Borders.

How can we quantify the £100 NOMOS Glashütte will give for every watch sold? That amount buys 25 wool blankets to protect dis-placed people from the cold. It buys 700 emer-gency food rations for use in a crisis or natural disaster, or life-saving treatment for 30 children suffering from malaria. These are not just num-bers, either; they are people. Individuals who by chance were born in places where these things are much harder to access—and far more crucial to their survival—than they are where we live.

Help us to help with our Tangente and Tangente 33 for Doctors Without Borders. Both are watches for life, in both senses of the phrase. For you, this means owning a fine timepiece to last a lifetime. For those in need, it could mean much more.

The staff of NOMOS Glashütte

Watches for a lifetime:Time to help

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On any given day, Doctors Without Borders has around 30,000 staff members working in some 70 countries around the world in projects large and small. This map gives an overview: each of the red numbers shows a country where Doctors Without Borders operated in 2012.

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Saving a tiny piece of the world

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Madagascar

Malawi

Mali

Mauritania

Mexico

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Niger

Nigeria

Occupied PalestinianTerritory

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Philippines

Russian Federation

Sierra Leone

Somalia

South Africa

South Sudan

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Swaziland

Syria

Tajikistan

Turkey

United States

Uganda

Ukraine

Uzbekistan

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

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716,900

30,780

1,642,800

185,400

78,500

treated for malaria

treated or vaccinated for measles

put on treatment for tuberculosis

undergoing surgical procedures

assisted with deliveries

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Doctors Without Borders provides a range of medical aid, according to need. A sample is depicted below, showing the number of patients in 2012:

Afghanistan

Armenia

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Bolivia

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon

Central African Republic

Chad

China

Colombia

Congo

Côte d’Ivoire

Djibouti

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Democratic Republic of Congo

Egypt

Ethiopia

France

Georgia

Greece

Guatemala

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Haiti

Honduras

India

Iran

Iraq

Italy

Jordan

Kenya

Kyrgyzstan

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Making a difference in DRC

South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is a hotbed of violence where civilians bear the brunt of the conflict—leaving them often displaced and vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and war-related injuries. Dr Chris Bird from London (above) is one of thousands trying to help: a former Reuters reporter, he put down his notepad to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines, where he can alleviate the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

Here he reports from his first Doctors Without Borders assignment in Lulimba, a small town in eastern DRC:

“Our team arrived to start working at the Lulimba hospital at the height of the malaria season. We barely had time to unpack our boxes because we were greeted by a crowd of sick children, and more have been arriving in ever-greater numbers since. We also found out very quickly that the hospital had only one thermometer. When you are unable to do most tests, being able to take someone’s temperature in an area endemic for malaria and other tropical diseases is critical.”

So the staff spent the first few days running between the outpatient clinic, maternity, paediat-rics and internal medicine, chasing the small tube of glass and mercury needed to place under the arm of a hot, lethargic child. They found two more thermometers in Doctors Without Borders’ own medical kits, kept in their vehicles.

“When I asked one mother, after seeing her child, if there was anything else I could do to help, her reply in Swahili prompted laughter from the other mothers. The nurse on duty, Silele, grinned and translated for me: ‘She was asking if you could sort out the problems between her and her hus-band, but I think we have enough to do already.’”

The flood of patients meant that they had to impro-vise quickly. They moved the internal medicine and paediatric services out of the overcrowded, dark rooms of the old Lulimba hospital into four large tents while they were waiting for a new hos-pital to be built.

In the new hospital, they now have bed nets for each patient to prevent the mosquito vector from spreading malaria from one patient to another. The operating theatre now has a light, and the instruments are properly sterilised, instead of being placed in pressure cookers on charcoal bra-ziers as they were before Doctors Without Borders arrived. And they now have a generator that can be used to provide oxygen to patients with breath-ing problems. These improved facilities have made it easier for Chris and his team to make a real difference in DRC.

Chris examines a seven-year-old boy in the makeshift paediatric ward at Lulimba hospital in Democratic Republic of Congo.

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A measles epidemic that began 2010, affecting the entire country, continues to sicken tens of thousands of children in DRC. As shown here in the triage room of a hospital Doctors Without Borders operates in the country, parents of ill children report many measles cases in their communities.

“The sandstone reminds me of thedrought in the Somali region”, says Tobias Berg, a nurse from Germany. Extreme drought is common in eastern Ethiopia, where Tobias worked with Doctors Without Borders in the past, and residents and aid workers alike have to be aware of the shortages that can occur. That’s not the only issue, however; there are also security risks to worry about. For the Doctors Without Borders volunteers, this means always staying alert in an extremely volatile situation. Security was also a concern in Central African Republic, another place Tobias worked with Doctors Without Borders. “Over time, you learn to interpret small signs. If the men instead of the women were fetching water from the well, we knew that trouble was brewing.”

But in spite of—or maybe even because of—the tension, the staff often gets help from the local people. The major-ity of the staff, in fact, are residents of the countries where the organisation works, and in many cases, deep bonds form. When Tobias filled up his last notebook in Ethiopia two years ago, an African colleague presented him with a hand-stapled pad (top right). The tat-tered Doctors Without Borders banner reminds him of the thousands of miles they travelled together by SUV.

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Fourteen months in Haiti

Having previously completed Doctors Without Borders assignments in Somalia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and other nations, Mary Jo Frawley, a nurse from Vermont, went to Haiti days after the earthquake in January 2010. She thought she’d stay a few weeks, but wound up staying for 14 months.

“I was in Vermont when I heard that an earth-quake had hit Haiti. I quickly emailed the emer-gency team coordinator to let him know that I was available if they needed me. I got a call at seven the next morning—they wanted me to go as soon as possible.” Within an hour, her bag was packed.

Makeshift and make do: Doctors Without Borders staff working in less than ideal conditions next to a medical facility destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.

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“Nothing in my wildest dreams could have pre-pared me for what we saw”, she remembers.

“If you can imagine one of the worst snowstorms in New York City’s history, and what the middle of the street looks like after the snow plough passes through, that was what the streets of Haiti looked like, but instead of snow it was parts of people’s homes.”

Her team’s assessment showed that there were many needs in Carrefour, a very poor commu-nity of one million people in Port-au-Prince. The neighbourhood’s sole hospital had been badly damaged, and patients were on the street, so the Doctors Without Borders staff spent their first night working there.

She was responsible for setting up an orthopae-dic surgical unit, a paediatric hospital, two pri-mary care clinics and a feeding centre. Doctors Without Borders recruited a team of 20 people from the community to help them let others know who they were and what they were doing and to conduct medical surveillance. Each team surveyed 60,000 to 100,000 people on a regular basis. This also helped to establish con-nections in the community, something Doctors Without Borders tried to reinforce in Carrefour by walking through the neighbourhood and asking people about their lives, families and health.

By early October, Doctors Without Borders was phasing down some of their projects. Then cholera hit, and in less than four days, they converted the orthopaedic hospital in Carrefour into a cholera treatment centre. Haiti had not seen cholera for over a century. By the following spring, cholera had spread throughout the coun-try, but so too had knowledge of how to prevent and treat it.

Mary Jo extended her time in Haiti three times before she finally left in March 2011: “My time in the country was different than any other mission I have gone on with Doctors Without Borders. I think the difference was how close I was able to get to the community, something that made the

Mary Jo landed in the country less than 48 hours after the earthquake, in one of the first emergency response teams on ground.

experience especially rewarding on both profes-sional and personal levels. Carrefour became my neighbourhood. In the time I lived there, I was able to gain an appreciation for what that com-munity had gone through and the struggles they were continuing to have.

I used to eat at this food stand on the street, for example, and when cholera hit I continued to eat there because I knew the woman that ran the stand, and I knew that she was trying the best she could when everyone was afraid of water and food contamination. I was willing to continue eating there in order to help support her and the community. I’m not sure I would have done that on a shorter mission.”

She left knowing that the community outreach and local staff she had trained were well pre-pared to continue caring for their own commu-nity: “My goal at each Doctors Without Borders project I am a part of is to work myself out of a job because I know the national staff can take care of it. We are guests in these settings.”

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Famine, natural disasters, wars and epidem-ics: Doctors Without Borders needs a huge amount of medicines and equipment for its work. Whether in the bush or the city—supplies always have to be delivered quickly, because lives can depend on it. Logistician Frank Terhorst, who recently coordinated several Doc-tors Without Borders projects in Chad, explains how it works.

“At home, this would be a desk job”, says the logistician. “In Africa, however, you can plan what you want, but you still don’t know how the day will end.” Once in Chad, Frank quickly found he had to constantly change his plans: on one occasion a logistician in the field dropped out and the boss had to do the job himself, working with national staff over five days to build a clinic for malnourished children—at 40°C in the shade. Back in the capital, he then had to plan, coordi-nate and run three new operations in addition to three existing projects. The people of Chad had been worn down by a long drought, heavy rains and flooding, and as a result thousands were dying: malnutrition, measles, meningitis and malaria. And then came a cholera outbreak, which hit like a bomb.

Zero Hour: The message comes from the Health Ministry that there have been cases of cholera in Fianga in southwest Chad. Doctors Without Borders looks into whether it can react—and if so, how. “A cholera outbreak is difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to predict”, says the logistician. “For the patients, hours can mean the difference between life or death.”

After 8 hours, they decide to go ahead. A logis-tics plan has to be drawn up, costs calculated and the security situation analysed, all within a short time. As an independent organisation, Doctors Without Borders is able to respond quickly. The team decides to set up a cholera treatment centre in Fianga.

Thirty hours later, the initial reconnaissance. Early in the morning, a team sets out to inspect the area in which they’ll be working. “A trip like this can take a long while, especially when an outbreak isn’t in the city but deep in the bush.” In this case, fortunately, they manage it in just a day.

After 56 hours, they take stock. On the first “exploration tour” they work through the check-lists: counting the number of sick, as well as identifying possible locations for the deployment and how to get there.

Day 4: Permits. “We need to get in touch with the local authorities to get permission to deploy. This can be tough”, say Frank, a political economist and social scientist himself. He asks around—one of the Doctors Without Borders’ drivers is from the region and knows who to talk to.

Day 5: Preparations. Once the situation has been analysed, the deployment can be planned. “With cholera, logistics is a major problem. It’s not just about setting up cholera beds—platforms with a hole in the middle—or tents, quarantine and disinfection materials. You also have to get hold of thousands of litres of Ringer’s Solution in a hurry.” Ringer’s Solution is a liquid to rehydrate patients who have lost a lot of bodily fluids due to severe diarrhoea.

The nutrient solution is packaged in one litre infusion bags—a patient can need up to eight of them a day. Transportation is expensive and often takes a long time. However, express deliver-ies are ten times more expensive. “That’s why we set up two depots to store emergency kits in the countries where we operate.”

A new request comes in, this time about malnu-trition. “We have no capacity for that number of parallel operations in Chad”, says the coordinator. He has to turn it down for the time being. But sup-port comes from the neighbouring Central African Republic: colleagues there lend him two cars with drivers, as well as sending another logistician and a nurse to the cholera project in Fianga.

Time is life

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Leased vehicles can also be used for the project in the desert, but they need radios to main-tain constant contact with the headquarters. The office back home confirms an immediate dispatch of the radios by airfreight. That means Frank can give the operation the go-ahead from a logistical point of view.

Day 7: Setting up. The convoy finally sets out for Fianga. Setting up the cholera treatment centre almost sounds routine. Frank explains: “We off- load everything, set up the tents, install disin-fection baths for the feet, and build showers and latrines and ensure a supply of chlorinated drinking water.” While the medical staff is being trained, the logisticians organise the supply of medicines. The treatment centre is ready to open.

Day 21: A successful end. It only took two weeks to deal with the cholera outbreak in Fianga. However, Frank takes the precaution of having more supplies of Ringer’s Solution flown in. Just as well—the epidemic is now spreading across the Bokoro, Madelia and Pala districts and has even reached the capital. By the end of the year, 6,300 cholera cases have been registered.

With one project chasing the next, Frank is never bored. “There is always more work to be done”, he says.

Emergency aid as a feat of logistics: getting medicine and food by truck, airplane and motorcycle to those who need it urgently—always by the fastest means possible. The graphic above shows how Doctors Without Borders gets vaccines into the field and keeps them at appropriate temperatures.

WarehouseVaccines are stored in a refrigerated area of our warehouses.

Truck transportThe vaccines are transported by truck in an ice-lined fridge in case of a power failure.

CustomsThe vaccines are transported by truck in an ice-lined fridge in case of a power failure.

Stock requestField teams decide what they need, and the logistician creates a stock request.

Vaccines arriveVaccines arrive at target location and patients receive their injections.

Cars, motorbikes, donkeys, etcIn many countries, roads are unreliable, if they exist at all. To reach our more remote projects, we must therefore use the mode of transport best suited to the conditions.

Central storesVaccines are taken to central stores, which can be anything from a warehouse to a small shed, and placed in a refrigerated area or large fridge powered by a generator.

Land cruiserCoolboxes full of vaccines are transported by land cruiser to smaller projects in towns and countryside.

Cargo planesDue to the need to maintain cool temperatures during transport, vaccines are sent to the field on cargo planes during emergencies.

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Providing Psychological Care in Syria

Psychologist Audrey Magis recently returned home after spending two months working with Doctors Without Borders in Syria, where she set up and ran a mental health program in the north of the country. Audrey, who had previ-ously worked for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, Libya and in a camp for Syrian refugees, explains how the war has affected people and what Doctors Without Borders is doing to help.

Doctors Without Borders psychologist Audrey Magis helped traumatised Syrians to start rebuilding their lives during her time in the country.

In most places Audrey has worked, people were rather hesitant when she told them that she was a psychologist. But in Syria, it was quite the opposite: “People actually came and told me they needed my services.” The war had been raging for two years at that point and people had completely lost their bearings. At first, they would come to Audrey and tell her about their social problems at home. Children were not going to school and so became disruptive. Adults were not working. People were living in tents or crowded in ten to a room. “But when you dig a little, you quickly find that most have experienced deeply traumatic events. Some have lost friends or family. Some have seen their home destroyed. Some have lived through bombing raids …”

A number of people quietly told her that they no longer know what the war is about. They were terrified at the idea that they were fighting their neighbours, their friends and they no longer knew why. At first there seemed to be some purpose to the war, but two years on, that had faded. All the Syrian people wanted was for it all to end, so that they could go home.

“Sometimes just one session is enough”, Audrey recalls. “Some people just need to hear that what’s happening to them is normal, that they are not going mad. But there are other patients who I had to work with for longer. The idea is to set a clear objective with them, and to get there step by step with behavioural therapy.” There was no time for long analysis sessions, but she managed to do some very sound psychological work with short-form therapy techniques.

“I remember one patient who was six months preg-nant. She came to the hospital asking for a prema-ture delivery. There was no medical reason; she just wanted us to do a C-section and deliver her baby as soon as possible. She was very agitated. I sat with her and we worked out that this was one baby too many, a child born of the war, and she felt that the baby was sapping all her energy. All she wanted to do was take anti-depressants, but she couldn’t because she was pregnant.”

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A young Syrian boy gazes out at a refugee camp for Syrians in Iraq, where more than half a million people had settled through May 2013.

They worked out a plan of relaxation exercises for the expectant mother. And they made a diary where she would write down when she felt tense and what had happened to cause the tension. A few sessions later, they moved on to preparing for the arrival of her baby. “At our last session she showed me the baby clothes for her soon-to-be-born baby. She hadn’t yet chosen a name, but she had made great strides and was ready. She was my last patient, my last session on my last day. I left the project with the sense that my time had been well spent.”

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Private support is what allows Doctors Without Borders to operate independently and to respond at a moment’s notice to urgent emergencies, often in countries that are customarily ignored. NOMOS Glashütte will donate £100 to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières per each special edition watch sold in the UK. This support can make a significant difference to the lives of people in crisis. Here are some examples of the impact £100 can have:

What your support can do

£100 per watch goes directly towards emergency aid—for people who urgently need it. NOMOS Tangente for Doctors Without Borders (right) also guarantees better times for those who wear it.

1,500+ refugees provided with chlorination equipment, ensuring clean water supplies for a week.

700 emergency food rations for use in a crisis or natural disaster.

37 full sets of emergency wound dressing supplies for treatment in the field.

135 rapid diagnostic tests for HIV, allowing doctors to diagnose and treat patients sooner.

5 full treatments of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) for children suffering from acute severe malnutrition.

8 emergency shelters for families uprooted during a crisis.

5 Suture Sets containing essential surgical instruments for emergency wound repair.

200 doses of Amoxicillin to treat children suffering from respiratory tract infections.

30 life-saving treatments for young children suffering from malaria.

25 wool blankets to protect displaced people from the cold.

400 Meningitis A vaccine doses, protecting young children against life-threatening epidemics.

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Glashütte, tucked away in the mountains between the German city of Dresden and the Czech capital Prague, is not exactly the centre of the world. But despite its remote location—or perhaps because of it—fine watches have been produced here for over 150 years.

Glashütte is considered around the world as the true home of watchmaking. The village’s name is strictly protected as a designation of origin for watches: this means that to sell a watch as a “Glashütte watch”, at least 50% of the value of the calibre, the watch’s workings, has to be cre-ated in Glashütte itself. If a manufacturer buys in parts to the value of €100 from outside, then it has to carry out work worth at least another €100 in Glashütte. NOMOS and the watchmak-ers who work here, often of the fifth or sixth generation, ensure that Glashütte remains a guarantee of quality in the world of fine watches.

Bracelets, clasps or rubies are certainly pur-chased from outside suppliers. But NOMOS’ movements themselves are developed in Glashütte—the majority of all their parts are manufactured here, and the different calibres that tick away inside Tangente, as well as the Tetra, Ludwig, Orion, Tangomat, Zürich, Ahoi and Club models are all built here. Depending on the exact model, our watchmakers create up to 95% of the movements’ value on site. That means more than 100 jobs for watchmakers, engineers and toolmakers in the eastern Ore Mountains. And the very best quality watches for those who wear them.

However, not every watch that comes from Glashütte can bear the name NOMOS. For NOMOS watches, there are even more rules to adhere to. The first is the fair and strictly calcu-lated price: we believe that the customer should not pay for a brand image, but only for what makes a good watch—the best craftsmanship and materials. And then there is their form and function to consider: before the draughtsmen, watchmakers and engravers in Glashütte get to grips with the NOMOS timepieces, making sure that they are ticking away perfectly smoothly, others are already ensuring their good form. NOMOS watches are designed in Berlin, the art and design capital of Europe. This is where the design of the casings, dials and hands come from—as well as new ideas.

The best design for the best watches “Made in Glashütte, Germany”—this is what the name NOMOS Glashütte guarantees.

Better times

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This is Glashütte, the true home of fine watchmaking in the Ore Mountains. Nowhere else in Germany do people understand more about making watches than here. This is where NOMOS Glashütte is working on “better times”. Now the fine mechanical watches built here are also help-ing those in need around the world.

Most watches from NOMOS Glashütte are hand wound—the movement stores the energy created by winding the crown. This will later be released again in tiny portions as seconds, minutes and hours. However, some models from NOMOS Glashütte have an self-winding calibre: this still life study from Glashütte shows one such calibre receiving the rotor that will later wind the watch with every movement. While the calibre currently being worked on sits in the customised movement holder, the next one patiently awaits its turn under a dust cover. That may take a little time, but time is precisely what is needed to make a fine watch.

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Strap

Highly durable black leather watchstrap made from Shell Cordovan—which is widely recognised as the best part of a horse hide—and tanned with pure vegetable products by the Horween Leather Com-pany in Chicago. The clasp is, like the casing, made from surgical steel. The smaller watch, Tangente 33, has a different strap made from light brown calf velour, which is also durable but has a more delicate appearance.

Case

Flat and simple, yet highly elegant and straightforward—the surgical steel case makes Tangente unmistakable. There are no known allergies to this material. Tangente comes as a special edition model in two sizes: the award-winning uni-sex version, which appeals to men and women alike with its 35mm diameter. Tangente 33, on the other hand, is an adorn-ment for daintier wrists—its case is only 33mm across, and thus a little more delicate-look-ing. An engraving on the back of both watches reads “Special Edition Tangente for Doctors Without Borders United Kingdom.”

Dial

The Tangente model’s typo-graphy is synonymous with NOMOS Glashütte, making the watch the iconic face of our brand. The dials of both the special editions are—just like the classic version—white silver-plated. But the hands are black, not Tangente’s usual blue tempered ones. At the bottom, beneath the six, Doctors Without Borders is inscribed in small letters. The red twelve also alludes discretely to the organisa-tion. However, highlighting the twelve in red also has its ori-gins in watchmaking tradition: many watchmakers used this marking to denote timepieces of a particularly high quality.

Movement

Both special edition watch models are powered by our most popular calibre: the tried and tested hand-wound Alpha movement, ticking away accurately inside. It will reliably carry out its duties for almost two days before it needs rewinding.

Design

The layout of these NOMOS dials is based on an old Glashütte design from the 1930s, which the Düsseldorf-based artist Susanne Günther adapted and brought up to date. The narrow case bezel makes the watch, with its delicate hands and num-bers, seem bigger. Angled strap horns give the clean form a final polish. Watches from NOMOS Glashütte have received over 100 awards—for quality, design and engineer-ing, as well as value for money. From these, the Tangente model has received the largest number of prizes.

The Tangente 33 special edition for Doctors Without Borders: black oxidised steel hands on a white silver-plated dial divide the day into hours, minutes and seconds. As with the special edition Tangente, the fine NOMOS Alpha hand wound movement is ticking away inside.

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Where do we get brass, rubies and stainless steel from? And who exactly uses them to make watches? A short discourse on corporate social responsibility and a code of conduct from NOMOS Glashütte.

Watches are an innocuous product—at least when they are fine mechanical, hand wound or automatic watches “Made in Glashütte, Ger-many.”

The materials with which NOMOS watches are made have been tried and tested for centuries— brass, steel, leather, glass. Most components are, in any case, made in-house by NOMOS in Glashütte, and are therefore beyond suspicion. And yet, who sews the leather watchstraps? Where do we get the stainless steel for the casing, or the synthetic rubies for that matter? And what checks are there on suppliers?

Stefanie Liebschner, an industrial engineer and procurer at NOMOS Glashütte, monitors quality, prices and ethical standards. We make as much as 95% of the movements ourselves. Stefanie says, “Others, such as car manufactur-ers for example, want to make increasingly less themselves: their aim is to outsource production. At NOMOS Glashütte, on the other hand, we are aiming for the exact opposite.”

That, of course, is not necessarily the cheapest way. But the high level of in-house production makes it easier for NOMOS to make its watches in a responsible manner. We get our steel and brass from Germany and our rubies from France—this is no secret, and nor is the way we use them. NOMOS Glashütte is transparent and honest about our suppliers. “But it can be more difficult to keep tabs on the suppliers of crystals, casings or leather”, says the procurer.

“In the watch industry in particular, the suppli-ers tend to have more say than the watchmak-ers themselves.” This is a problem that we in Glashütte share with just about every other watchmaker. For example, there are hardly any alternatives to the Swiss company that makes main springs for NOMOS. The advantage is that a seller’s market like this functions without the sort of price pressure prevalent in some other industries. A buyer’s market, by contrast, can sometimes lead to exploitative practices being used to produce things, because everything has to be cheap in order to be competitive. Thank-fully our watches do not have this problem.

In addition to this, NOMOS Glashütte requires every supplier to sign up to its code of conduct, giving us even more certainty. This formal obligation is based on the conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN General Assembly’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “By doing so, anyone who signs this contract accepts our conditions. And we make our expectations clear: that those suppli-ers, from whom we get raw materials or the few parts we can’t make ourselves, adhere to the same standards that we have here in Glashütte”, says Stefanie. Not just with a view to the money,

“but also with an eye to respect for our staff, customers and the environment.”

That means NOMOS Glashütte tries wherever possible to work in a way that makes fine watches today while not leaving tomorrow to foot the bill. This also involves using the most CO2 neutral production methods possible—the same goes for our deliveries. NOMOS also takes its social and environmental responsibilities in Glashütte itself seriously, creating secure and healthy jobs. In that way, we ensure that Glashütte remains a guarantee of quality in the world of fine timepieces.

Watches with a conscience

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Expecting, happy and well-looked after: a young woman in Haiti, eight months pregnant, arrives at the hospital for her second prenatal appointment. Prenatal exams allow Doctors Without Borders staff to identify potential signs of a high-risk pregnancy.

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“Charity where possible is a duty”, the German Enlightenment philosopher Kant once said. We take helping the victims of drought, war and famine as a duty too. This is why NOMOS Glashütte is supporting Doctors Without Borders with two limited edition Tangente models. You

could buy one for yourself, or for a loved one. You could even treat a friend by buying them one. Each watch sold will mean £100 is given to the medical humanitarian organisation to help provide life-saving assistance—creating better times for watch wearers and aid recipients alike.

For simply better times

Helping to help—with two limited editions from NOMOS Glashütte in support of Doctors Without Borders. The classic Tangente now comes in two sizes: bigger and smaller. Both watches are lovely—from the front and the back, and which-ever way you turn them. They are watches for life.

© 2013, NOMOS Glashütte/SARoland Schwertner KGFerdinand-Adolph-Lange-Platz 201768 GlashütteGermany

Telephone +49 35053 4040Fax +49 35053 [email protected]

Text and design: Berlinerblau GmbHResponsible under press law: Judith Borowski

Translation: Chris Cordy

Photography: Eva Bertram (pages 8–9) Pierre-Yves Bernard, MSF (page 15) Ben Jakon (pages 19, 20–21) MSF (page 6, 14) Sayuri Ohkawa (page 11) Tristan Pfund, MSF (page 7) Julie Rémy, MSF (page 10)Emilie Régnier, MSF (page 25)Holger Wens (pages 2, 17, 23, 26–27)

Illustration: Melanie Doherty Design (page 13)

Lithography and printing: Europrint Medien and Medialis, Berlin

Consulting: The watchmakers and engineers of NOMOS Glashütte

Special thanks to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

For more information on the work of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, please visit www.msf.org.uk

We reserve the right to make technical changes.

You can find NOMOS watches at author-ised NOMOS retailers: www.nomos-glashuette.com/en/retailers and online at www.nomos-store.com.



After earthquakes or floods, during wars and outbreaks of disease, wherever and whenever possible, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières delivers emergency medical care to people in need. For 40 years now, the organization’s doctors, nurses, logis-ticians and other staff members have traveled the globe to provide life-saving assistance, both in places that dominate the headlines and in places no one is talking about.

Founded in 1971 in Paris by a group of doctors and journalists, Doctors Without Borders now has some 30,000 staff members in nearly 70 countries helping treat the sick, the wounded, the forgotten, the mothers-to-be, and the malnourished. Their work is funded almost entirely by private donations, which allows the organization to remain independent and impartial, free from political and economic interference. Fortunately, most donors provide unrestricted donations as well, ensuring that Doctors Without Borders can tailor responses to the medical needs alone, rather than any other considerations. Corporate donations are accepted, but

not from extractive industries, weapons manufacturers, alcohol and tobacco companies, or other businesses in sec-tors that conflict with the organization’s social mission. Furthermore, Doctors Without Borders works with the utmost transparency, and as its annual reports show, the vast majority of expenditures have consistently been directed to its social mission, minimizing fundraising and administrative costs.

The Doctors Without Borders staff treats people based on need alone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation. They do so because they believe that quality medical care is a right, not a privilege, and that neither geography, nor circumstance, nor pri-vation should disqualify someone from treatment.

In the pages that follow, we will share some of Doctors Without Borders’ sto-ries from the field. We will also tell you more about us, NOMOS Glashütte, our work, our principles, and the watches we’ve designed to both honor and support the ongoing efforts of Doctors Without Borders.


After earthquakes or floods, in wars or crisis zones—in fact, anywhere where human life is in danger, where health care or supply infrastructures have collapsed—teams from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders are on the spot: physicians, logisticians, and organizers are on hand in emergencies anywhere, even in places the media aren’t reporting about.

In 1971, 12 doctors and journalists in Paris founded Doctors Without Borders as an independent aid organization. Their aim was to ensure the right of every person to medical care, free from political influence.

Today, over 40 years on, Doctors Without Borders operates globally, with associa-tions in 23 countries and a staff of around 30,000. They are deployed in more than 60 countries and their missions are almost entirely funded from private donations. These allow the organization to work with complete independence from political interests and economic interference. Donations also are the only way to ensure the organization can react to disasters, epidemics and conflicts in the most remote places; the only way to help those in dire need, regardless of their ethnic origins, or political or religious views.

Transparency in the administration of donations is of paramount importance—on no account can the donors’ trust be compromised: that is why Doctors Without Borders publishes annual accounts showing where the money comes from and where it is going to. Germany’s Institute for Social Issues regularly confirms that donations are used in an economical and readily comprehensible manner.

The aid organization demands the greatest honesty from its partners as well: Doctors Without Borders only works with companies that set high standards in their own work. The production of raw materials, working conditions and ethics are closely scrutinized. Only those companies that operate in a sufficiently transparent manner and comply with Doctors Without Borders’ own criteria are allowed to cooperate with the Nobel prize-winning organization. Firms that are involved with weapons, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and mining in developing countries are ruled out from the start.

NOMOS Glashütte supports Doctors Without Borders; we also adhere to the relief organization’s standards and are therefore helping its work by producing two special edition watches especially for it.

More Time for Life. NOMOS Glashütte helps the helpers— with new watches for Doctors Without Borders.

time for life uk

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