Doctors Without Borders was founded in Paris on December 22, 1971, to help people in war zones and those in the wake of natural disasters. Today, help is needed more than ever-and it can be hard to find cause for celebration. Yet for ten years, NOMOS Glashütte has been helping people help with watches for humanitarian aid.
GLASHÜTTE, DECEMBER 2021. Paris, 1971: With the intention to help people in need and to speak on their behalf, irrespective of their political or religious views, on December 22 a group of thirteen doctors and journalists founded the organization Médecins Sans Frontières-Doctors Without Borders. Their first mission in a conflict zone occurred during the civil war in Lebanon, where doctors and nurses treated casualties from both sides in a hospital basement. Today, in the winter of 2021 and half a century after its founding, Doctors Without Borders operates in more than 70 countries where more than 65,000 individuals assist people caught in crises. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals, and others whose work is guided by humanitarian principles and medical ethics. In 1999, Doctors Without Borders was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.
The key to the organization’s ability to act independently in response to a crisis is its largely private, independent funding, and partnerships like the one with NOMOS Glashütte help provide aid to people in need. For ten years, watchmaker NOMOS in Glashütte, Saxony, has been making watches supporting Doctors Without Borders. To date, NOMOS Glashütte has made over 10,000 watches and 14 different models for humanitarian aid, all identifiable by the red twelve. And for each watch-depending on the model and country-between 100 and 250 euros, dollars, pounds go directly to Doctors Without Borders.
Now, in 2021, NOMOS Glashütte has made even more watches to support the organization’s lifesaving work. To mark the 50th anniversary of Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as a partnership of ten years, NOMOS x Doctors Without Borders has its global debut: The NOMOS watch Tangente 38 is the famous hand-wound and hand-made classic with a diameter of 38 millimeters. As a special edition, 50 ans de Médecins Sans Frontières is limited to 2,021 units worldwide. For each watch, 100 euros goes to Doctors Without Borders. Christian Katzer, Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders Germany: “Each watch helps us provide life-saving aid-in places where there is none.” Help which, in the face of emergencies exacerbated in many countries by the pandemic, is needed more than ever.
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Alexa Montag
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