Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
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Baselworld 2013: Ulysse Nardin
Ulysse Nardin at Baselworld 2013
presented by Marcus Hanke
presented by Marcus Hanke
Fans of Ulysse Nardin, like myself, will be very happy: 2013 is one of those years seeing UN excelling with a fireworks of novelties; new movements, new models, new complications.
I start with an entirely new series of ladies’ watches, which is powered by a completely new manufacture movement, the cal. UN-310. Besides the silicium escapement, which is already a standard for all recently self-developed UN movements, this new “heart” is unique by being among the rare breed of mechanical watch movements specifically developed for ladies. Additionally, it includes a feature that is also made especially for the female part of the population: Instead of having to pull out the crown to its appropriate settings in order to use it for winding, changing the date and setting the time, it has a small pusher that permits choosing these settings.
The reason for this construction might be profane, but is also typical for UN’s tradition of developing practical solutions: More than ten years ago, Chai Schnyder asked her husband Rolf to produce a mechanical watch that would not endanger the ladies’ fingernails when they have to pull out the crowns for setting the time or the date. To be honest: I have thought about such a solution myself, when I struggled with a stubborn crown, only to rip it past the middle position for the date change numerous times.
Unfortunately, Rolf Schnyder did not live to witness his wife’s wish to come true, but the new cal. 310 is a real gem. Besides hours, minutes and a small second, it has a date at 6, that can be quick-set forward and backward, and a separate small hand, indicating which function the crown would execute when it is twisted: winding the mainspring, changing the date, adjusting the time.
Cal. 310 is embedded into a very attractive and feminine timepiece: The “Jade” features an oval shaped case (36x39mm) in either pink or white gold. The distinctly shaped lugs are covered with either green jade emerald, blue lapis lazouli, black onyx or white ceramic, while the bezel is adorned with diamonds of various sizes, sometimes also in combination with jade, sapphire or onyx. The mother-of-pearl dial has diamond hour markers.
I sincerely hope that the “Jade” line will be a big success.
Unexpectedly, the cal. 310 already has successfully passed on an important part of its DNA to another, completely different new timepiece: the “Stranger”.
The “Stranger” is one of Ulysse Nardin’s greatest surprises shown at Baselworld, if not the greatest at all: a musical watch, combining state of the art movement design typical for UN with the classic function of a music box. While the base movement cal. 690 has a silicium escapement and also the practical mechanism of switching the crown between the modes of winding, date changing and time setting by means of a pusher (although this pusher is integrated in the crown, unlike the position at 4, as in the "Jade"), as introduced by the ladies’ “Jade” watches and their cal. 310 movement, a large, rotating drum at 12 moves its tiny pins under ten metal blades, mounted on the dial. A crystal clear sound results from pin and blade meeting each other, striking the opening tunes of the famous song “Strangers in the night”. This is a nice change from most other musical watches using classic tunes, from Bach, Mozart or Vivaldi.
The melody is played every full hour, but can be switched off or played on demand, by pressing a pusher.
I also love the fact that this memorable timepiece features such a “banal” complication as a date display, showing that it is still a practical watch designed to be worn in daily use. The power reserve of this 45mm wide watch is about 48 hours, while the second mainspring barrel, which is also wound by the rotor, is exclusively devoted to powering the music box function. It is possible to hand-wind both barrels, the one for the movement by twisting it clockwise, and the other for the music-box by turning it counter-clockwise. At full tension, the music-box barrel has a power reserve for playing the melody five times.
The “Stranger” is limited to 99 pieces, and I would not be astonished to see further musical watches featuring classic songs released in the future. Maybe it is even possible to modify a “Stranger” with a new song, as I see it, only the rotating disk and the blades would have to be replaced.
Another highlight of Ulysse Nardin’s haute horologie department is the new “Skeleton Tourbillon”. Until now, most Ulysse Nardin tourbillons (with the exception of the “Freak”) were built with the collaboration of renown independent experts, such as Christophe Claret. The new manufacture skeleton tourbillon watch, though, is completely developed and built in-house.
What catches the spectator’s eye is the clean and classic layout of the bridges, inspired by traditional pocket watch movements, and the large mainspring barrel located at 12, adorned with the brand name. It offers a huge power reserve of about a week, approx. 170 hours. I can imagine that fully winding it can result in fingers hurting ... the beautifully finished flying tourbillon has of course a silicium escapement, and the wonderful heat-blued hands add further beauty to the 44mm watch.
A pocket watch movement served as inspiration for the Skeleton's bridge layout
The new “Freak Cruiser” is a flying carousel, with the movement resting only on its lower bearing, while not being more prone to irritation after shocks than its predecessor. Water tightness rating now is at 30 meters, so the “Freak” does not have to fear the water again. This finds a nice expression with the movement bridge being shaped like an anchor, also the bezel has a different outline, offering a better grip for setting the time. The "Cruiser" has the same diameter as its predecessors, 45mm and is available in 18k rose and white gold.
The “Diavolo” has become the “Phantom”. With a flying tourbillon on the carousel, a “meta-tourbillon”, so to say, Ulysse Nardin caused some surprise some years ago. Then called “Diavolo”, this unique complication is now offered in a limited edition of 99 pieces in both rose and white gold, with a greenish black “dial” colour and black anodised movement bridge. Looks really great!
Another, already expected novelty is the new “Marine Chronograph”. Ulysse Nardin had taken the first steps toward the development of an own automatic chronograph movement, when, unexpectedly, Ebel offered the rights and parts of its well-known cal. 137 chronograph movement for sale; an opportunity too good to miss. For Ulysse Nardin, it was a bit like the homecoming of a twin, separated at birth: When Ebel needed a replacement for the Zenith cal. 3019, resp. 400, also called “El Primero”, Ulysse Nardin had the need for a thin and well-winding base movement for the perpetual calendar mechanism, developed by Ludwig Oechslin. The two companies teamed up and purchased the rights on the cal. 1340 chronograph movement, produced by Lémania, at that time under the same organisational roof as Ebel. While Ebel massively modified the chronograph, in order to stay as closely as possible with the successful dial layout of the El Primero (the original Lémania cal. 1340 had a central 60 minutes chronograph hand), Ulysse Nardin was mainly interested in an improved winding efficiency, provided by an eccentric reverser, often called “Pellaton gear”, as it is also used in classic IWC watches. Additionally, this solution permits the movement to become very thin.
Eccentric reverser of the new cal. 150's automatic winding mechanism
Unfortunately for watch enthusiasts, Ebel decided to discontinue its mechanically sophisticated watches and dumped its excellent chronograph movement - luckily for Ulysse Nardin, which invested about two years of further development to optimize and modify the movement with the latest silicium technology, fully justifying the new caliber designation UN-150. So I am glad to present the new Marine Chronograph Manufacture:
In a rather decently sized 43mm case, the new chronograph sports a classic layout, with date window at 4:30. While the limited edition (150 pieces) in 18k rose gold has a highly attractive and classic fired enamel dial with Roman numerals, of course produced by Donzé Cadrans, UN's specialist for fine enamel work. The unlimited variants have a more modern appearance, with skeletonized hands and Arabic numerals.
The 18k gold variant has a rose gold rotor
Price-wise, the new chronograph is reaching for the upper skies, nearing the region of the Overseas and Royal Oaks, which is in my opinion very ambitious for a steel chronograph with a movement built in larger series and lacking hand-applied finish. Also, the watch industry’s marketing has exalted the column wheel and vertical clutch to be the best inventions since sliced bread (regardless of its factual qualities), so it is a bit difficult, in my opinion, to position a product lacking both that high. Well, time will tell if market accepts. The watches themselves are marvellous.
Now let’s have a look on the other novelties, mostly new cases and/or new dials:
First on the list, and I believe economically also the most important novelty, is the new Marine Chronometer in 43mm. Far more than a simple facelift, it is now equipped with the new and excellent cal. 118 movement, which has been developed from the outset to be used in the Marine Chronometer watches. Small second and power reserve indications are integrated in the base movement already, which makes additional modules superfluous. The date can be quick-adjusted forward and backward, and the escapement applies latest DiamonSil technology.
The hands have adopted a more sportive and modern shape, which I like very much. Unlike the 45mm variant shown last year, the 43mm version has Arabic numerals.
The “Blue Toro” Perpetual Calendar has become the “Black Toro”, with black dial and ceramic bezel.
The “Royal Blue” tourbillon, that wonderful tourbillon with sapphire bridges, designed by Christophe Claret, has now received a more feminine counterpart, the “Royal Ruby”.
Much to my joy, the enamel department of Ulysse Nardin, Donzé Cadrans, supplied several new, absolutely breathtaking timepieces:
First is the “Carnival of Venice”, a piece of art in enamel champlevé technique. The minute repeater shows a scene from Venice in front of the famous Rialto bridge, where two masked figural automatons remove their masks whenever the repeater function is engaged.
Another enamel champlevé highlight is the “Classico Serpent”. Following the “Classico Dragon”, it showcases another animal of the Chinese zodiac in wonderful execution (limited to 88 pieces).
Then there is another one of the sail ship series, the “Pride of Baltimore”, depicting the 1977-built replica of a typical Baltimore clipper of the early 19th century, which tragically sank with the loss of four in a white squall in 1986.
Completing the list of five enamel dial watches this year, is an unexpected sight: a simple, and therefore extremely beautiful rose gold “Classico” with a plain, white fired enamel dial and heat-blued hands. This is a perfectly elegant watch!
Finally, there are some new models in the Marine Diver/Marine Diver Chronograph series:
* Another “Black Sea” Diver, with rubber-coated steel case and blue hands and markers. They appear flashier here in the picture, and are darker in reality.
* “Black Sea Chronograph” with a rubber-coated steel case, combined with 18k rose gold elements; looks good.
* Blue dial Marine Diver, in Titanium and 18k rose gold, and the mixture of both.
* Rose gold Marine Diver and Marine Diver chronograph:
* And, last but not least, a rather attractive silver dial variant of the Marine Diver chronograph in steel case:
Under the line, this is an extremely productive year for Ulysse Nardin. Apparently, the rebuild of the factory, combined with a modernised production, permitted a quicker output of the creative ideas from the bright spirits at UN.