Ulysse Nardin

When I first started working In 2006, I made a list of watches I aspire to own and it includes all the evergreen favorites here (AP 15202, PP 3940, VC 47111 amongst others). That list is long and way off what I can afford then and unfortunately, more than ever, now. Throughout that time, I always asked myself what are the must haves for me since I know I won't be able to afford my dream list. So, I had it narrowed down to a couple in the early 2010s. I planned for a Datograph (because the movement is just so pretty) when I hit 40 and a UN freak (simply because it just such an original concept - a true innovation) when I reach 50 (not that these ages meant anything but my assumption would be that I have sufficient time to save for them - probably no longer true in today's environment. Haha). 

However, the pandemic struck as I was shopping around for the ALS with prices doubling (may even have tripled now) in the span of a few months (I had tracked resale prices of my wish list on and off since the late 2000s). It was tough but I eventually gave up on the Datograph as I just cannot overcome the mental roadblock, having to fork out 2-3X more in the short span of a few months. The freak, on the other hand seem to remain "under the radar" to the Instagram loving masses and thus spared the resultant hyped up pricing. So when this came up a few weeks back on loupethis, I decided 'why not' and was lucky enough to win it. To be honest, I thought I would like the later generations more (Crusier, Out and Vision) but the early versions grew on me as I started to research the freak more over the past few months. 

Today is the first time I saw it "in the flesh"; Fedex delivered it just a couple of hours ago (I did tried on freakout a couple of months back) and I now know why this community loves it, I am absolutely smitten.

It has been a journey and I hope I get to continue to enjoy the ride! Cheers!