Ulysse Nardin article Status Magazine 2013

ULYSSE NARDIN
Mechanical
MELODY
BY ELISE NUSSBAUM
“S
Ulysse Nardin will
make watch connoisseurs
believe in love at first
sight — and first listen —
with its latest creation.
trangers in the night, exchanging glances…” Ulysse Nardin
blends tradition and advanced materials with the Stranger,
a limited edition timepiece that pays tribute to Frank Sinatra’s multi-Grammy winning smash by playing the song’s
melody on the hour, or on request.
Widely recognized as a master of the minute repeater, the independent watchmaker knows that this particular complication demands
not only timekeeping accuracy, but musical acumen as well. To achieve
the latter, it stages a delightful show on the dial by placing the musicbox mechanism front and center. Notice how its functional elements
are seamlessly transformed into aesthetic ones. The pins on the rotating disc used to pluck the individual notes become part of the time
display. Even the blades — each one carefully calibrated to sound the
right note — radiate from the top of the dial like fireworks.
To maximize its chronometric potential, the Stranger draws upon
Ulysse Nardin’s role as a trailblazer in the use of silicon in watchmaking. Its movement, crafted in-house, utilizes this versatile material for the escapement, anchor and balance spring. Not only is silicon
a hard-wearing and lightweight material, it also does not require
regular lubrication.
To conduct this mechanical symphony, there are pushers located
on the left side of the case that allow the wearer to either play
the melody on demand, or block its automatic performance at the top
of the hour. For even more control over the movement, the Stranger
offers a specialized crown. Instead of pulling it out to make adjustments, the crown is fitted with a button that switches between its different functions. A display on the right side of the dial indicates which
mode is currently engaged, pointing to a T for time setting, D for
adjusting the date and W for winding the movement.
On the hour and on demand, the rotating disc at the top of the Stranger’s
dial plucks the finely tuned blades to play the melody to Frank Sinatra’s
hit, “Strangers In the Night.” Production is limited to 99 pieces.
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ULYSSE NARDIN
LOST IN A MASQUERADE
Carnival is a time of wild abandon, artifice and intrigue, especially in Venice, which is known for its extravagant masquerades.
Ulysse Nardin utilizes two specialized aspects of the watchmaker’s
art — enameling and jaquemart figures — to enliven the dial of the
limited edition Minute Repeater Carnival of Venice.
The result is a vivid tableau that expertly uses color and shading
to bring to life an ambiguous rendezvous near the Rialto Bridge on
Venice’s Grand Canal. This masterpiece of enameling could stand on
its own as a watchmaking triumph, but Ulysse Nardin pushes the
envelope further, adding jaquemarts for a truly astounding effect.
These moving figures belong to a tradition that pre-dates
portable watches, and their use here breathes life into a scene
beautifully depicted in champlevé enamel. The figures wear Carnival masks, which they lift in tandem with the sound of the watch’s
minute repeater as it chimes the hours, quarter hours and minutes. This
mechanical animation is powered by a manually wound movement housed
inside the watch’s platinum case.
This truly extraordinary timepiece, with the triple achievement of minute
repeater, champlevé enamel dial and animated jaquemarts, is available in a limited edition of just 18 pieces.
SNAKE CHARMER
Champlevé enameling proves to be a crucial element
in the horologer’s Classico Serpent, housed in a
40mm rose gold case and released in a limited
edition of 88 pieces.
The delicate art of champlevé enameling
requires a skillful hand and endless patience. The artisan chisels out hollows on the metal dial, filling them with colored vitreous enamel, which
takes on its rich, translucent hues through a time-intensive process
that includes multiple firings in a kiln.
Ulysse Nardin’s acquisition of the renowned dial manufacturer
Donzé Cadrans solidified its position as one of the premier enamelers in horology, a status this exquisitely dialed timepiece proves in
the blink of an eye. An intricately crafted serpent rises up from a coil
of scales, gleaming iridescent in peacock shades of blue and green,
fangs extended, poised to strike. The warm backdrop of brown gingko
leaves underscores the timeliness of the motif, which was made to coincide with the Chinese Year of the Snake.
A different kind of choreography unwinds on the reverse side of the
watch, where a sapphire crystal caseback reveals the COSC-certified automatic movement that drives a display of hours, minutes and seconds.
From top: The 42mm platinum case of the Carnival of Venice houses a manual-winding movement that animates the jaquemarts, which move when the minute repeater
chimes the time.
The rare art of traditional champlevé enameling takes center stage on the Classico
Serpent, which is produced in a limited edition of 88 pieces.
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EXPOSED BRILLIANCE
Despite its enameling expertise, Ulysse Nardin understands that sometimes the
most visually stimulating way to express the spirit of a timepiece is to negate
the dial altogether. Skeleton Tourbillon Manufacture serves as a prime example of the notion of addition by subtraction. The design pulls the curtain
back on its eponymous complication, using judicious skeletonization to
transform the movement into art.
All skeletonization requires artistry, a deft hand and an encyclopedic knowledge of horology to remove all but the essential from the
plate and bridges. However, Ulysse Nardin’s in-house movement for
the Skeleton Tourbillon Manufacture stands out even in this rarefied company, as it has been specifically designed with visual impact
in mind.
This is immediately apparent with one look at the symmetry of the
tourbillon carriage at 6 o’clock and the barrel above it, as well as the
movement’s contrasting finishes and carefully arrayed color variations.
As part of the aesthetic element that only skeletonization can bring to a
timepiece, a ratchet wheel that covers the barrel becomes an informative
aesthetic component in its own right, bearing Ulysse Nardin’s name and
insignia as well as noting the timepiece’s 170-hour power reserve.
FREAK CHIC
The Freak Phantom further develops Ulysse Nardin’s revolutionary Freak
design, which helped redefine watchmaking when it was introduced in 2001. This
new, limited-edition incarnation of the Freak extends the original’s legacy by
further refining its radical tourbillon carousel movement and then cloaking it in
chic, shadowy garb.
Black dominates its unusual time display, which eliminates the traditional hands
found in most watches. Instead, the Freak Phantom indicates the hours with the actual
watch movement, which is technically a carousel tourbillon that rotates once every
12 hours. The escapement bridge turns around the dial on a toothed gear once
an hour to show the minutes. At the opposite end of the bridge spins a
second tourbillon. Specifically, it’s a flying tourbillon, a specialized
variation designed to operate without the standard support bridge,
which results in an unobstructed view of the mechanism. Its cage,
which is shaped like an arrow, indicates the seconds as it turns.
The manufacture’s flair for invention also makes the Freak
Phantom uniquely user-friendly by transforming the upper bezel
into a device to set the time and the lower bezel into a crown to
wind the watch. The Freak Phantom thus elegantly dispenses
with three elements — the dial, hands and crown — that more
convention-bound watchmakers would be lost without. ¨
From top: The Skeleton Tourbillon Manufacture is available in
platinum as a limited edition of 99 pieces. Ulysse Nardin will
also produce a second limited edition, also 99 pieces, in rose gold.
Instead of a crown, the Freak Phantom’s caseback bezel rotates to
wind the mainspring, which holds eight days of reserve power. The
upper bezel also turns and is used to adjust the time.
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