When Ulysse Nardin introduced the Ulysse Nardin Freak ONE OPS earlier this year in 2023, the brand chose to debut an entirely new generation of its signature timepiece in the form of just one single watch. Given the notable updates to company…
Category: Ulysse Nardin Watch
Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Moonphase Aventurine
Long before revolutionizing watchmaking with silicium technology and introducing the Freak in 2001, Ulysse Nardin had earned acclaim for its precision marine chronometers. This expertise not only defined Ulysse Nardin’s legacy but also significantly influenced the design philosophy of the…
Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronometer Titanium
Why do so many watch brands have freedivers as ambassadors? After all, the Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronometer Titanium watch came about, and was used for decades, to track elapsed bottom time while the person wearing it breathes compressed air, specifically…
Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Black
Last year, Ulysse Nardin debuted its Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton, which brought the bold skeletonized design of the Blast collection to the brand’s lineup of dive watches and paired it with a lightweight and highly-durable Carbonium bezel. The original…
Ulysse Nardin Diver X The Ocean Race
Ulysse Nardin’s ties to the ocean and its exploration run as deep as its inky blue depths. Since 1846, the Swiss brand has consistently produced marine chronometers for those who navigate the vast bodies of water that cover 70.8% of…
Ulysse Nardin Freak X Aventurine
Over the years Ulysse Nardin continues to prove that it is the true pioneer in watchmaking, breaking down the traditional barriers of construction and design. At the 2022 Watches & Wonders presentation, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, often known for disrupting…
Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck
Well, it’s all happening at Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck . Just last week it was announced that its parent company Sowind Group SA had been bought from Kering by Sowind’s board of directors, including UN CEO Patrick Pruniaux. Now, the…
Ulysse Nardin Marine Chronograph 43mm review
One of my first encounters with Ulysse Nardin was in 1999, when Gerard showed me his Ulysse Nardin GMT ± Perpetual watch. He wrote about it recently in detail, on Christmas day (find it here). At the time, Gerard’s watch…
Ulysse Nardin Marine Tourbillon 43mm
When it was originally conceived, the Ulysse Nardin Marine Tourbillon 43mm was a technical solution to a specific problem — the impact of gravity on the accuracy of a pocket watch’s movement. These days the whirling cage of finely finished…
Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur 42mm
The new Chronometry Collection from Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur 42mm looks back to the brand’s history as it turns 175, and a lot of that history is bound up in ship’s chronometers. But UN has also grown and evolved in more recent years. The company was a real pioneer in the use of silicon, and its UN-118 movement, with silicon hairspring and escape wheel and anchor in Diamonsil, are testament to this more recent past. In 2011, Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur 42mm bought dialmaker Donzé Cadrans, bringing old-fashioned in-house enamel dial-making into its quiver, and making fine blue enamel dials like the one in this 175-piece limited edition possible. What we have in this watch is a look that will be plenty familiar to those who know Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur 42mm. Modeled after ships’ chronometers, the display is large and legible, with the hours and minutes emanating from the central axis and the seconds occupying a large sub-dial at six o’clock with a window for the date toward the bottom. The indicator for displaying the power reserve (60 hours) is up at the 12 o’clock position to balance it out and provide a symmetrical look. It’s a classic, 42mm watch that bridges a sport and dressy look with plenty of maritime vibes, as we’ve come to expect from UN.Donzé makes enamel dials of extremely high quality the old-fashioned way, in old-school ovens, and has done so for several of the biggest names in watchmaking. The blue dial in this watch may not be an intricate cloisonné example depicting a design or a scene, but it has a depth to it that looks really wonderful in the supplied pictures from the brand. Combining such dials with a movement that is composed of silicon parts seems to me to be a very Ulysse Nardin way to go about watchmaking.While I expect that having the date window probably made the process of producing these dials more difficult and contributed to a higher failure rate, I think this is one design that would be better off sans date window. The dial itself is fairly ornate to begin with. Enamel dials kind of have to be seen in person to be appreciated, and Donzé is known for making some really nice ones.