Ulysse Nardin Marks 170 Years with Limited-Edition Classico Manufacture

Ulysse Nardin had Baselworld buzzing with the introduction of its ultra-complex Grand Deck Marine Tourbillon.

On the more classically elegant side, and not to be overlooked in this year’s new launches, is the Ulysse Nardin Classico Manufacture, which celebrates the Swiss brand’s 170th anniversary.

The watch is limited to 170 pieces — one for each year of the Le Locle-based company’s existence — and powered by an in-house movement, Caliber UN-320, which is equipped with a silicon hairspring and Ulysse Nardin’s hallmark anchorescapement. The round stainless steel case measures 40 mm in diameter and 9.6 mm thick. It is water-resistant to 30 meters and has a nonreflective sapphire crystal over the dial and a screwed caseback with a sapphire window offering a view of the movement.

The central hours and minutes display is complemented by a small seconds subdial and round date window at 6 o’clock. The watch also features a stop-seconds function, which enables accurate time-setting, and a date corrector that can be set both forward and backward. The self-winding movement holds a power reserve of 48 hours. The blue leather strap echoes the color of the hands, indices, and other blue dial details and has a stainless steel tang buckle.

The Ulysse Nardin Classico Manufacture 170th anniversary edition carries a retail price of $8,500.

 

Source: WatchTime

Unconventional watch designs we love! PART ONE

This two part series of the strange and wonderful watch designs that The Watch Spy loves starts with four bold manufacturers that use their technical prowess to find new, innovative, and often downright audacious methods to indicate the hours, minutes, and occasionally even other functions.

Let us start with the first four of our favourite designs….enjoy

HYT’s H1 does away with the hour hand, instead indicating the hour by means of a green liquid that flows through a tube along the edge of the dial. This unconventional watch is famous for being powered by a system of bellows used to pump the liquid forward. For more info visit HYT

Christophe Claret’s X-TREM-1 features a tourbillon and uses magnetic fields to create the illusion of hour and minute indicators floating through the air. Two small steel spheres – hollowed to make them lighter – are encased within two sapphire tubes placed to the right and left of the caseband and controlled by precision magnetic fields generated by two miniature magnets moved by cables. The position of each sphere indicates the hour and minute. For more info visit Christophe Claret

Ulysse Nardin’s Freak Diavolo tells the time via “hands” which are really parts of the watch’s movement, with a flying tourbillon indicating the seconds. To set the time, one has to rotate the bezel rather than setting the “hands” via a crown. For more info visit Ulysse Nardin

As expected form Urwerk, the unconventional brand’s UR-210 “Maltese Falcon,” eschews traditional hands for a set of rotating “satellites” to indicate the time. The watch also contains an “efficiency indicator,” which indicates winding efficiency. For more info visit Urwerk

Stay tuned for PART TWO, where we will show you even more ways to stand out from the crowd.