Ulysse Nardin is marking its 175th anniversary this year, and the company is revisiting its heritage to rethink historic models.
The idea of the marine chronometer is being revisited to be more precise, which helped the watchmaker find their first clients in 1846. It all sounds pretty standard. But not when you see what this transformation has produced! The UFO is nothing like any of the line's standard timepieces.
It’s different on a number of levels. First of all, it's a table clock. Secondly, the model is reminiscent of the buoys used for directing ships, with its movement visible through a glass bell. Thirdly, Ulysse Nardin's watchmakers weren't the only ones who worked on the timepiece. They’ve teamed up with with well-known partners.
The movement for the UFO was developed by clockmaker Maison L'Epée. The atelier with a history that stretches back almost two centuries now helps other manufacturers bring their most brilliant ideas to life and build remarkably complicated timepieces. The most famous name the clockmaker has collaborated with is Maximillian Büsser, although he's not the only one.
Examples of L'Epée's co-creations with MB&F include the robot clocks Balthazar and Sherman, the intergalactic spaceship table clock Starfleet Explorer, and the mesmerizing Medusa clock. L’Epée has worked with Fiona Krüger, managed to breathe new life into the Sun Clock designed in 1948 for Baccarat, and partnered with Ecal (Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne) to create the Time Fast D8 race car watch.
Now it's Ulysse Nardin's turn. They’ve created a movement which has a one-year power reserve and consists of 675 components. The manually wound movement with 6 barrels and a balance wheel that's 49 mm in diameter tells the time in three different time zones, although you can also select the same time-zone reading to be displayed on all three dials if you just want to enjoy being able to look at accurate readings from every angle.
The movement is protected by a glass bell like a museum piece's exhibition case (the Ulysse Nardin UFO case is 263 x 159 mm in size). This dome is the brainchild of Romain Montero, a 26-year-old artisan glassblower who works for Verre et Quartz. He's the one responsible for creating each and every one of the 75 hemispheres for the limited UFO series. It was a long process. The tubes had to be blown for 45 minutes at a temperature of 1,500 degrees.
The pursuit of perfection meant that a lot of the bells that were blown got rejected. According to Montero, 150 glass bells were blown to produce 50 that were accepted. Yet they achieved the perfect result — a clock that can enhance any interior — well, as long as the homeowner has CHF 39,000 to spare.