This story takes us back to six or perhaps seven years ago. The exact date isn’t clear, but the location is: the Ulysse Nardin manufacture. A group was enjoying a guided visit focusing on the brand’s extensive history in timekeeping. A visitor spotted an unusual object on a workbench: a bare movement, without a casing. Intrigued, he paused to ask a couple of questions about this odd calibre, the main components of which appeared to pass through the dial, standing out like islands, seemingly disconnected from the driving gears. As it turned out, the unique design was under embargo. It was an ongoing project, a significant innovation, to be kept strictly under wraps. The project would later emerge as the Free Wheel.
For the discerning collector
But what was it? It was a quintessential Ulysse Nardin piece: highly creative, never seen before, brimming with technical innovation. It was a bridge between the brand’s contemporary designs, such as the original Blast, and the uncategorisable Freak. But let’s be clear: the Free Wheel is a piece for the discerning collector, those who like to step off the beaten path to explore what the future aesthetic of watchmaking might look like.
In the spirit of the Free Wheel, there’s a hint of Louis Moinet. In 2016 the Saint-Blaise workshop unveiled the remarkable Memoris which, uniquely, flipped the entire chronograph complication to the dial side, while the rest of the movement stayed concealed under the plate, as per tradition.
The Free Wheel takes this concept and pushes it even further: emerging from the dial is not just a specific complication, but all the components of the movement, along with a few extra gears. It’s a visually stunning hybrid piece, where part of the calibre seems to float above the dial, seemingly detached from its core mechanics. It’s unusual, unique, daring, and technically very refined.
Bathed in light
Continuing this game of hide and seek, Ulysse Nardin is introducing a new version of its Free Wheel (which has since become part of the Blast collection). It showcases the manufacture’s preferred material, silicon, reimagined here in marquetry.
The idea isn’t new. Ulysse Nardin explored this route back in 2019, and again in 2021, with the Freak X (read more here). This is the third iteration of a watch featuring a dial in silicon marquetry, always a complex task due to the extremely fragile nature of the material.
Of the three, the Blast Free Wheel is possibly the most visually appealing, thanks to its 45 mm case that allows this unique art to fully come to life. Ulysse Nardin developed a sapphire ‘glass box’ crystal, specifically to enhance the spectacle. It tops a sapphire case offering a side view of the movement, as we’ve seen from Hublot or, more traditionally, in the side windows of Ferdinand Berthoud watch cases. And, as good ideas often find common ground, Louis Moinet has also recently unveiled a unique piece for Only Watch featuring a dial made from a silicon wafer!
