|
|
|
| Ulysse Nardin Brand |
Ulysse Nardin founded his brand in 1846 and was soon able to make a name for himself by producing marine chronometers. There was a large demand for these big clocks in the wooden boxes in seafaring countries right into the first half of the twentieth century as a ship's entire navigation was dependent upon precision timepieces on board. After the electronic quartz movement mowed down everything in its path, the company wasn't able to keep its head above water for long with the production of fine pocket and wristwatches for collectors.
When Rolf Schnyder purchased the company in 1983, the tide had taken most everything with it except a sonorous name. Schnyder himself knew little about watchmaking. Despite this, the man with the unconventional ideas led the washed-up company to new heights and found in Ludwig Oechslin the ideal collaborator to aid in fishing the company out of the water. Oechslin's specialty is the astronomic timepiece, as he is learned not only in the complicated mechanics of heavenly models but in the actual cosmos in which we exist as well. He began his cooperation with Ulysse Nardin by creating the memorable Trilogy of Time: Tellurium Johannes Kepler, Astrolabium Galileo Galilei, and Planetarium Copernicus, three extraordinary wristwatches that display the positions of the heavenly bodies in the firmament.
Another milestone for the small brand was the Perpetual Calendar Ludwig GMT ±, a timepiece that allows one not only to jump back and forth between time zones, but also to take the date
on the international dateline into account ¬both backward and forward. The base underdial work is meanwhile used in many models issuing from this house, even some that
are far less complicated. |  |
Before Oechslin took on his new job as curator of the watch museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds, he created one more exceptionally exciting timepiece for Ulysse Nardin: the Freak, presented at the Basel Fair 2000. This is a most unusual name for a most unusual watch, certainly the most unusual tourbillon ever created, and for which a brand-new escapement was also invented. The year 2003 presented the watch¬buying public with another example of Oechslin's power of invention and the power of Ulysse Nardin's technicians to turn his ideas into a watch: The Sonata. This model is a combination of GMT and wrist alarm, naturally not reminding its wearer of the desired time with a simple rattle, but rather making itself heard by means of a melodic sonata. The alarm mechanism can be set to the minute and displays on one of its two 24-hour indicators how much time is left until the alarm plays its tune.
"Nothing shows more impressively than the Sonata itself where Ulysse Nardin stands today," explains the company president, not without a little pride. Schnyder is not only talking about the high technical level upon which the brand does its work, but also its economic success and
the resulting expansion.
In reality, Ulysse Nardin does seem to be set for the future. While serving an increasingly more stabile and significant niche continues to refuse any expensive experiments such as the design of completely new watch movements.
"It's probably well-known to many that I avoid the classification 'menuiedure" Schnyder comments. "For those who are still using this term, Ulysse Nardin is today a true manufacture with its very own department for movement development. "
|
Ulysse Nardin Inc.
6001 Broken Sound Parkway, Suite 504
Boca Raton, FL. 33487
Tel: 561-988-6400
Fax: 561-988-0123
www.ulysse-nardin.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
