I Don’t Understand This New Sports Watch. That’s Why I Love It

Who doesn’t want to add a touch of mystery to their wrist?

a closeup of the case side of a ulysse nardin watch

Published 19 hours ago

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Arguably, no luxury watch brand today makes watches as utterly confounding and cool as Ulysse Nardin.

The Swiss brand, which has been around since 1846, continuously finds new ways to innovate, with such examples as the Diver Air — AKA the world’s lightest mechanical dive watch — and the groundbreaking, flagship Freak series.

As wild as the Freak series is — and with no dial, hands or crown in its purest form, it gets pretty wild — UN’s craziest creations may actually come from its Blast series of watches.

The brand’s latest is the Blast Free Wheel Maillechort, a watch so puzzling in its construction that I’m struggling to figure out how it even works — which is a big part of why I love it.

Float On

There are a lot of impressive details to note about the Blast Free Wheel Maillechort, but first and foremost is its movement. While it’s not that uncommon to see select parts of a watch movement, such as the escapement, appear on the dial side of the movement instead of on the reverse, rarely is so much of a watch’s movement built essentially upside down.

This watch’s Cal. UN-176 movement not only features the escapement on its dial side, but also one of its two mainspring barrels (another remains hidden), the gears of the keyless works, a power reserve indicator and differential gear, a reduction gear and an intermediate wheel.

the deconstructed dial of a ulysse nardin watch — The flying mechanisms of the dial include a mainspring barrel at 12:00, a tourbillon at 6:00 and a power reserve indicator at 4:30.

What’s more, all of these mechanisms are “flying,” meaning they don’t attach to the dial in an obvious way. Flying tourbillons are, again, not uncommon, but flying mainspring barrels and intermediate wheels are basically unheard of and give the watch an almost magical quality. You can’t tell how the movement works just by looking at it, because so many mechanisms appear to be entirely unconnected from one another.

The watch’s tourbillon is significant even outside of possessing the power of flight. It contains the brand’s proprietary constant force Ulysse Anchor Escapement, which maintains a consistent beat rate regardless of how much power is left in the mainspring, maintaining precision as long as the watch is running.

the tourbillon from a ulysse nardin watch — The flying tourbillon, with its constant force escapement in silicon, is the most impressive component of the watch.

Most escapements will see a reduction in precision as their power reserves run low, but not here. Plus, since Ulysse Nardin was the first brand to ever use silicon in an escapement, the tourbillon’s escapement wheel, anchor and balance spring are all crafted from the amagnetic material, effectively eliminating the need for traditional jewels and lubrication.

The mysterious movement is enough to sell anyone on this watch, but UN makes the Blast Free Wheel Maillechort even more impressive thanks to its use of a rare dial material. The dial is made of maillechort, which in watchmaking is more often referred to as German silver and is used in movement bridges and mainplates in certain high-end watches, most notably A. Lange & Söhne.

The material, which contains no silver but is actually an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel, boasts a grained texture and a warm color that uniquely patinates over time, becoming even more attractive as the years progress.

The watch’s “Ultra Glass Box” sapphire crystal sits within the angular case and provides a view of the movement from the sides.

Ulysse Nardin

The case is typical of the Blast series’s most exclusive models. It’s 45mm in white gold and is filled with laser-cut negative angle facets that give it an avant-garde appearance. The “Ultra Glass Box” sapphire crystal is carved out from a single block of sapphire and allows for a view of the dial from all sides, while a display caseback showcases a maillechort plate and little else, as most of the movement is on the dial side.

Finally, the watch is mounted on a blue “velvet effect” rubber strap that is waterproof, but the watch itself is only rated to 30m, so you’re not going to want to take this six-figure beauty swimming.

the caseback of a ulysse nardin watch — The display caseback doesn’t have much to show outside of a maillechort plate, with most of the movement being on the dial side.

Pricing and Availability

As is always the case with Ulysse Nardin watches, this is a model that I’ll have to be content with admiring from afar. For one, it’s limited to just 50 pieces, and I wouldn’t be surprised if all were already allocated to the brand’s top collectors. Secondly, the price tag tips the scales at $126,600, which is just a hair out of my budget.

Still, for those lucky and wealthy enough to score a Blast Free Wheel Maillechort, they’ll have the pleasure of owning one of the world’s most mesmerizing and mysterious watches. It’s perhaps the ultimate conversation piece for the wrist … just don’t mention the price.

Ulysse Nardin Blast Free Wheel Maillechort

Specs

Case Size	45mm
Movement	Ulysse Nardin Cal. UN-176 manual-wind tourbillon
Water Resistance	30m

$126,600 at Ulysse Nardin

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.