ThePuristS' Dinner with Ulysse Nardin

Ulysse Nardin is a company with a long and illustrious pedigree, and a recent history which is an object lesson in the success that can attend risk taking when the risks are taken in faith of the value of innovation, integrity, and beauty. Ulysse Nardin the company is named for Ulysse Nardin, the man:

(from the Ulysse Nardin website)

who in 1846 founded the company which bears his name. Nardin first trained in horology under his father, Leonard-Frederic Nardin, and perfected his skills under the tutelage of Frederic William Dubois and Louis JeanRichard-dit-Bressel, two master watchmakers whose fame extended beyond the mountains of Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Ulysse Nardin has always stood for the finest in mechanical horology. They were particularly noted in the past for their many fine observatory grade chronometers:

(image courtesy Steve G.’s Watch Pictures and Articles)

-as well as for marine chronometers:

(From "History in Time" by Ulysse Nardin)

-and these extremely refined instruments, as well as their superb pocket and wristwatches, were sufficient to secure their reputation of uncompromising adherence to the most stringent standards for mechanical and design excellence. Over its long and illustrious history Ulysse Nardin earned 18 international gold medals, and over 4300 first prizes for chronometric excellence.

The quartz era brought with it the inevitable and by now all-too-well documented crisis, and Ulysse Nardin was not immune to its effect. As the seventies and early eighties passed, the company dwindled to a shadow of its former self, and the flame of perfectionism which it had carried for one and a quarter centuries seemed in danger of being snuffed out entirely. And then, in 1983, a new torchbearer appeared:

(Picture from The Business Times Singapore)

The ailing company, reduced now to two employees, was purchased by the businessman and entrepreneur Rolf Schnyder, who, with his newly recruited master watchmaker Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, set about rebuilding Ulysse Nardin, and reinventing their reputation and values for a new century.

The rest, as they say, is history. Now, a mere twenty years later, Ulysse Nardin is one of the great success stories of modern watchmaking- all the more remarkable in that this company has chosen to remain staunchly independent, the better to pursue Dr. Oechslin and Mr. Schnyder’s unique vision.

Thus it was that on a rainy night in New York, last September 3rd, a gathering of Purists gathered to celebrate the wonderful mechanical works of art with which Ulysse Nardin has remade itself as one of the premier watchmaking companies and complications specialists in the world. The gathering was held in midtown Manhattan, at Alfredo’s of Rome, a branch of the original Roman restaurant at which Fettucine Alfredo was invented. Another feast was in store for us tonight, and like the eponymous dish, a feast that ran the risk of surfeit through richness.

On descending the stairs to the banquet room, we were met by our host, the indefatigable, genial, and welcoming Dr. Thomas Mao. Dr. Mao as most of us know by now was adorned, as was only proper, with a Ulysse Nardin wrist chronograph on the left wrist:

-and with the now famous two-way watchie-talkie on the other:

with which he transformed himself into a combination watch connoisseur and mobile command center.

It is a testimony to the enthusiasm which Ulysse Nardin’s uniquely exciting designs generate that many guests had traveled to New York especially for this event, and for the privilege of meeting Mr. Schnyder in person; Mr. Anthony Tsai and his gracious wife Ping had returned early from a vacation in Venice just to attend the event! During a convivial and informative cocktail hour we had an opportunity to meet, in person, enthusiasts whom heretofore we’d only known as a faceless signature line, as well as say hello again to Purists who’d attended events in the past:

We also had an opportunity to begin to examine some of the treasures that the UN staff, including Mr. Schnyder, Mr. Patrik Hoffmann, and Mr. Nelson Lucero (below, center) had been kind enough to allow us to examine and handle at length and at leisure.

We were helped along in our examinations by the presence of some extremely powerful hand-held magnifiers; the more technically minded among us had brought 20 power Nikon hand lenses:

As the cocktail hour wound down, we all took our seats for dinner. Once seated, we were called to attention by Dr. Mao, who introduced to us the evening’s guest of honor:

While we began our excellent dinner, Mr. Schnyder gave a fascinating introduction to the history and philosophy of Ulysse Nardin, and shared with us the fruit of his many years of experience in bringing the creative impulses of his first class design team, headed by the dauntingly polymathic Dr. Oechslin, into reality. That this is a path fraught with complexities unsuspected by even many dedicated and knowledgeable enthusiasts was brought home to us by one particular story, of a technical problem which had manifested in an early iteration of the UN Freak, one of the most innovative timepieces of this or any other century. Apparently, one day Mr. Schnyder’s Freak stopped running, and, as he said, "I did what any good watch enthusiast would do," and mimed giving it a good rapping on the case with his fingertips. "Well," he went on, "that didn’t work, so I took it back to the technical department, and they looked at it carefully, and did the same thing," again he mimed tapping it hopefully with his fingers. "Well," he went on, "needless to say it was a slightly more complex problem than that."

Bear in mind that not only was the UN Freak an entirely novel form of the tourbillon, but that it also had an entirely novel escapement, and that a problem of unknown etiology necessitates a re-examination of every aspect of the watch. Not only the watch itself, with all its novel materials and mechanisms, but also every single phase of the manufacturing, finishing, and casing-up of the watch had to be carefully scrutinized. Finally, after an exhaustive examination of both every aspect of the movement and every phase of assembly, it was discovered that an unsuspected magnetic field was being generated that was sufficient to magnetize the movement parts, and introduce a fault which was impossible to predict and prevent in advance.

This type of problem, and the cost, complexity and risk that it implies that are inherent in the production of a new complication or caliber, more than amply explain to the curious enthusiast the enormous trepidation which accompanies an excursion into movement design for even the most ambitious and experienced manufacture. And it increases enormously the respect one feels for Ulysse Nardin for having introduced, in the twenty years since it was reborn under Mr. Schnyder, such a vast array of completely novel complications and calibers.

Mr. Schnyder also shared with us the delightful story of how he and Dr. Oechslin met.

"I had just started re-organizing Ulysse Nardin, and I was driving around Switzerland, going to all these watchmakers, looking for someone we could work with," he told us. "Finally, one day, I came into the workshop of Jorg Sporing, who is a famous watchmaker in Lucerne."

"The first thing I saw, hanging on the wall, was an amazing wooden clock- an astrolabe clock. I thought it was absolutely fantastic, and I said, ‘Who made this clock?’ He answered, ‘Crazy Ludwig!’ 'OK,' I said, 'I want to meet Crazy Ludwig.' 'Well,' he said, 'you can’t, he’s away right now, but if you want, I’ll call you when he gets back.'"

"OK, so I went back home, went back to work, and then one day, I got a call. ‘Crazy Ludwig is back.’ So I jumped in my car, drove back to Lucerne, and there, he was. I pointed to the clock, and I said to him, ‘I have just one question. Can you make this clock into a watch?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Who would want such a watch?’ I said, ‘I would want such a watch.’"

The rest, as they say, is history. From the fertile mind of the author of the dissertation, "The Watch as a Model of the Universe," has flowed the incredible Trilogy of Time, which not only resurrected the ancient astrolabe and is at present still the only fully functional astrolabe watch in existence, but which also introduced a new method of gearing to drive the planetary rings in the Planetarium and a new method of marking the day and night line in the Tellurium; the incredible Freak, for which completely new materials and fabrication methods hitherto unknown in watchmaking had to be invented; to the star of the evening, the new Ulysse Nardin Sonata.

The UN team shared with us some fascinating facts about this remarkable timepiece, and allowed us to handle the two Sonatas which were present that evening- prototypes 001 and 002! The prototypes run in 97 jewels, but the final production model of the beautiful UN Calibre 66 will feature a full 105 jewels. The beautifully finished 18 ct. rose gold case reveals the unique cut-out dial, with the beautifully oval hands tipped with brilliantly luminescent material to ensure legibility of the subdials in any position and the ability to tell the time under low light conditions.

Several of us were struck by, and commented on, the sheer visual beauty of the dial, and though I have remarked on this elsewhere at length it should be said again that pictures do not do justice to the coherence and striking originality of the design of the dial and hands, which for all their beauty merely hint at the technical innovations underneath: an alarm with countdown indicator, and instant time zone adjuster. A particularly useful feature, again unique to the Sonata, is its ability to be set to chime at either the AM or PM time, as indicated by countdown timer; other alarm watches can’t be set further ahead than twelve hours. This touch, which combines technical innovation with a real increase in usefulness and functionality, is typical of the forward thinking philosophy firmly embraced by Ulysse Nardin.

Mr. Patrik Hoffmann also told us that in the final production version of the Sonata, the beautiful shimmering Geneva stripes on the dial side of the movement, which are visible through the cut-out, will be slightly more subdued. Ulysse Nardin is very devoted to ensuring, for all its commitment to innovation, that as much as possible every contingency is addressed and every possible problem resolved before a watch ever reaches the hands of the eager connoisseur.

Mr. Schnyder concluded with a presentation of images from the impressive UN facilities:

during which he gave us further insights into the process of bringing what he calls, with reverent excitement, a "spark from Ludwig" into reality. He spoke with such genuine warmth of his colleagues at Ulysse Nardin, and of the process of bringing the products of their meticulous labors to the public with such enthusiasm, as to leave us in no doubt as to whether there is a firm and proud hand at the helm of this exciting company.

Before the conclusion of dinner, there was a short watch trivia contest, and let me say, in a short break from journalistic objectivity, that the table at which I was seated distinguished itself in the fray and bore away the palm. My own contributions were sadly limited to calling out inadvisedly loud and uninformed guesses, but thanks to the genuine horological knowledge of my fellow Purists, we found ourselves the recipients of some very nice UN athletic gear, as well as a beautiful coffee-table book detailing the genesis and design of the Trilogy of Time (written by ThePuristS' own Marcus Hanke!), which Mr. Schnyder was gracious enough to inscribe to each of us:

(Table 3, the Winner’s Circle! Helped considerably by our preprandial interrogation of Mr. Patrik Hoffmann, whom I suspect of feeding us several of the anticipated answers.)

After dinner, there was time for us to examine at our leisure some of the wonderful treasures which the kind folks at UN had brought for us to examine; it seemed that the entire current Ulysse Nardin line was represented:

(Just a few of the many beauties on display.)

It was a revelation to actually see and handle these pieces in person, one after the other- a surfeit of riches. It is difficult among so many wonderful and novel pieces to single any out, but I personally was struck by the beauty of the movements of the minute repeaters, especially the Jungle Minute Repeater, whose lovely multi-layer animated dial has been kindly posted on the Purists UN forum; by the amazing Trilogy of Time, which has set the bar for astronomical complications almost unreachably high (unless perhaps Dr. Oechslin should decide to again turn his fertile imagination to the problem of a mechanical representation of the Music of the Spheres!); and by the incredible Freak.

However, one of the most charming watches of the evening was cased not in gold, or platinum, or even stainless steel, but in humble brass.

On Mr. Schnyder’s left wrist was his UN Sonata prototype; on his other wrist, his most recent gift from Dr. Oechslin- the by-now well known and aptly named Brass Wonder. "Naturally," said Mr. Schnyder, "it’s brass, because Ludwig doesn’t care about such things!"

(A unique Ludwig Oechslin creation.)

This watch, which is not scheduled for production, is a personal gift from Mr. Oechslin to Mr. Schnyder, and it is ironic that it’s made from a material as perishable as brass- ironic, because it represents, as do, really, all the other objets d’art which we saw that night, something of a value far more enduring than that of objects themselves, and more imperishable than any gold or platinum: the bond of friendship between two men, Dr. Oechslin and Mr. Schnyder, the latter day Leonardo and Lorenzo D’Medici of horology, whose renaissance of Ulysse Nardin has brought back into the light of day, and into palpable reality, values which were in danger of becoming extinct.

And the connoisseurs have responded, with enthusiastic support,

(Nice tie!)

-not merely horological, but sartorial as well!

Thanks to Dr. Thomas Mao and thePuristS staff for making this event possible, and to Mr. Schnyder, Patrik Hoffmann, and Nelson Lucero, whose tireless enthusiasm and generous sharing of their knowledge made this event not only a social pleasure but a genuine education in the elements of connoisseurship as well.

-Jack Forster 9-7-2003