In spite of the widespread enthusiasm, with which the community of watch lovers greeted the new "Marine", there are also some voices, criticizing the design as being too "modern", too far away from the classic naval precision clocks, even hampered by a mix of different styles in hands and numerals. I took this criticism as a reason to look behind the contemporary appearance, at the famous predecessors, trying to reconstruct the evolution of the Marine Chronometer's design.

As it will be easily seen, the UN designers did quite a good job in transferring the classic marine chronometer's appearance into a modern wristwatch, that is laid with utmost useability in mind, while at the same time maintaining UN's rich tradition in the field of precision clocks and watches.

Now let's look at the development of a design:

In the very beginning, the large marine chronometers, produced by Ulysse Nardin, did not show the utilitarian dial layout of later years.

As can be seen on this example, the hands were more decorated, and the hour and minute hands were very similar, both in style and length. This is problematic, since at bad light (and at sea, the marine chronometer were normally stored well protected in a corner of the rudder house/map room, where it was rather dark), the legibility was seriously compromised. Aside from that, note that the power reserve and the second hands were already a bit different. The second hand, which is "jumping" twice a second, needs a counterweight at the end, to balance it. Otherwise, it would vibrate too much, eventually becoming loose. Also typical for the classic layout: Roman numerals.

Here is an already modernized version:

The most apparent change is in the design of the hour and minute hands. In order to improve legibility, the shapes differ considerably. The hour hand now loosely resembles a Breguet hand, without the hole, and the shape of the pointed end is also different. The small observation watch depicted to the right, follows the same design.

Of course did UN not invent this hand design. Its use reflects a development away from purely decorative timepieces, towards utilitarian clocks, for which good legibility was one of the most important issues. At the end of the 19th century, most "legible" watches used exactly this type of hands, as opposed to the highly ornamental Louis XV and XVI style hands, or the elegant so-called "Breguet"-hands (Breguet did not invent this hand design, but was among the first to use it consequently).

This is the so-called "poire corps renflé" type of hands, as used in the classic marine chronometers:

As can be easily seen, these are entirely different from those used in the old, as well the new UN Marine Chronometer wristwatches.

Thus it is not astonishing that the same hands as used on the marine chronometers, sooner or later were adopted for the pocket watches, too, reflecting the design's success:

The marine chronometers had reached a high stage of standardization, their design being used by nearly every maker of these timepieces. The chronometer depicted here, (still) produced by the German manufacturer Glashütte Original, proves that:

This design was what Rolf Schnyder had in mind, when he decided to resurrect Ulysse Nardin's maritime tradition from its grave. Thus it is no wonder that the very first Marine Chronometer, made to be worn on the wrist, showed all the design features, that recalled the zenith of mechanical marine clocks:

This is the first edition of the then so popular Marine Chronometer, limited to 750 pieces (250 each in white, yellow and pink gold). The hour and minute hands follow their predecessors, albeit the minute hand puts a bit more accent onto its outlines. The power reserve hand depicted here was only on the prototype; in series production, it had the same shape as it has today.

Aside from the traditional hands design, other style features were taken from the big clocks: White enamel dial, thin Roman numerals, large subsecond, and where the big UN marine chronometers had their individual number printed in red digits into the second's subdial, there was now printed "1846", to remember the establishing of the Ulysse Nardin manufactory. The coin-edge bezel is a typical feature of marine chronometers. There, it enables the opening of the case, since the hands have to be adjusted directly. On the wristwatch, this has purely decorative value, but in my eyes, it is a very legitimate quotation.

However, from the very beginning it was planned to have the new Marine Chronometer series produced as sportive watches for everyday use. This goal dictated the further design changes: An everyday watch needs a date display, and must be read at night, too. The only possible location for the date windows, without destroying the symmetry of dial would be a 12 or at 6. The former would have completely ruined the power reserve display, consequently, the date location at 6 was the best compromise. And the luminous parts on the hands, while an invaluable asset at night, also compromised the clean outlines, changing the hour hand to something that at first sight, might indeed be confused with a bad matching Breguet hand, by spectators without deeper knowlegde of horological history. Nevertheless, I think that this design is a worthy successor of the classic marine chronometers.

Here is an early design drawing of the "sportive" Marine chronometer, made by Raimondo Brenni:

Yet we still had the early-style Roman numerals, which are elegant, but again not an optimum for legibility. The makers of marine chronometers discovered this, too, and consequently, changed the appearance of their products during the early 20th century. Instead of the fine, but complicated Roman numbers, strongly designed sans-serif Arabic numerals appeared on the big maritime clocks. The advantage in terms of legibility is apparent:

Now enters the final iteration of UN's interpretation of an old theme:

I think it is clear now, that the style of the hands, numerals and subdials is indeed a very traditional one, far away from being "mixed". In fact, I think that UN could not have made it better.

Pictures: 1-3, 5, 6 - taken from the book "History in Time", copyright by Ulysse Nardin

4 - copyright by Glashütte Original

7, 8 - copyright by Marcus Hanke