Get Your Freak On

The embodiment of 22 years of technological innovation, Ulysse Nardin's Freak One timepiece presents the very best of the collection's legacy in a 44mm titanium case

As Ulysse Nardin's Chief Product Officer Jean-Christophe Sabatier noted in a conversation with us: "The Freak is not a mainstream product, and it's not for mainstream people. The type of people who are interested in the Freak are people who are, from time to time, alone in terms of taste, a bit avantgarde, and they dare to be different." While Sabatier's words could fit in quite nicely in an advertising campaign, they are not hyperbolic in the least. How can they be when the watch is reputed to have singlehandedly ushered in a new era of watchmaking, thrusting it into the 21st century?

Introduced in 2001, the aptly named Freak was the brainchild of Ulysse Nardin's late owner Rolf Schnyder and prodigious watchmaker and physicist Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, and it made headlines for turning centuries-old horology conventions on its head, resulting in something that the world had never seen before. Its avant-garde looks brimmed with revolutionary technologies that allowed it to be bereft of the very things that made a wristwatch: There was no dial to hide the complex inner workings of its movement, no hands to point out the hours and the minutes, and, most astoundingly, no crown to wind the watch or set the time.

Then, there was the matter of its escapement wheels, made out of silicon, a then-unprecedented material in watchmaking that caused quite a bit of stir and pooh-poohing from sceptics upon its world debut. In light of its reputation today as the material of choice for its various fantastic properties, with brands from Rolex to Patek Philippe highlighting its use in their watches for improved performance and reliability, it is safe to say that Ulysse Nardin has had the last laugh.