The history of the Ulysse Nardin brand began in 1846, when 23-year-old watchmaker Ulysse Nardin opened his own manufacture in Le Locle. The young man learned the basics of watchmaking from his father Leonard-Frederic, and then continued to hone his acquired skills under the mentorship of the famous master in the mountains of Neuchâtel, William Dubois. The Swiss man specialized in marine chronometers and watches with astronomical functions. Natural intuition told Nardin that in the near future, sea transport would experience intensive development, which allowed the young company to establish itself as a supplier to 50 national fleets.
The company’s first major achievement was a medal from the international exhibition in London in 1862, demonstrating to the whole world how functional and accurate Ulysse Nardin pocket watches are.
In 1865, the company settled on rue du Jardin, and in 1876, after the death of Ulysse Nardin, it passed into the hands of his son Paul-David. Later, the brand’s collection was replenished with two more prestigious awards: marine chronometers from Ulysse Nardin proved themselves at the world exhibitions in Paris (1878) and Chicago (1893). In the period from 1889 to 1964, the company added 18 more gold medals and 8 grand prix to its list of awards at various international exhibitions. In total, the brand’s history has over 4,300 distinctions.
After World War II, Ulysse Nardin specializes in the production of self-winding watches and the release of ultra-thin models. In the late 70s, the company is going through hard times associated with a crisis in the mechanical watch industry, caused by the appearance on the world market of a huge number of cheap quartz models.
The revival of Ulysse Nardin is associated with the name of the Swiss entrepreneur Rolf W. Schnyder, under whom the company reached the level of 25,000 models per year, and the annual turnover of the enterprise amounted to 180 million francs. Almost simultaneously with Schnyder, Ludwig Oechslin came to the company, who amazed the new owner with his independent approach to watchmaking. Schnyder liked the wall astrolabe that Oechslin created together with Jörg Spöring, and he decided to implement the idea of an astrolabe in the format of a wristwatch, for which he invited Oechslin to the company. Thus, in 1985, the first model from the famous Trilogy of Time was born.
The Astrolabium Galileo Galilei model, in addition to the month and day of the week, provided the user with information about the position of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other stars, and also reported the time of eclipses. For such a detailed list of astrological options, the watch even got into the Guinness Book of Records. 1988 was the year of the second part of the Trilogy, called Planetarium Copernicus. These watches miraculously combined two essentially opposite concepts: the geocentric theory of the Ptolemaic period and the heliocentric concept of Copernicus. The unique astronomical triptych was completed in 1992 with the release of the Tellurium Johannes Kepler model. This watch made it possible to look at the Earth from the North Pole, and also told the time of sunrise and sunset.
The Swiss watch brand is considered one of the pioneers in the use of silicon technology for the production of watch mechanism parts. Thus, in 2001, the iconic Freak watch was born, in which the company first used the silicon escapement Dual Ulysse Escapement. The watch, designed in a minimalist style, did not have a traditional crown and hands, and the time was displayed by the mechanism parts. Along with the GMT ± Perpetual calendar, the Genghis Khan minute repeater and the Sonata musical watch, the Freak model was awarded the Innovation Award, clearly demonstrating to the world the level of technical expertise of the brand’s specialists.
The Freak model was the first watch in the world to use silicon parts in its mechanism. The escapement in this model featured two silicon wheels, each with 18 teeth, which transmitted energy to the balance directly, without the need for lubrication. In 2005, the idea of using silicon in watches was further developed in the Freak Diamond Heart model. The mechanism of the new “freak” used diamond, the hardest material known to man. In search of a way to reduce the cost of producing such watches, the company came up with the Freak DIAMonSIL model, in which the silicon parts of the mechanism are covered with a synthetic nano-crystalline diamond film. In the same year, Ulysse Nardin will present the Innovision concept, which will implement 10 technical innovations.
Thanks in large part to the assistance of Ulysse Nardin, the ancient enamel technique has found a second life in watchmaking. In 2012, the company became the full owner of the Donze Cadrans manufacture, receiving at its disposal unique technologies for creating enamel dials. Amazing painted dials are used to create models from the Classico collection and to replenish other model lines.
