Ulysse Nardin Marine Lady Diver 8156-180E-3C/12 Replica Watch

The beauty of technology is coming: Ulysse Nardin Freak retrospective In the 1970s, no one could have predicted that mechanical wristwatches would be in such demand 50 years later. While the marketing genius of a group of brilliant individuals kept the commercial viability of mechanical watches, the technical sophistication of Ulysse Nardin sparked a counter-revolution that changed the face of watchmaking forever.

When the brand launched the Freak in 2001, it was a revolution in design, mechanics and materials while staying true to tradition. Its original design came from Carole Forestier-Kasapi, who saw the tourbillon as a new way to tell time. In fact, her conception of a rotating movement surrounded by a giant mainspring won her the 1997 Abraham-Louis Breguet Foundation Prize, most notably beating British watchmaker Derek Pu Derek Pratt, who just became the first natural escapement in a winner's tourbillon watch. Her proposal eventually underwent a complete reconfiguration under the direction of Vatican watch restorer Dr. Ludwig Oechslin. Among other things, he relocated the mainspring below the gear train on the back of the watch, giving it a power reserve of one week.

The Freak is aptly named, as it bears no resemblance to anything ever worn on the wrist. This is the first watch in which mechanics and aesthetics are almost indistinguishable, and the design of the movement is the ultimate practice of aesthetics. It marked the first time a movement had been deconstructed to express time in its own right, and thus enabled a new watchmaking language that celebrated mechanics, a language that would largely embody independent watchmaking today.

Before the Freak, watchmaking was a treasure trove of ancient traditions, and watches only connect us emotionally to those traditions. They are usually constructed in two dimensions, with the mainspring and balance occupying the same plane on the edge of the baseplate with a hand-swept dial on top. Freak, however, shocked the world as it challenged and reconfigured centuries-old norms and brought a depth of knowledge that can only be inspired by innovations that surprise and awe. It has no proper dial and no hands. Instead, mounted on the massive mainspring barrel is a linear gear train that makes one full revolution per hour and doubles as the watch's minute hand.