Editor's Picks
Ulysse Nardin Freak One: The Rise of the Freaks
Editor's Picks
Ulysse Nardin Freak One: The Rise of the Freaks
In our history, some of the greatest leaders from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr., to the great Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk, have been labeled Freaks. The world’s greatest military leaders from Alexander the Great to Joan of Arc, to Winston Churchill, were once considered Freaks. Painters like Claude Monet were initially rejected by the art world and made the object of scathing derision.
The First of Its Kind
Watchmaking history can be divided into two distinct periods: the era before the Freak and the time after it. Launched in 2001 under the behest of the visionary Rolf Schnyder, the Freak was the single most iconoclastic act of horological audacity in the history of modern watchmaking. Here, for the first time, was a movement that performed the act of telling the time. Placed center stage as the crowning glory of the Freak was an all-new escapement invented by the genius Ludwig Oechslin, a direct impulse, double wheel masterpiece crafted from a material that seemed transported from the world of science fiction — silicon. Now 22 years later, it is time for the world to be reminded of the incredible everlasting impact of the Freak that ushered in the idea of a timepiece that was also a kinetic sculpture.
The introduction of the Freak at the 2001 Basel Fair sent shockwaves through the watch industry. The reception at Ulysse Nardin’s booth was electric. Rumors had spread of a watch that shattered all preconceived notions of traditional haute horlogerie; a watch where the movement was injected with what the ancient Greeks called anima, seeming to come to life to twist and turn to indicate the time, as if a living sentient being.
Watch industry legend Jean Claude Biver adds, “The Freak was one of the few brands to show collectors and watchmakers some of the all-new expressive possibilities of the mechanical watch. While myself and few other brands were behind the revival of mechanical watchmaking in the 80’s and 90’s, The Freak brought an additional chapter to the story.”
Silicon a Technician Revolution
Look closely at the Freak’s heart and you will see that the balance wheel, hairspring and escapement are crafted from silicon. This space-age material is a hard blue gray crystalline solid that has revolutionized watchmaking for several reasons. Using a form of photo-electric etching named DRIE (deep reactive ion etching), it is capable of creating the most precise micro-mechanical parts on the planet. Also, silicon parts require no lubrication to run smoothly. Finally, they are not affected by magnetism which, to this day, is the culprit behind over 90 percent of service issues.
Ulysse Nardin’s Freak holds the pioneer status as the very first luxury watch to use silicon, and it came down to two little wheels roughly the size of pin heads. These were the two wheels comprising the Dual Direct Escapement created by watch genius Dr. Ludwig Oechslin. They were, in turn, inspired by the famous Abraham-Louis Breguet’s échappement naturel, an escapement he designed to no longer require lubrication.
Said Rolf Schnyder when I interviewed him many years ago, “I knew that if we had to follow the route of traditional watchmaking, we would never catch up with the entrenched leaders who had already been crafting beautiful complicated watches for centuries. I needed something that would let me leapfrog over the competition and become a leader in the form of new technology. When I saw silicon and understood its true potential in watchmaking, I knew that this was our opportunity.” With that, Schnyder boldly decided to journey where no watch brand had dared go before, with the integration of silicon technology for the two gear wheels of the Freak’s escapement boldly blitzing away for everyone to see right under the watch’s sapphire.
Often Imitated but Never Equaled
From my perspective, what distinguishes the Freak from every other whirling, twirling, visually dynamic but technically different watch out there is the following: The Freak is an act of watchmaking purity where the rotation you see is given by the movement of the watch itself. That’s right — it is the movement of the watch that rotates at precisely the right speed across two axes that animates the passing of time. To me, this is and will always be a work of unrivaled genius.
A New Icon
For 2023, Ulysse Nardin unveils a powerful expression of the very original Freak iconography but updated to feature a wonderful relevance for the modern world — a watch appropriately named the Freak ONE. It is, in every way, the direct descendent of the original Freak. It is a watch with no hands, no dial and no crown, and where the movement is king! The Freak ONE draws design codes from the over-two-decades-long history of this extraordinary watch. The notched bezel comes from the 2001 Freak, the open gear train is from the 2013 Freak Cruiser, and the enhanced legibility harks back to the 2018 Freak Vision. Strap on the Freak ONE and be prepared for the experience of your life. Your eye is immediately drawn to the Freak’s famous orbital flying one-hour carrousel. Time is set as with the original Freak by unlocking and turning the bezel. The caseback can be used to wind the watch, but the Freak ONE also features Ulysse Nardin’s innovative Grinder system.
Says Pruniaux, “I wear my Freak when I’m hiking or skiing. It is a watch that is incredibly resilient and today even more so because of the oversized silicon oscillator.” In other words, it is a watch that can be worn with zero compromise in your life.
Unleash Your Freak The Ultimate Freakish Tribal Symbol
Today, a watch is no longer a time-telling device but a symbol of self-expression and a tribal identifier. The watch you wear instantly tells the world about your values, your aesthetic philosophy, your mental attitude, and more. With the renewed visual richness and unmistakable iconographic identity of the Freak, Ulysse Nardin is now forming a Tribe of Freak devotees that love the watch for everything it represents in its capacity to elicit emotion.
Strapping on a Freak today expresses to the world that you are effectively “unleashing your inner Freak,” allowing yourself the freedom to embrace your ultimate individuality and be connected to those like you for whom rebellion is not a choice but a moral imperative and a true expression of their core identity. It is the watch for any individual that rejects the status quo, blazes their path to the top and, despite innumerable challenges, aims to succeed with their integrity intact. It is a watch for the Freaks in all of us.