Presenting the piece was Ulysse Nardin’s dynamic and friendly CEO, Patrick Pruniaux, whose energy is comparable to the Freak NeXt’s vibrant silicon oscillator (more on that later). At Ulysse Nardin since 2017, Pruniaux looks and acts like the CEO of Today, a fitting example of the next generation of people who are filling executive positions in the watch industry at a rapid rate. At ease as he presented the Freak NeXt, Pruniaux was also visibly excited about this next chapter: “It’s innovation with a purpose, not just for the sake of saying we can do it. We went from doing different iterations of this innovative movement to really wanting to create a family – a Freak collection that makes sense and is permanent for us, with a number of references that are thought through. There’s the Freak X, the Innovision, the Vision, and now the NeXt – so you can see the evolution from model to model. We always ask ourselves a lot of questions in development to make sure each coming model makes sense within the collection – how does it fit in with the rest of this family?”