Ulysse Nardin SIHH 2018

This year at SIHH 2018 Ulysse Nardin will be unveiling a few new timepieces that are sure to make you love the brand even more. The timepieces that will be unveiled are the Military Torpilleur Military edition, the Classico, and the stunning Marine Tourbillon.

Riding on the wave of success of its Marine Torpilleur, Ulysse Nardin is releasing the Marine Torpilleur Military edition, a chronometer for a whole new generation of adventurer.  Bold and dashing, this is a direct descendant of the pocket chronometers prized by the sea captains of 19^th or beginning of the 20^th century, radically redesigned for a resolutely mo-dern era. Featuring the same Ulysse Nardin UN-118 in-house movement as the celebrated Marine Chronometer, the Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Military takes on a more imposing air, as if daring the wearer to rise to a new level of challenge.

In mesmerizing black enamel, the Classico Manufacture Grand Feu transforms the daily act of telling time. While the crafting of a white Grand Feu enamel dial is already a difficult process, producing one in intense black is even more complex. The selection of the enamel powder is crucial in determining the result: black can only be created by applying different and carefully chosen colored pigments to the substrate, giving the enamel opacity and depth.  

Only the incredible skill of the master artisans at Donzé Cadrans can bring a black enamel dial to life. It is very challenging to control the quality of an enamel dial, and each of the successive high-temperature firings poses a risk to the outcome. Patience is a must: as black reveals the slightest imperfection, the craftsmen and women take great pains to smooth the surface of the enamel in between each trip to the kiln, knowing that at any time, the slightest flaw could ruin all their efforts. After the enamel dial is polished to a high sheen, it is ready for the final operation: applying the Roman numerals in a contrasting color that reveals the full splendor of the Grand Feu enamel dial.

Since 1846, when a young Ulysse Nardin conceived of the first marine deck chronometers, the seafaring world has been an essential part of Ulysse Nardin history. The precision navigational instruments of Monsieur Nardin, valued by navies from the Sea of Japan to the Cape of Good Hope, are a constant source of inspiration for today’s watchmakers.

In fact, the early timepieces can be seen as precursors of more recent Ulysse Nardin Marine watches, like this resolutely modern Marine Tourbillon with its unusual blue enamel dial. In one magnificent timekeeping instrument, the Marine Tourbillon unites the three fundamentals so essential to Ulysse Nardin’s identity: in-house production, technical avant-garde and rare artistry.