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Watches With a Cause

By Gary Girdvainis 

The Maurice Lacroix Aikon #tide is made from #Tide plastics. This material, which includes fabric, rope and more, has been recovered and up-cycled for use as a watch case material.

Maurice Lacroix offers its Aikon #tide in ten colors on a white or black recycled strap.Truly a laudable ideal, recovering, reusing and recycling / upcycling is the wave (pun intended) of the future. More companies at-large, and a host of watch brands in-particular, are recognizing the value of conservation and recycling.

The Ulysse Nardin Lemon Shark

Whether this is an earnest effort by leadership concerned with the state and fate of the planet, or the more mercenary motivation of a marketing mantra is actually a moot point. Doing good is worth it, whether it comes from the heart – or feeds the bottom line.

Ulysse Nardin backs Ocearch’s mission to provide resources to better understand the shark’s role in the ocean’s fragile ecosystem.

Oris helps rebuild ocean reefs and invests in clean water initiatives, Ulysse Nardin supports the amazing work of Chris Fischer and the Ocearch research team gathering (and notably sharing) data on ocean going apex predators as well as sea turtles, Blancpain’s Ocean Commitment comes to life around the world in partnership with various scientific and oceanic entities to study and preserve various aquatic ecosystems. 

Other brands, like IWC, are vying for carbon neutrality in manufacturing, while Mondaine and others are using unusual sources to develop their own sustainable sources for environmentally friendly materials for cases and straps.

From my perspective as an avid outdoorsman and current resident of the planet, I appreciate these efforts and will continue to promote these relationships in our coverage and encourage more brands to engage as they are able to in conservation, philanthropy, and other altruistic endeavors. 

It’s About Time…to save the planet – one watch at a time…

This article first appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of About Time. 

 

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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Adds Shark-Themed Great White Chronograph

Ulysse Nardin launches the Diver Chronograph 44mm Limited Edition Great White, a shark-themed version of its Diver Chronograph, and expands its fund-raising for shark conservation.

The Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronograph 44mm Limited Edition Great White.

The new watch is the latest of the Le Locle-based watchmaker’s extensive collection of shark-themed models. 

Ulysse Nardin launched its first such line in 2010 with the Diver Hammerhead and has added several shark-themed watches since that time, including the Diver Blue Shark (2019) and last year’s Diver Lemon Shark. Each debut included a fund-raising element for shark environmental health.

Ulysse Nardin pairs the debut of the new watch with several environmental initiatives. These include donating to One Percent For The Planet, which means Ulysse Nardin will donate one percent of annual sales of all “shark watches” to support non-profit organizations focused on sharks.

Mike Coots wears the new Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronograph 44mm Limited Edition Great White.

Ulysse Nardin will also partner with Sharktrust, a leading European shark conservation charity. In addition, the watchmaker adds shark expert and photographer Mike Coots to its ‘friends of the brand” list. 

The new watch is a 44mm titanium-cased chronograph with a white, unidirectional rotating rubberized bezel. The bezel frames a grey “shark skin” dial with blue and white accents and the words Great White just below the Ulysse Nardin logo.

Not surprisingly, you’ll find a shark silhouette on the watch’s white rubber strap. An image of a great white shark is stamped on the case back. As a serious dive watch, water resistance is a full 300 meters.

Inside Ulysse Nardin fits its excellent automatic Caliber UN-150 with silicon escapement wheel, anchor and balance spring.

Ulysse Nardin is making the Diver Chronograph 44mm Limited Edition Great White as a limited series of 300 pieces. Price: $13,300. 

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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Expands Diver X Skeleton

Building on its hot blue-hued Diver X Skeleton collection, Ulysse Nardin adds a new version, the Diver X Skeleton Black, which blackens the titanium watch’s openwork design and swaps in bright yellow accents to replace the orange color of the earlier model.

The new Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Black.

With the new 44mm dive watch, Ulysse Nardin extends its X-themed design within its well-stocked dive watch collection. As the third X-series model thus far in the dive series, the watch underscores its avant-garde design with a sharp-looking concave black carbon bezel and barrel cover, a clear view into its movement and a series of yellow dial and case accents.

Ulysse Nardin protects the automatic UN-371 movement (visible through the front and back of the case) with a domed sapphire front crystal, a sapphire back crystal and a case water resistant to 200 meters. The movement, which Ulysse Nardin originally created for its Blast Skeleton collection, has been improved with the addition of an oscillating X-shaped weight. Ulysse Nardin also coats the hands and indexes with white or yellow tinted SuperLuminova.

Ulysse Nardin calls the X-Skeleton design “one of the most technical and complex developments ever undertaken by Ulysse Nardin.” To make the hour indexes appear as if they are floating over the movement, technicians covertly connected them to what passes for a dial on this skeletonized watch. In addition, Ulysse Nardin built the dominant X atop the dial using multiple layers, each finished differently to better reflect the light that naturally streams into an open-worked dial.

Ulysse Nardin will make the Diver X Skeleton Black as a limited edition of 175. It will come with both a yellow rubber strap and a black fabric R-strap made of up-cycled polyamide derived from fishing nets. Price: $28,500.

 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton Black

(Limited edition of 175 timepieces)  

Movement: Automatic UN-372 Manufacture Caliber, skeletonized and with extra-large silicon oscillator, silicon escape wheel, anchor and balance spring. 21,600 Vph with 72-hour power reserve.

Dial: Skeleton dial, X-shaped black PVD, black indexes and hands with SuperLuminova.

Case: 44mm titanium black DLC sandblasted and satin finished, concave black Carbonium unidirectional rotating bezel with a domed sapphire glass. Case back is black DLC titanium with sapphire crystal. Water resistance to 200 meters.

Strap: Black R-Strap with scratch closing, 100% recycled fishing nets, yellow rubber strap with Ulysse Nardin black ceramic element at 6 o’clock and black ceramic and titanium deployant buckle.

Price: $25,800

 

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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Launches Eco-Friendly Dive Watches

Ulysse Nardin this week debuts the Ocean Race Diver, a commercial version of its environmentally friendly Diver Net concept watch launched in 2020.

The new Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver might be the greenest luxury watch available.

With a strap created entirely from recycled fishing nets and a case and caseback made using recycled steel, a carbon composite called Carbonium and more recycled fishing nets, the new Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver might be the greenest luxury watch available. Ulysse Nardin teamed with French recycling experts Fil&Fab to source and develop the recycled material for the new collection.

Ulysse Nardin wants to raise awareness to protect the oceans by creating “new from old and regenerating materials, especially plastic.” The watchmaker co-branded the watch with its partner, the around-the-globe Ocean Race, for which Ulysse Nardin is official timer.

On the case back, the sapphire crystal is embellished with a white transfer of the logo of the brand’s partner, The Ocean Race.

As a 44mm dive watch, the Ocean Race Diver is water-resistant to 300 meters and features a high-visibility, green-accented unidirectional bezel made using Carbonium, the same fibers that are used for the fuselage and wings of the latest-generation aircrafts. The manufacture of Carbonium has a 40% lower environmental impact than other carbon composites, since it makes use of the offcuts of aircraft parts, according to Ulysse Nardin.

Ulysse Nardin taps an automotive industry steel recycling channel for the 44mm case, which is 80% to 85% recycled.

Ulysse Nardin teamed with Fil & Fab to make the strap and other components using recycled fishing nets.

Diver X

The watch’s dial echoes the watchmaker’s Diver X series with a double X signature on the dial, a power reserve indicator at the top and a small seconds hand at 6 o’clock. The dial, toned down when compared to the concept version, is composed of neutral textured anthracite (ruthenium) surface treatment.

Like the brand’s X-Skeleton series, you’ll also find the Ulysse Nardin logo etched into the crown and a visible crown protector.

Ulysse Nardin’s own dial maker stamps its double X on the dial with its half-matte, half-satin finish.

Even the movement, Ulysse Nardin’s own UN-118, is made with materials 95% sourced within a 30 km radius of the Manufacture, half of them coming from recycling channels (recycled steel and brass). All Ulysse Nardin movements utilize recycled brass.

The watch will be sold in a water-resistant pouch slipped into a dry bag recycled from the sea by Helly Hansen, a brand that is also a partner of the round-the-world Ocean Race.

Ulysse Nardin will offer the watch as a limited edition of 200 pieces starting in June. Price: $11,500.

 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver

Reference: (1183-170LE-1A-TOR/0A
UN-118)

Movement: Caliber UN 118 manufacture, 
Silicium & DiamonSil escapement technology. Power reserve is 60 hours.

Case: 
44mm steel with unidirectional concave rotating bezel, bezel decoration 100% Carbonium, sapphire crystal, 300 meters of water resistance.

  • Side-case and case-back 40% Carbonium and 60% recycled fishing nets.
  • Stainless steel case at least 80% recycled from automotive industry.

Dial: 
Green Super-LumiNova markers, 
 anthracite (ruthenium) surface treatment 
Double X
, The Ocean Race logo (white transfer), power reserve indicator.

Strap: Recycled from fishing nets, gray with green and white stitches, scratch closing.

Price: $11,500.

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The Watches

Watches and Wonders 2022: The Ulysse Nardin Freak S

Ulysse Nardin updates its already legendary hands-free, dial-free and crown-free Freak with a double oscillator, a technical flourish that deepens its three-dimensional effect while strengthening its efficiency and precision.

The new Ulysse Nardin Freak S.

As Ulysse Nardin’s highlight debut at Watches & Wonders 2022, the new Freak S marks the premiere of new UN-251 Manufacture movement. The new caliber dramatically hosts a new blued “DiamonSIL” (diamond-coated silicon) double oscillator with each balance wheel inclined at a 20-degree angle and linked by a differential.

Ulysse Nardin explains that the multi-gear differential, clearly visible between the balance wheels, evenly distributes the barrel’s energy to the two regulating organs, so that the Freak S’ amplitude remains stable.

The visual effect, centered with a pair of rose gold bridges holding the two blue oscillators, recalls a rocket wing.

Remember, as a carousel the Freak’s entire movement makes a complete rotation in one hour. A broad arrow on the watch’s aventurine movement plate shows the hour while the longer nose cone of the rocket with the balance wheels and the escapement indicates the minutes. The Freak S’ time is set by rotating the bezel in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.

The Freak S minute hand.

The new Freak S also marks an update to the efficiency of Ulysse Nardin’s already highly efficient Grinder automatic winding system. Using slight wrist movements, Grinder operates using four blades that connect to the oscillating weight, which gives the self-winding system twice the angular stroke and limits friction. (See additional technical specifications below.) And with the Grinder, the movement is (as far as we’re aware) the first automatically wound double-oscillator caliber available.

The Freak S differential, flanked by two inclined silicon balance wheels.

Ulysse Nardin will make the Freak S as a limited edition of seventy-five pieces, of which forty will be made this year. Every watch is fitted with an alligator strap decorated with a Sport cutout in rose gold color. The timepiece is fitted with a self-folding clasp system in titanium with black DLC.

Price: $137,200

The new movement is (as far as we’re aware) the first automatically wound double-oscillator caliber available.

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Freak S

(75-piece limited edition)

Movement: UN-251 Caliber with hours and minutes indicated by the movement’s rotation. 
Flying carousel baguette movement: one rotation per hour. 
Grinder automatic winding with blades, flexible guidance and shock absorber. Extra-large inclined double balance wheel in silicon with inertia-blocks, vertical differential. Power reserve is 72 hours
 (2 x 2.5 Hz) (2x 18,000 vph).

Case: 45mm black ceramic, titanium with black DLC and rose gold. 
Time set with the front bezel, lever lock. 
Manual winding possible with the back bezel.

Decorative movement plate in black aventurine. 
30 meters water resistance, sapphire domed box with anti-reflective treatment on both sides. Back: Titanium with black DLC, 6 screws, visible “Grinder” through open sapphire caseback.

Strap: Bi-material black alligator & golden calf strap or black alligator strap.

Price: $137,200

 

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