Ulysse Nardin – FREAK X Enamel Seddiqi “Yas Blue” Grey Titanium Exclusive Edition - 2024
WORLDS COLLIDE
The 30-piece limited-edition Freak X Enamel Seddiqi marries métiers d’art techniques with state-of-the-art watchmaking, and celebrates the partnership between elite Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin and Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the Middle East ’s leading luxury watch retailer.Click, to see the large size. ▶ BIG FOTO
Ulysse Nardin, the independent Swiss watch maison that has been disrupting haute horlogerie since 1846, is delighted to introduce the new Freak X Enamel Seddiqi, a watch that celebrates shared cultures, traditions and artistic passions that span continents.
The Freak X Enamel Seddiqi is based on the design and movement properties of a 21st century watchmaking icon, Ulysse Nardin’s Freak, which rewrote the horological rulebook when it was introduced in 2001 by pioneering the use of silicon technology in watchmaking.
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The exclusive new watch builds on the timeless story of the Freak’s ‘no hands and no dial’ movement architecture, and tells it afresh with an exquisite guilloché and enamelled hour disc that highlights Ulysse Nardin’s mastery of métiers d’art.
Coloured in “Yas Blue” enamel to echo the piercing electric blue of the evening sky as the sun sets over the waters of the Gulf of Arabia, the Freak X Enamel Seddiqi’s hour disc is the work of very skilled artisans at Ulysse Nardin’s Donzé Cadrans Manufacture in Le Locle and the result of a complex, painstaking process.
Coloured in “Yas Blue” enamel to echo the piercing electric blue of the evening sky as the sun sets over the waters of the Gulf of Arabia, the Freak X Enamel Seddiqi’s hour disc is the work of very skilled artisans at Ulysse Nardin’s Donzé Cadrans Manufacture in Le Locle and the result of a complex, painstaking
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First, the gold guilloché hour disc has a texture that gives the watch an additional visual dimension, resulting in a geometric pattern that gives it a balanced, modern feel. Then Ulysse Nardin’s enamellers add four layers of water-based enamel to it. The enamel begins as a solid, which is then broken down with a pestle and mortar into a fine powder, before it is transformed into a paste with water. Between each layer, the disc is fi red at temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius and then cooled. Cooling takes just one minute. A final, crucial layer of translucent “fondant” enamel gives the disc surface a glossy finish that will be immediately recognisable to métiers d’art connoisseurs.
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For the enamellers, there’s jeopardy in every layer. The disc will be fi red at least fi ve times and the kiln is merciless: each time, the risk is that the enamel will bubble and spoil, at which point, the process must start again. This tension is one of the reasons skilled enamellers are such a rare breed, and why only the very fi nest watches carry enamel decorations.
Sitting on top of this mesmerising hour disc is Caliber UN-230 Manufacture, an automatic with a 72-hour power reserve. The Freak’s signature carousel flying tourbillon features an oversize oscillator and a silicon escapement, and doubles as the watch’s minutes hand, making a full tour of the dial every 60 minutes. A pointer on the hour disc shows the hour against fl oating baton hour markers.
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The watch is cased in 43 mm of grey titanium and comes on a black rubber “ballistic” strap with white stitching and a titanium folding buckle. Due to the technical and artisanal complexity of this beautiful horological object, only 30 pieces will be made, and they will only be available through Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the United Arab Emirates’ largest and most pioneering luxury watch and jewellery retailer.
BACKSTORY
In the spring of 2001, Ulysse Nardin changed the course of watchmaking history forever with the introduction of the revolutionary Freak. To look at, the first Freak posed lots of questions. It had no dial, no hands and no crown, and yet it was unmistakably a mechanical watch. How was this possible? Did it really work? And how did it work? No one had ever seen anything like it. Because there had never been anything like it before.
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But that was only the start of the story. Because beyond its unique appearance and function, it was powered by a gamechanging movement that contained a high-tech new watchmaking material: silicon.
Silicon was watchmaking wonderstuff. Conspicuous in its silvery blue, it brought myriad benefits to a mechanical watch. It was lightweight, elastic, almost completely frictionless, and highly resistant to magnetism, shocks and changes in temperature. On top of this, it could also be produced in unusual shapes and to fine tolerances. It was the perfect material for creating high-tech, ultra-modern mechanical watch components.
Indeed, mechanical watches with silicon parts, it was quickly established, would be more precise, more accurate and more reliable. This made the Freak a line-in-the-sand watch. And it meant a new chapter in watchmaking had begun, almost three centuries after the last.
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The Freak took its name from the maverick, disruptive, rulebreaking spirit that spawned it and quickly became known for its daring aesthetic, unconventional functionality and wild technical innovation. In time, it would become a flagship for Ulysse Nardin, and a new icon for Swiss watchmaking, recognised all over the world and revered by collectors. There’s still nothing quite like the Freak.
Its influence would spread far and wide. Seeing the advanced properties of silicon platformed by the Freak, countless others would explore its potential so that almost a quarter of a century later, it has become a familiar watchmaking material. But the Freak was first.
Meanwhile, Ulysse Nardin continued to pioneer the use of silicon, and the Freak design. Today, the Freak catalogue is ripe with challenging expressions of the original concept, each new model release acting as a punctuation mark in the story of mechanical watchmaking. Such has been its impact that The New York Times pronounced that the Freak had “changed the face of contemporary watchmaking”.
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The Freak One leads the contemporary line, winning the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève’s Iconic Watch Prize in 2023👆. The Freak S continues to inspire awe and wonder with a threedimensional movement that rests under the glass like a spaceship preparing for intergalactic adventures. And the Freak X, with the gently ironic addition of a crown, has become the so-called “daily Freak”.
But no matter how much time passes and no matter what form it takes, the Freak remains a radical. An iconoclast. The watch that changed watchmaking forever.
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
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- Reference: 2303-270LE-3AE-SED/3A («ballistic» rubber strap)
Material: Grey titanium with satin finish
Grey titaniumbezel
Diameter: 43 mm thickness: 13.78 mm
Case-back: Grey titanium with open sapphire
Water-resistant to 50 metres
Movement
Calibre UN-230 Manufacture
Automatic movement
Flying carrousel movement rotating around its own axis
Balance wheel and escapement in silicon
Oversized oscillator
“Yas Blue” enamel on a guilloché hour disc (bottom of the movement)
Index and bridges with white Super-LumiNova®
Number of parts: 206
Number of jewels: 21
Frequency: 21’600 vph (3 Hz)
Power reserve of 72 hours
Functions/Indications
Hours, minutes
Flying carrousel movement rotating around its own axis
Strap and buckle
Black rubber «ballistic» textured strap with white stitches
Titanium folding buckle
🔴Price: (incl. Swiss VAT) CHF 38,500 / 154,000 AED 💰
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Ulysse Nardin SA
Marketing Department
Rue du Jardin 3
2400 Le Locle
Switzerland T :+4132 930 74 00
F :+4132 930 74 21
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