THE EASY-GOING FREAK THE FREAK [ X OPS ] IS BASED ON THE FREAK X, AN UNEXPECTED TWIST ON
A 21ST CENTURY ICON
Since 2001, the Freak has been rewriting the rules of conventional high-end watchmaking. On debut, it disrupted the traditional world of Swiss Haute Horlogerie, disposing with aesthetic and technical norms. Here was a watch with no dial, no hands and no crown. And yet it was a mechanical watch, conceived by some of the finest minds watchmaking had ever known. Over the past two decades, the Freak has become a fearless 21st century watchmaking icon, the Millennium’s first collector’s watch and the author of a roadmap to destinations unknown that countless others have since followed. The watchmaking landscape will never be the same again – because of the Freak. The Freak’s story has continued to gather momentum. Further inventions. New materials. Always the unexpected. And then in
2019, Ulysse Nardin broke the conventions of the unconventional Freak by introducing the Freak X. The story? Still no dial. Still no hands. But this time, it did have a crown. An iconoclast to replace an iconoclast?
The Freak X was aimed at a new generation of Freak collectors. Its form was simplified – see the addition of a crown – but it
was still an outlandish expression of analogue watch design. The movement bridges still doubled as the hands, and the movement included advanced developments such as the lightweight silicon balance wheel with nickel flyweights.
The look was distinctly Freakish, but this was different again. This was the easy-going Freak.
HIDE AND FREAK
THE FREAK [X OPS] GOES INTO STEALTH MODE
At Watches and Wonders Shanghai, Ulysse Nardin has taken the Freak X undercover with the Freak [X OPS] – as in, “operations”. Its black DLC titanium case, bezel and crown, khaki green carbon fibre composite flanks and fabric strap convey an adventurous inspiration to the Freak [X OPS]. The innovative material used in the case flanks originally appeared in the Freak X Magma. There, it was a mix of carbon fibre and red, marbled epoxy resin. Here, the mix is with green epoxy resin. In green, it has an easy-going, casual luxury feel to it. Backed up by its fabric strap, it appeals to sporty and adventurous collectors. This is fine watchmaking for life’s mavericks, a design that twists
the principles of traditional horology into a high-concept wristwatch. The Ulysse Nardin backstory is eternally tied to exploration and expertise. In the beginning, the company made trailblazing marine chronometers and supplied some of the world’s leading navies with innovative, high-calibre navigation tools. That same pioneering spirit
lies behind the Freak [X OPS], a watch that captures a passion for finding new worlds and fresh expressions of established ideas. Beating away at the watch’s heart is the UN-230 self-winding movement, a marriage of the bulletproof UN-118 and the high-tech UN-250 that gave the Freak Vision.
TAKE COVER
NO DIAL
Typically, mechanical watches hide their workings under a dial. But the Freak [X OPS] has no dial. Its movement doubles as its minute hand, while the hour hand is a pointer set on a rotating disc that sits under the movement.
NO HANDS
The unconventional Freak [X OPS] has neither a big hand nor a little hand. Instead, its one-hour orbital carousel tourbillon becomes the minute hand, and the hour hand is replaced by a pointer on a rotating disc. A challenging design, but easy to read.
ONE OF A KIND
The Freak [X OPS] has case flanks made of Ulysse Nardin’s ultra-lightweight carbon fibre composite, a material inspired by the irregular patterns of Damascus steel and introduced in 2019. It’s produced by weaving carbon fibre with (in this case) a green epoxy resin, giving it its signature three-dimensional look. No two cases are the same.
HOURS OF DARKNESS
The Freak [X OPS] is powered by UN-230, a self-winding movement with a 72-hour power reserve. The movement’s flying carousel with its silicon balance wheel and escapement are suspended by a bridge that acts as the minute hand; a second bridge serves as the hour hand.
GREEN LIGHT
The hour and minute indicators and hour markers are coated in a matching khaki green Super-LumiNova® that
glows green in low-light conditions. THE FREAK [ X OPS ] IS HIGHLY TECHNICAL
THE ORIGINAL FREAK, A FREAK EVENT
THE FREAK’S ARRIVAL
20 YEARS AGO WAS TONIC FOR ULYSSE NARDIN [ AND SWISS WATCHMAKING ]
By the late 1990s, Swiss watchmaking’s revival was well under way. A number of Swiss entrepreneurs had seized on a fresh cultural zeitgeist that had a newfound respect for the industry’s heritage and quality, and begun the process of rebuilding a sector that in the 1970s and 1980s had been laid to waste by the onslaught of quartz technology from outside the country’s borders. One of the visionaries who saw the undimmed potential in mechanical watches was Rolf Schnyder. Mr Schnyder wanted to take Ulysse Nardin’s legacy and reputation for inventive contemporary wristwatches and revitalise it for new-generation watch lovers. But to do that, he would need a watch that would epitomise and extend the new energy in Swiss watchmaking – and the amped-up ambitions of Ulysse Nardin. What was called for was an upstart design that would shake up a dozy establishment and captivate a new generation of mechanical watch buyers. Behind the scenes, Mr Schnyder was working with genius watchmaker Dr Ludwig Oechslin on a new kind of watch. It would have no dial, no hands and no crown. Only one name seemed to fit: Freak.
Its launch in 2001 was seismic. Not only were the design and engineering groundbreaking (the time was set by rotating the bezel and it was wound via a device set into the case back), the Freak was also the first Swiss watch with an escapement made of a new watchmaking wonder stuff: silicon. Silicon was light and elastic, frictionless, had high resistance properties, and could be produced to very fine tolerances. Today, the use of silicon in watchmaking is
commonplace, but at the turn of the Millennium, it was revolutionary. The Freak went first. And others followed. Over the past two decades, the Freak has appeared in many further guises and also been used as a testbed for experimental advanced technologies. But at heart it remains what it always was: a freak.
BACK IN TIME
2001
FREAK [2001]
The first Freak of 2001 was a landmark in Swiss high-end watchmaking. As well as having no dial, no hands and no crown, it was also the first mechanical watch in history with silicon escapement wheels. Today, silicon is commonplace in watchmaking – but the Freak was the original pioneer.
2007
FREAK
[DIAMONSIL]
Ulysse Nardin continued to treat the Freak as a testbed for hightech innovations. DIAMonSIL, a patented form of diamond-coated silicon, added further performance benefits. It’s still in use today.
2010
FREAK [DIAVOLO]
A generational shift for the Freak came with the Freak Diavolo. It introduced a second carousel tourbillon. This time it was a ‘flying’ carousel tourbillon, dislocating the movement from the case’s inner edge. The name came from the
power reserve’s red horns, visible through the case back.
2018
FREAK [VISION]
Another step change came with the Freak Vision, the first collection Freak with an automatic winding
system, named Grinder®. It also had an oversized balance wheel with stabilising micro-blades, and a constant power escapement. Three patented innovations were included in the Freak Vision.
IN ITS TWO DECADES OF LIFE, THE FREAK HAS CONSTANTLY RESET THE BOUNDARIES OF WATCH DESIGN AND ENGINEERING. BELOW ARE SOME
OF THE MILESTONE WATCHES THAT DEFINE ITS STORY
2019
FREAK [X]
The original Freak had broken age-old conventions, but across two decades, it had established new ones. Could these
be broken? They had to be. To make a more approachable Freak, Ulysse Nardin’s creators simplified the mechanism and added a winding and setting crown. And a next-generation Freak was born.
2022
FREAK [S]
The Freak is technical, but it’s also playful. The Freak S brought the point home with a carousel movement that looked like “a space vessel with twin reactors.” Behind the aesthetic were two oscillating balance wheels linked to a differential that averaged them out to deliver greater precision.
2023
FREAK [ONE]
The great reset. The Freak ONE was the Freak as it would have been designed and produced in the here and now. So the same principles of no dial, no hands and no crown remained, only wrapped in a black-DLC-coated titanium and rose gold case. It’s regulated by a silicon hairspring and an escapement treated with DIAMonSIL. Freak ONE has a
Grinder® winding system providing 90 hours of power reserve.
