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Tweaked by the Freak: Techno-Innovation Revisited

Tweaked by the Freak: Techno-Innovation Revisited

by Meehna Goldsmith

© April 2008 

In the intervening centuries since Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon and developed the overcoil bearing his name, not much had progressed in horologic technical achievement.  Watchmakers continued to display their skills by hand constructing complications and mastering polishing techniques.  At Basel in 2001, Ulysse Nardin boldly dared to question this tradition.  Their introduction of the Freak watch suggested that cutting edge technology and high mechanics could exist in a symbiotic integration.

At the retail price of $26,800, the original Freak was a formidable sum.  This level of investment gave (and still gives) customers a lot to choose from.  With so many timepieces vying for attention, Ulysse Nardin needed to convince prospective buyers that their watch was not only worth the price of admission, but also would maintain its value.

Ulysse Nardin Freak in rose gold

When considering a purchase, particularly in the aforementioned price category and above, collectors were conditioned to automatically gravitate towards three questions:  is the movement designed and constructed in-house; which complications are built in; and, what is the level of finishing?  Let’s dispense with the in-house movement debate for the time being and examine the other two issues of significance:  because their importance reveals the desire and subsequent worth of palpable human touch.

Years of history plant a watchmaker at a workbench.  To produce a fine timepiece meant squinting through a loupe to assemble a high complication and hand beveling bridges to achieve a swoop of sensual curves.  Even going so far as to polishing movement parts hidden from direct view.Working at this level took the patience of a rare breed.  And that’s not even mentioning the years of education and training leading up to that level of expertise.

As selling points in their advertising, manufacturers still highlight the hundreds of components in their movements and the level of finishing.  The underlying message is:  the more intensive the manual labor on a piece, the more valuable (and expensive) the creation.  For centuries we accepted this horological model.

The Freak positions itself in contrast to high-end watches made in the traditional manner.  It is realized through technology, with a comparatively low level of manual time investment involved in the assembly and completion.

But how to convey this iconoclastic approach to watchmaking and have it accepted?

Ulysse Nardin had to prepare the public for a whole new model and open up its thinking.In a stroke of marketing genius, Ulysse Nardin christened their new offspring the Freak.  The name acknowledged the watch’s strangeness, while at the same time deflecting criticism.  It was a brilliant strategy of flinging an insult before anyone else could – and then embracing its meaning.

Ulysse Nardin Blue Phantom Freak on the left & Freak 2 28'800 V/h on the right

According to definition, a freak is a thing or occurrence thought to be very unusual or irregular.  A freak can also be someone passionate and devoted to something despite conventional wisdom.  As an example, Copernicus put forth the freakish idea that the earth rotated around the sun.  During that time, the Catholic Church rejected this theory, insisting that earth was the center of the universe.  We all know who ended up being right.

Another type of freak might come in the form of that strange 8^th grade kid who gets excused from math class to program the General Electric computer in BASIC – and ultimately revolutionizes the personal computer industry with a software company called Microsoft.

In concept and design the Freak made a radical departure from the watchmaking tenets so beloved by the Swiss and sought to extend the frontiers of fine timepiece definition.  Here was a watch with no crown, dial or hands, and yet it kept time.

Taking up a whopping 42.5 mm of real estate on the wrist, the Freak incorporated the crystal and bezel as elements of the movement.In addition to powering the watch, the movement served double duty by rotating 360 degrees to keep track of hours and minutes.  If that wasn’t amazing enough, it also debuted the Dual Indirect Escapement, which was constructed from silicon and thus minimized the need for lubrication.

More iconoclastic yet, the Freak reveled in its simple and elegant solutions.It was a carrousel tourbillon with a 7-day power reserve.  Gasp!  Where were all the hundreds of intricate parts in this complex mechanism?  Weren’t they supposed to be there?

No doubt about it, the thing was really weird – and fascinating.  A definite freak.

You might expect this sort of wild experimentation and brash disregard for traditional ideas from a young upstart entity.  Or perhaps even from a naïve individual not schooled in “proper” horology.  But then again the Freak is about redirecting expectation, isn’t it?

The Freak was conceived, created and nurtured by Ulysse Nardin, a company of long and continuous lineage since 1846.Known for their prize winning marine chronometers, Ulysse Nardin floundered for survival (and definition) after the advent of the quartz watch in the 1970’s.

Just as one can’t completely understand a child without meeting the parents, so a collector can’t appreciate a watch without context and provenance.  The birth of the Freak leads back to two men.

Rolf Schnyder, the current owner of Ulysse Nardin, purchased the ailing company in 1983 with the intention of rejuvenating the brand.  But not just as a passive follower riding the wave of the mechanical watch’s resurgence.  He desired to be a participant in the revolution by melding old world craftsmanship with state-of-the-art technology.

Ulysse Nardin CEO Rolf Schnyder

Fortunately for Mr. Schnyder, he met Dr. Ludwig Oechslin, someone actually meeting the criteria of Renaissance man.In addition to the title of Master Watchmaker, Dr. Oechslin has doctorates in philosophy, astronomy and the history of applied sciences.  He could actually turn Schnyder’s lofty intentions into reality.

Starting in 1985, Schnyder and Dr. Oechslin’s collaboration bore fruit with the launch of the Astrolabe, the first in the Trilogy of Time set, and continued with other innovations, such as a minute-repeating automaton, forward and backward single crown adjusting perpetual calendar and single-button chronograph.  These feats were all impressive, certainly, but still could be categorized as advancements within conventional notions.

The Freak was something altogether different.  Instead of looking over their shoulder for inspiration, Ulysse Nardin stepped over the horizon and pushed tradition aside.  The Freak stakes its reputation on innovation and science, and has done so from the beginning.  Each subsequent version explores materials science in the pursuit of solutions, the goals being function, precision and reliability.Oeschslin has expressed his belief that “the fewer pieces in a work, the greater its value as a complex mechanism.”

The Freak impressed other members of the watchmaking community and took home the Chronos Innovation Prize in 2001.  However, not content to rest on their laurels, Ulysse Nardin forged ahead and in 2002 filed a patent for diamond hairsprings.  By 2005, they launched the Freak 28'800 V/h Diamond Heart, the escape wheels whirling beauties made of polycrystalline diamond.

Polycrystalline diamond escapement wheels in the UN Diamond Heart 28,800 V/h Freak

The short but glorious history of the Freak continues.  Towards the end of 2007, Ulysse Nardin introduced the InnoVision concept watch.  Essentially the most advanced Freak (which isn’t technically for sale, by the way), this piece showcases their technological innovations to date.  Foremost in its design is the pioneering use of materials science in both form and function.  Silicium, heralded for its elasticity and low friction coefficient, is grown on a quartz crystal and then processed into a disc, from which parts are laser etched and cut.  The Freak was the first to use silicium in its movements, most notably in the escapement mechanism.

InnoVision movement

InnoVision wheel

The newest and most intriguing concepts incorporated into the InnoVision are the bi-material bridge, composed of silicium and nickel for increased stability; and, the double side etching process.  This etching process allows both sides of a silicium disk to be utilized for surface area, thus enabling a formally two-piece component to be combined into a unified whole.  With a single piece construction, a part is more stable, as well as precise.

Cutting edge technology by its very nature is always pricey because it is an entirely new entity or application being brought into existence, oftentimes requiring building expensive machinery to aid in its creation.  It is a precarious business demanding an arduous process of trial and error before success – if there even is success.  Many promising ideas, requiring enormous financial startup costs, never find traction in real-life applications.

Thus, the actual cost of creating a Freak watch is quite expensive.  Just to produce a five-inch silicium disk with laser-etched wheels cost $10,000.  And the price point of the marvelous diamond escape wheels on the Diamond Heart was just too prohibitive in a production watch and therefore discontinued for the time being.

Silicium disk with a diameter of around 4-5 inches

Certainly, once new technologies prove themselves functional and desirable, they will eventually be adopted by the industry and become more economical to produce, benefiting us all.  Witness the economy and therefore ubiquity of the cell phone.

Nevertheless, Ulysse Nardin is the innovator.  The Freak was and will always be the first of its kind.  Period.  Nobody who follows, even those who will surely advance the field, can ever hold that rank.  A Freak owner expressed the concept in the following way:  Though many artists contributed to the Cubist movement, “there was only one Pablo Picasso.”

In addition, Ulysse Nardin continues to stand on the forefront, charging ahead.  While it has a diversified lineup of watches in a more traditional model, the Freak has come to embody the brand.  Of the InnoVision concept watch they say:  “10 technological innovations united in one watch perfectly sum up Ulysse Nardin’s vision on the future of mechanical watchmaking.”  And they definitely back up their convictions with their pocketbook, buying a 50% stake in Sigatec, the high-tech company that created the two-level etching process.

The Freak’s construction demands the unwavering and consistent precision of machines to produce the necessary quality of components.  Human hands attempting to meet the required tolerances would be a liability.  Though the Freak lacks the traditional human sweat and toil at the bench, the fingerprints of Schnyder, Oechslin and Pierre Gygax (a talented movement engineer) are all over that watch.  Within each Freak reside the spirit, passion and skill of people, albeit expressed differently in the finished product.

Perhaps most compelling of all is that by purchasing any Freak, you support as well as participate in the horology revolution.  As Ulysse Nardin experiments with the technology and gets field results from owners, they continue to improve the product.  Reliability problems with the Dual Indirect escapement in what is now popularly called the Freak 1 brought about modifications leading to the Dual Ulysse escapement.

UN's dual direct escapement - notice the different colored silicium wheels
(picture from UN reference gallery by Dave Piccione)

On the opposite end of the spectrum are watches by houses such as Patek Philippe, Breguet, and independents like Philippe Dufour and Kari Voutilainen.  Harkening back to the beginnings of watchmaking, they favor handcraft over mechanization and nurture the image of a skilled artisan laboring for hours upon hours to make a timepiece.  And without a doubt, this definition of value holds, as witnessed by the high price and demand for pieces created by the aforementioned.

Yet, in this traditional majority of horologic players, the Freak has demonstrated its model works.  The proof is in the pudding – and the price of pudding has skyrocketed.  To buy a Freak now would cost between 60-70K at the least, and the earlier versions, if you can even get your hands on one (what a great irony!), command a premium.

Ulysse Nardin has proven an old dog can indeed learn new tricks.  Fearless trailblazers, they succeeded in carving out an alternate definition of value in mechanical watches.  Moreover, the company shook the watch industry from its centuries long stagnation and blind adherence to tradition.

That’s surely something to get “freaked” about.

===
Meehna Goldmith is a stalwart member of ThePuristS.com community and passionate about serious watchmaking – its history, technique, and the collectors that love them.  

This article appears here by courtesy of ThePuristS.com and has been published (in part) by iW Magazine - a FineLife Media publication.  All rights reserved; April 2008

Copyright April 2008 - Meehna Goldsmith & ThePuristS.com - all rights reserved

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