It is an exciting time for watchmaking. Innovation abounds as new materials and construction methods proliferate throughout the industry. Silicone is one such material, and in fact it was Ulysse Nardin who debuted it in a wristwatch—back in 2001 in the escapement wheels of the original Freak. Today, the Freak is also the platform with which Ulysse Nardin introduces a new generation of silicone component. The futuristic, white spaceship-like design of the Freak Next has the now-familiar carousel movement sporting a blue silicone ‘flying oscillator.’ This component replaces the traditional balance wheel with a set of circular, ultra-thin blade-like layers that together act as a regulating organ. Although it rotates around a central point, there is no need for a physical pivot and hence friction is reduced to almost nothing. The result is a remarkably efficient and reliable system, one with a 70-hour power reserve despite oscillating at 12Hz. The amplitude is also the same no matter the orientation of the watch, and throughout the entirety of the power reserve.
The design of the oscillator was headed by Ulysse Nardin’s Research and Innovation Director, Stephane von Gunten, and the idea had already been conceptualised as early as 2008. However, it was only recently that silicone manufacturing technology became precise enough to implement it in a wristwatch—the silicone blades are just 16 microns thick, less than a quarter that of a human hair. “You need many things. You need the idea, you need the skill for fabrication, you need the skill for the assembly and so on,” Gunten explains of the process.
Although Gunten remains modest of his innovation, he concedes that this new oscillator is a significant milestone. “It’s one of the first oscillators without a hairspring, which had been used for centuries,” he says. He comes from a family of watchmakers and tries to use modern technology in a way that respects the ideals of his grandfather’s time. “In watchmaking, we still want to improve the performance, the reliability of watches, and that’s the innovative part of it,” he says. “I feel confident with what we are doing, because we use the technology in a technical way, in a way that brings advantages.”
Only 12 of the Freak Next were made, but the new flying oscillator is not going anywhere. The Freak Next is essentially a concept watch, but the message is clear—the next generation of Ulysse Nardin watches is coming.
