Ulysse Nardin Freak [X OPS]

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At Watches and Wonders Shanghai, the independent and integrated Manufacture Ulysse Nardin has taken the Freak X undercover with the Freak [X OPS]. 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].

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 its unforgettable look. The watch is water-resistant to 50 metres.

Take cover

The Freak [X OPS] is highly technical

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 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.

Ulysse Nardin Freak [X OPS] Technical Specifications

References and price

• 2303-270-2A-KAKI/0A (black strap)
• 2303-270-2A-KAKI/0B (green strap)
• 32’000 CHF / 29’700 GBP / 34’300 EUR (21% VAT included) / 33’800 USD (VAT excluded)

Movement

• Caliber UN-230 Manufacture
• Automatic movement
• Hours, minutes
• Flying carousel movement rotating around its own axis
• Balance wheel and escapement in silicon
• Oversized oscillator in silicon
• Black movement with indexes and bridges in khaki green Super-LumiNova®
• 206 components, 21 jewels
• Frequency 3 hz, oscillations 21’600 vph
• Power reserve: 72 hours

Case

• Khaki green carbon flanks in ‘Magma’, an original composite, blending black carbon fibres and green epoxy resin
• Black DLC titanium case and bezel
• Black DLC titanium case back with transparent sapphire opening
• Perceived height 10.7 mm, overall height 13.38 mm
• Diameter: 43 mm
• Water resistance: 50 m

Strap & Buckle

• Khaki green fabric strap
• Black fabric strap (recycled fishing net)
• Hook and loop fastener

About Ulysse Nardin
Ulysse Nardin is an independent and integrated Manufacture producing advanced timepieces for explorers in pursuit of freedom.
Founded by Mr Ulysse Nardin in 1846, the company owes its reputation to its links with the sea: its onboard marine chronometers are among the most award-winning and reliable ever designed.
A pioneer in innovative technologies and the use of high-tech materials such as silicon, Ulysse Nardin is one of the few integrated manufactures with the in-house expertise to produce its own high-precision components and movements. In 2001, the Maison changed the face of contemporary watchmaking by launching the first Freak.
Today, in the Swiss towns of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds, Ulysse Nardin remains devoted to its quest for watchmaking perfection in four collections: Freak, Blast, Diver and Marine.
As of 2022, Ulysse Nardin and sister Maison Girard-Perregaux have formed an independent collective of high horology Manufactures.