Collaborations are everywhere in the sartorial and horological spheres these days. But while some are notable for their aesthetics and for the partner firms who team up to make them a reality, many others feel strained and artificial, bringing companies with disparate visions and design remits together via the superficial placement of an additional logo on a dial.
The new UR-FREAK from Ulysse Nardin and Urwerk is most decidedly not that type of watch.
Representing the efforts of two of the most forward-thinking brands in the watch world, it combines U.N’s pioneering work in silicon with Urwerk’s championing of the satellite hours display, a system that uses a series revolving arms to indicate the minutes along a peripheral track while the hours are shown via a set of rotating discs. Looking at the UR-FREAK, the collaboration seems obvious, even begging the question as to why it never occurred until now. But while the market is rife with collaborative watches, many of these occur between a dedicated watchmaker and a company outside the watch industry. Seeing two top firms — who would normally be in competition with one another — team up to make a new timepiece is both notable and exciting.
Housed in a 44mm case based on that of the Freak [ONE], the UR-FREAK takes on the aspect of an exceptionally modern sports watch done up in Urwerk’s signature deep anthracite grey sandblasted titanium. Beyond the case material itself, other Urwerk-esque features figure into the design, from three fluted sections on the bezel and caseback to accents in the brand’s signature bright yellow Pantone 395 C color. (In addition to appearing within the dial indices and satellite indicators, this color also features in the watch’s rubber strap.) Eagle-eyed watch lovers will quickly notice that this model has no crown — or, rather, at least not in the traditional sense: As on all Freak watches, the time is set using the rotating bezel, which is “unlocked” via a button at 6 o’clock. Furthermore, its movement can be manually wound despite the presence of a highly efficient “Grinder” automatic winding system.
Rather than the signature rotating oscillator that takes the place of typical hands on a Freak watch, the UR-FREAK boasts a “wandering hours” complication manifested via Urwerk’s satellite display system. Produced in-house, the Ulysse Nardin cal. UN-241 powers this system while offering an impressive 90 hours of power reserve as well as a 3 Hz beat rate.
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Designed for increased accuracy, these incredible pieces exist at the cutting edge of mechanical horologyThe movement’s oscillator itself is front and center on this design: 25% larger than standard oscillators, it lives in the dial’s middle above the vertical plane of the rotating hour indicators. This being a Freak watch, of course, it makes use of silicon componentry, including proprietary, diamond-coated DIAMonSil within the movement’s escapement. (Resistant to temperature fluctations and magnetic fields, silicon is an ideal watchmaking component whose use was pioneered by Ulysse Nardin in the early 2000s.)
Watching a wandering hours complication at work is almost magical: As the satellite arm indicating the current hour traverses the final minute of the hour track — which, in the case of the UR-FREAK, is situated against the right-hand dial flank — the hour indicators switch over on all three arms to the next hour in a sort of mechanical dance. Though other watches use this system — the Audemars Piguet Star Wheel is a notable example, as is the significantly more affordable Xeric NASA Artemis Tumbler Automatic — it’s Urwerk whose wares, such as the UR-Satellite series, that most notably capture the complication’s distinctly futurist bent.
Water resistant to 30m, the UR-FREAK comes paired to a yellow rubber ballistic textured strap with a sandblasted titanium deployant buckle and also includes a secondary black rubber strap. Limited to just 100 individually numbered pieces, it’s a watch that represents not only a stragegic partnership, but one poised to redefine the possibilities of what a collaborative timepiece can be. If watchmakers are willing to look beyond the merely aesthetic in designing such pieces — indeed, if they’re willing to work with other watchmakers — the sky is truly the limit on what can be achieved.
Ulysse Nardin x URWERK UR-FREAK
Diameter: 44mm
Movement: Ulysse Nardin cal. UN-241 automatic
Water Resistance: 30m
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