Insights: Watches
A Story of Time. A Story of Precision Timekeeping.
Founded by Mr. Ulysse Nardin in Le Locle, Switzerland in 1846 and a House of the international luxury group Kering since November 2014, Ulysse Nardin has written some of the most beautiful chapters in the history of Fine Watchmaking. The company owes its reputation to its ties with the nautical world: its on-board marine chronometers are among the most reliable ever designed.
When astronomers Johan Galle and Urbain Le Verrier were busy discovering new planets in our solar system, Ulysse Nardin was already reaching for the stars crafting precision Marine Chronometers.
Accuracy is everything in timekeeping and navigation
Chronometry, which requires the highest skill level of any timekeeping creations, has been the unique domain of Ulysse Nardin for close to two centuries, following in the tradition of its expert watchmaking since the company’s founding. During the 18th century, marine chronometers—with sufficient precision that allowed for long-distance exploration—saw their first tests as navigational tools. At the time, they acted as a compliment to the required expertise in astral navigation and precise time-based calculations necessary to find longitude. At that time, a Deck Chromometer was as essential of a strategic tool as a GPS or a radar system for a battleship. Ulysse Nardin’s pocket chronometers were among the most coveted ever created—prized by naval officers and merchant captains all over the world.
Ulysse Nardin is one of the few manufactures with the in-house expertise necessary to produce its own high-precision components and movements. An exceptional level of horological excellence has earned it a spot in the exclusive circle of Swiss watchmaking: the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.
The collection and the story
To celebrate its momentous 175th anniversary, Ulysse Nardin is delighting its patrons and fans—free-minded, gentlemen, adventurers—with a series of seven new Marine Torpilleur with two new movements, complications, chronographs, and enameled dials.
Every watch is as distinctive as its wearer and ready to accompany each modern Ulysses on the high seas of their unique voyages through life’s adventures. Each embodies the maverick mentality of Ulysse Nardin and answers the calling of exploration a vertical odyssey, from the ocean depths to the upper atmosphere.
