MARKET | Updates & Debuts
ULYSSE NARDIN
CLASSICO PAUL DAVID NARDIN
RECENT ULYSSE NARDIN DEBUTS, with the
exception of the firm’s new Diver Le Locle, have
been complicated timepieces that do much to
underscore the watchmaker’s deep technical
abilities. Known for its marine chronometers,
its artistic dial making and, of course, for its
pioneering role in developing silicon and
diamond-coated watch components within its
Freak collection (and beyond), Ulysse Nardin
now takes a step back in time.
Witness the Ulysse Nardin Classico Paul
David Nardin, a 39mm steel watch that simply
displays the time with a small seconds subdial
and a date window. That’s it. No perpetual
calendar or annual calendar like several other
new models. And nothing Freaky here either.
Named after Ulysse Nardin’s son, Paul
David, who took control of the company after
his father’s death in 1876, the new watch is
distinctly retro in style, modeled after a 1945
Ulysse Nardin timepiece. Given that the Ulysse
Nardin Diver Le Locle unveiled only a few
weeks ago is also modeled after a decades-old
design (in that case a Ulysse Nardin dive watch
from 1964), one wonders if this research-
focused company with generally contemporary
designs is finally entering the retro sweepstakes
that has enthralled so many of its peers in Swit-
zerland and Japan of late.
If so, the company is off to a good start. The
resolutely retro Ulysse Nardin Classico Paul
David Nardin will certainly appeal to fans of
historical design timepieces with its 39mm
diameter, which makes it the smallest offered
among the firm’s dressy Classico Manufacture
men’s models, most of which start at 40mm.
The dial’s vintage-inspired silvered dial with
Arabic indexes also fills the bill for these
buyers. Ulysse Nardin places its own self-
winding UN-320 manufacture movement inside.
The caliber is distinctly modern, despite the
vintage case, as it features a hairspring and an
escapement in silicon and boasts 48 hours of
power reserve. Also, the date can be corrected
both backward and forward, likely not a feature
available in 1945. Also not from the mid-1940s:
the $9,500 price tag.
52 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | SUMMER 2017
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