Dropping Anchor

The Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon and Freaklab flex Ulysse Nardin’s horological muscle while also referencing its maritime past. Aaron de Silva discovers the innovations within

lysse nardin is no stranger to feats of horological greatness, having in the past produced automatic-winding astronomical wristwatches (the Trilogy of Time series, 1985-1992) even as the watchmaking industry had yet to recover from the quartz crisis, as well as the first watch in the world to use silicon in its escapement, the Freak (2001). In 2014, Ulysse Nardin once again whet horological appetites by announcing the Ulysse Anchor Escapement, a revolutionary invention that would turn the traditional Swiss lever escapement—used in the majority of mechanical watches on the market— on its head. The escapement was created in collaboration with silicon technology specialist Sigatec, and no less than eight years were spent perfecting it. It proposes a system whereby the pallet (or anchor) is not fixed to the balance assembly, but is instead suspended by two perpendicular silicon blades that operate on the principle of buckling (they snap from one stable state to the other, very much like a snap hair clip). This gives direct impulses to the escape wheel, and minimises friction and energy loss. The architecture of the escapement is such that it maintains the oscillations of the balance wheel at a constant rate. What this means for the user is that