Ulysse Nardin CEO Patrick Pruniaux is on the record saying the company’s greatest asset is the Freak, but the Blast is a second useful platform watch, particularly the Blast Tourbillon introduced in 2020, that can turn its face to any opportunity.
Take the Chinese New Year, for example, an opportunity for Swiss watchmakers to show a bit of ankle to its third largest export market.
To mark the start of China’s Year of the Dragon, which begins on February 10, Ulysse Nardin is highlighting the skills of its metier d’art team with the creation of a dragon that prowls across the skeletonised X structure of the dial.
The dragon is hand-sculpted and painted in rose gold.
It has five claws, a form that, according to Ulysse-Nardin (and verified by a Google fact check), could only be used by the Emperor and the royal family while the rest of the population had to use depictions of a four-legged creature.
The dragon’s head nudges the Blast’s tourbillon at 6 o’clock.
It turns in the Ulysse-Nardin UN-172 automatic movement with three day power reserve, which has a platinum micro rotor visible at 12 o’clock on the skeletonised dial or from the underside via a large exhibition case back.
The watch comes in a 45mm case in a combination of rose gold bezel and black DLC-treated titanium.
It is sold with a black alligator strap with a sportier interchangeable black rubber alternative.
Only 88 are being made, on sale here for CHF 95,400.
