A FREAK IS BORN
Launched in 2001, the first Freak is recognized as the single most iconoclastic act of horological audacity in the history of modern watchmaking. As the first "hyperwatch" that heralded a new era, it smashed every convention known to watchmaking in its own inexorably freaky way. Featuring an ultramodern and disruptive design of the 12-hour tourbillon carrousel, it was the first timepiece ever with no crown, no dial, no hands. Movement is king. The rotation is given by the movement of the watch itself: a gear train and escapement revolve once every hour and indicate the minutes. The time is adjusted rotating the bezel and the watch is regulated by a new miniaturized Dual Direct Escapement with the introduction for the first time ever of silicon escapement wheels. Silicon is light and elastic, has low-friction properties and high resistance. In 2001, adopting it in watchmaking was radical – and expensive. Fast-forward two decades and it is now mainstream.
The technical virtuosity of Ulysse Nardin, with a movement deconstructed to express time on its own, led a counterrevolution that has changed the face of watchmaking forever, by rewriting its codes and fomenting a revolution on three fronts — design, mechanical and material. Being the first wristwatch wherein mechanics and aesthetics are virtually indistinguishable, the name Freak also pays tribute to Rolf W. Schnyder and Ludwig Oechslin, who were true geniuses and "freaks" in their own way, by revisiting the concept of a watch as if it had never existed before.