Ulysse Nardin Anchor Tourbillon No. 8

ULYSSE NARDIN, CLASSICO, ANCHOR TOURBILLON, LIMITED EDITION NO.8

ICONEEK price: SOLD

Iconeek is very proud to introduced here a superb, attractive and highly innovative visible flying 60-seconds tourbillon wristwatch by Ulysse Nardin with constant force, silicium escapement and 8-days power reserve: The Anchor Tourbillon.

Being an undisputed world first, the model has been awarded by the famous Grand Prix de Geneve in 2015 for the best tourbillon. Limited edition to only 18 pieces, the present 18K white gold model has a exceptional power reserve of 170h, a constant Ulysse Nardin Anchor escapement in silicium. The model is manual winding, however, thanks to to enormous power reserve the wearer do not need to worry winding.

« the Ulysse Anchor Tourbillon is the quintessence of avant-garde mechanical technology. The outcome of eight years of research and development, the constant Ulysse Anchor escapement, made entirely of silicium, displays hitherto unknown architecture based on the principle of flexible mechanisms exploiting the elasticity of flat springs. No longer constrained by a pivoting staff, the pallet fork moves entirely without friction; the geometrical improvements made to the pallet fork, the escape wheel and the flat springs have resulted in a constant-force escapement; and to crown all of this, this new coinage in watchmaking is brought aboard in a tourbillon cage, the peak of traditional expertise », courtesy of Ulysse Nardin.

« The constant Anchor escapement features a circular frame with a pallet fork fixed in the center, supported in space on two blade springs less than a tenth of the thickness of a hair in diameter. Mounted perpendicular to each other, these are subjected to a bending force that curves them and maintains them in a bi-stable state. This complex structure, made entirely of silicium thanks to the DRIE deep etching technique, exploits the physical capacity of blade springs to become distorted along the left-right axis while remaining perfectly rigid along the up-down axis, thus reproducing the kinetic functions of a pivot. The impulse that issues from each alternation of the balance wheel thus transmits its energy to the blades, which snap from one stable state to the other, very much like a snap hair-clip. The pallet arms thus pivot backwards and forwards about a pallet staff that is purely virtual, without generating any frictional forces ».

« The redesigned pallet fork now possesses an integral resetting face. As the tooth of the escape wheel slides along this surface as far as the banking face, it will bring the pallet fork back every time to within just 3 degrees of the center line – that is, the imaginary straight line between the center of the balance wheel and the center of the escape wheel which defines the system’s equilibrium limit. Thus the effort that the balance wheel has to exert to push the pallet fork as far as its tipping point is less than the effort that is restored to it immediately afterwards by the bending of the blade springs. In this way, this positive energy balance is able to maintain the oscillations of the balance wheel at a constant rate. In fact, this interplay of forces is not influenced by the motor torque injected into the escape wheel, which only starts to move once the pallet fork has switched over ».

Under the sapphire crystal, a superb white enamel dial « Grand Feu »  with painted blue large Arabic numerals, an outer minute division with 5-minute radial Arabic numerals, an aperture at 6 for the visible flying one minute tourbillon.Under the transparent case back secured by 6 screws, we can see the caliber UN-178, half-squeletonized, with 29 jewels. The case is water-resistant to 30m. The model comes with a blue UN leather strap and an 18K white gold UN buckle. The size between the lugs is 21 mm. Dial, case and movement are signed.

The present watch is numbered 8 of a limited edition of only 18 pieces.

The model is a modern and very innovating tribute to the Ulysse Nardin Marine chronometer. A superb work of art!

Condition: 9.8/10, superb, full-set, first owner