Reviews
Ulysse Nardin Perpetual Ludwig and Ulysse Nardin GMT Perpetual
Reviews
Ulysse Nardin Perpetual Ludwig and Ulysse Nardin GMT Perpetual
Admittedly, it was the Freak of 2001 that did much to remind veteran enthusiasts of the company’s inventiveness, while recent Freaks inform newbies that this was and is a house of great achievement. Crucially, though, it must be reiterated that this recent activity is not out-of-character: Ulysse Nardin – too discreet for far too many years – was a key player throughout the watch revival of the mid-1980s, thanks to then-resident genius Ludwig Oechslin.
With the ever-inventive Oechslin, a true renaissance man, coming up with the designs, Ulysse Nardin acknowledged his role in the company’s rebirth with an eponymous timepiece in 1996. The Perpetual Ludwig was developed to mark Ulysse Nardin’s 150th anniversary, at a time when perpetual calendars were still rarities, unlike now, when perps, like tourbillons, hardly raise an eyebrow. The Perpetual Ludwig was an automatic, bristling with innovations demanding patents.
All of the adjustments were synchronised, and with a few turns of the crown, calendar displays could be moved forward by days, months or several years, should one want to know a date far in advance. The Perpetual Ludwig also accommodated leap years, and was forgiving enough to be backwards-adjustable, should the over-eager user go past the correct date.
Though it’s more than 20 years old, the Perpetual Ludwig looks as fresh and contemporary as any current perp-cal, while still possessing something which eludes too many of them: clarity. This writer finds most perpetuals to be too fussy, the dials too crowded. Not so the Perpetual Ludwig: big date, easy-to-read day-of-the-week, month, and year.
It was a collectible watch that ticked every box. Chronometer rating, new movement developed with Ebel, production limited to 150 pieces each in platinum, 18k yellow gold and pink gold, water resistance to 30 meters. The watch lives on in the current Perpetual Ludwig, with smooth rather than guilloché dial, and it remains one of the most subtle of perpetual calendars on the market.
It didn’t end there: in its wake came another surprise from the mind of Oechslin. Introduced in 1999, the GMT± Perpetual added a second time-zone display in the form of a third hand, its functionality synchronised with the day, month, date and year operations to create the perfect perpetual calendar for the traveller. The dial layout was the same as the Perpetual Ludwig, the visual giveaways between it and both the original and current Perpetual Ludwigs being the extra hand, the 24-hour inner chapter ring and pushers at 4 and 8 o’clock for the time zone changes.