The latest timepiece in Ulysse Nardin’s Freak collection earns its Super status, packing in more than 500 components for what the Swiss watchmaker calls the most complicated time-only watch ever made.

Hardcore horophiles may salivate over the technological marvel of incorporating the world’s smallest gimbal system and vertical differential, but even casual collectors whose eyes just glazed over at those phrases ought to be satiated by what’s been packed into its 18-carat white-gold casing. 

The Super Freak was made to bring some weirdness to watchmaking: it drops the crown in favor of time-setting via its bezel, and introduces a second display and eight new patented technological tricks, allowing for over 97% movement across its seven-plan construction — setting the watch apart from the rest, including Ulysse Nardin’s previous Freaks. 

There’s a reason the Super Freak feels destined for grail status. Beyond its limited run of only 50 watches, Ulysse Nardin’s most experimental offering builds on 25 years of lore. The very first Freak debuted in March 2001, living up to its name with an appropriately off-kilter press conference that would’ve gone fully viral today. 

Picture this: a seven-person parade of figures wearing masks of the brand’s mad genius watchmaker, Ludwig Oechslin, entering an underground room packed with international journalists.

It was the Eyes Wide Shut of timepiece launches, and established the line as one of the most interesting sources for experimentation in an otherwise mechanical industry.

A quarter century later, this latest drop feels like a flex by a brand at the top of its game. Only five Ulysse Nardin watchmakers were trained to build this complex beast of a timepiece, with each one spending over 60 hours carefully assembling it bit by bit. No one except those five knows what songs were playing on the office Spotify playlist during production, but it feels like it’d have been a crime not to throw a certain 1981 funk classic into the mix. 

RIP Rick James, you would’ve loved the Ulysse Nardin Super Freak.  

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