Event Report: Ulysse Nardin- InnoVision 2 concept watch.

Last month, Patrik Hoffmann, CEO of  Ulysse Nardin was here to present the InnoVision 2 concept watch. The meeting with members of the media was hosted by leading luxury watch retailer, The Hour Glass.    

The "Grinder" is a self winding mechanism used in the concept watch. More on this later.

Dual Constant Escapement: Some parts in this escapement are bonded using a high temperature bonding process. Wafer are of the same thickness and until now there is no way to make wafer parts of different heights in one wafer. With this patented development, UN is able to build parts of different heights separately and bond them together in order to reduce wastage.  

Glass bridge with integrated shock protection for the balance wheel- with lasered channels filled with Super Luminova. 

A huge model of the "Grinder". It is an interesting innovation that caught my attention. The principal of ratchet and pawl gearing (seen a different configuration before in my previous line of work but it's a first in a watch). Any movement of the arm, in any direction will enable the 4 driving pawls to move the very fine pitch ratchet to wind the watch. 

In this case, the spring loaded pawl of a typical ratchet and pawl system is replaced by thinly laser cut extension arms. A very clever idea indeed!.

Ten Patents: Dual Constant Escapement, Direct Silicium Bonding, Silicium balance wheel, gold elements and stabilizing micro paddles, Grinder self-winding mechanism, Sapphire-coated silicium bridge, 24k hard gold wheels, Glass bridge with integrated shock protection for balance wheel, Super Luminova on glass balance wheel bridge,Time display divided into 1-11 & 13-23 and Three-dimensional minute hands!

Caseback showing the Grinder self-winding mechanism.

Patrik Hoffmann, CEO of  Ulysse Nardin