SpotlightSkeletal Shadow: The Spectral Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre

Ulysse Nardin have a bold yet sometimes understated way of challenging convention. They’ve been doing it since their marine chronometers in the 1800s. And with the arrival of the Freak in 2001, they shook the watchmaking world. Almost two decades later, a Blast arrived. With X-shaped and rectangular bridges overlapping on the open-worked display, the Blast offers a creative canvas for offbeat artistic expressions. The micro-rotor visible at 12 on the dial side is quite the blast too. Now, the brand collaborate with fashion designer Amoureuxpeintre to showcase the Blast Amoureuxpeintre, a watch that reveals as much as it conceals through its frosted sapphire crystal dial and caseback. Monochromatic by design, the latest release leads skeleton timekeeping to a new evolutionary stage, one that will hopefully offer both ‘clarity and mystery’, much as the Blast Amoureuxpeintre does.

Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre: Now You See It…

Sized at 42mm, the case of the Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre is crafted from titanium and features an anthracite PVD sandblasted finish. Both bezel and caseback mirror this matt finish. The latter frames a round, frosted sapphire crystal window that only barely suggests the presence of the movement’s intersecting bridges and oversized oscillator. This movement is the UN-371 manual-winding calibre with a silicon balance wheel and nickel flyweights. Besides enhanced accuracy and anti-magnetism, the UN-371 calibre offers a stunning power reserve of 96 hours. Instead of the movement, the frosted caseback reveals Amoureuxpeintre’s signature.

Sized at 42mm, the case of the Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre is crafted from titanium and features an anthracite PVD sandblasted finish

The caseback frames a round, frosted sapphire glass window that only barely suggests the presence of the movement’s intersecting bridges and oversized oscillator

…Now You Don’t: Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre

The dial was deliberately obscured to evoke frosted glass walls in offices that both distort and highlight what lies within. Kyrgyzstan-born Vsevolod Sever Cherepanov, better known as Amoureuxpeintre, believes that the meaning of an object is ‘revealed through simplicity’. He is known for his minimalistic and monochromatic sensibilities that he expresses in the collaborative Blast Amoureuxpeintre timepiece. The distorted sapphire dial was created through an advanced laser technique, offering a mere suggestion of the Blast’s distinctive intersecting bridges. Skeletonised, grey Super-LumiNova-filled anthracite hour and minute hands stand out against the frosted grey dial. Barring a minimal brand signature on the dial, there are no other markings. Hour indexes are marked on the flange.

Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre In A Nutshell

• Case: 42mm, anthracite PVD titanium with sand-blasted finish
• Caseback: Frosted sapphire crystal with Ulysse Nardin X Amoureuxpeintre printed
• Dial: Frosted sapphire crystal; hour markers on flange; anthracite hands with grey Super-LumiNova
• Functions: Hours, minutes
• Movement: UN-371; manual winding; 96-hour power reserve; silicon balance wheel
• Strap: Grey Alcantara strap

Limited to 29 pieces only, the Ulysse Nardin Blast Amoureuxpeintre watch is paired with an integrated grey Alcantara strap that fits in with the brand’s sustainability efforts. In concealing a movement that has thus far been proudly displayed, Ulysse Nardin give the Blast Amoureuxpeintre timepiece a unique appeal, leaving the wearer with much to discover.