Blast
History of the line
The Blast collection debuted in 2020 as the most explicitly contemporary and avant-garde offering in the Ulysse Nardin catalogue, distinct from the more historically inspired lines such as the Marine or San Marco. The case, round in layout, is enclosed in a rectangular frame that accentuates its angular, technical character, while the dial opens with an X-shaped cut-out that leaves the skeletonised structure of the movement in full view.
The line's most distinctive technical element is so-called "silicon marquetry" (silicon quartz), a technique combining coloured silicon inlays with traditional crafts such as enamelling, miniature painting, engraving and gem-setting: a deliberate meeting between high-tech materials and classic watchmaking artistic crafts, applied to a deliberately futuristic aesthetic.
From the base model the line quickly expanded with complication versions, including variants with tourbillon, dual time zone, astronomical functions and, in the most elaborate versions, chiming mechanisms with carillon, presented over the following years at fairs such as Watches & Wonders. Blast has thus established itself, together with the Freak, as one of the brand's two most experimental souls, alongside the more classic, chronometric one represented by the Marine and the historic lines.
Technical specifications
Timeline of the line
The name "Blast" was chosen to deliberately evoke a disruptive, contemporary energy, in sharp contrast with the names of the brand's other lines — Marine, San Marco, Astrolabium — which all, without exception, refer to a specific chapter of Ulysse Nardin's naval or astronomical history.