Last month we took a look at the new Dual Time Manufacture from Ulysse Nardin, now we turn the spotlight on the brand’s new UN32 Perpetual Calendar. Not your typical perpetual calendar, aesthetically speaking at least, this new model offers a refreshing take on this classic complication.
The UN32 Perpetual Calendar
For me the attractiveness of the Dual Time Manufacture lies in its simplicity: clean design, well balanced dial, all very intuitive. The new UN32 Perpetual Calendar shares many of these traits, making it another attractive option from Ulysse Nardin but I can’t help but feel the dial is becoming a little overcrowded.
To be fair the UN32 does feature a perpetual calendar complication, which the Dual Time does not, in addition to indicating a second time-zone. As such there is a lot more information to display on the dial, making the challenge to achieve elegant simplicity that much harder for the team of designers at Ulysse Nardin.
From a functional point of view the layout is certainly practical enough, large date window at 2 o’clock, day, month and year shown via separate apertures at 9, 3 and 6 o’clock respectively. The main time display incorporates the hours and minutes, as well as a secondary time zone shown on an outer 24-hour ring indicated by a third, red-tipped hand. If you look closely you will notice the bottom half of the 24-hour ring is darker than the upper half, to indicate day and night.
What kind of throws things off a bit for me though is the small seconds indicator, shown on a sub-dial at 9 o’clock. I think I would have preferred to see a central seconds hand instead, to allow more breathing room for the perpetual calendar indications but then perhaps the dial would have seemed to plain?
Behind the scenes the Uysse Nardin COSC-certified, automatic UN-32 perpetual calendar movement is hard at work. Thanks to its ability to track leap years and short months (February) the watch will not need to be adjusted again to the year 2100, which really is pretty standard for a perpetual calendar. What makes this particular watch special though is the fact that you adjust the date forwards or backwards. Doesn’t seem like that big a deal but there are only a handful of QP’s out there capable of this little party trick.
Presented in a highly polished, 43mm case in your choice of platinum or 18k red gold, the Ulysse Nardin UN32 Perpetual Calendar will be a limited edition of just 250 pieces.
Overall I have to say the new UN32 Perpetual Calendar is a pretty nice looking watch from Ulysse Nardin. It’s practical, reasonably sized and boasts a manufacture movement that is of a very high standard. I am a bit surprised the brand chose to make this model as a limited edition but that seems to becoming de rigeur for the industry these days, so I guess that is more or less to be expected.
Both versions of the new UN32 Perpetual Calendar are amazing. I prefer the platinum case version with its nostalgic elegance. Since the launching of the Marine Chronometer in 2012 with the in-house caliber UN118, Ulysse Nardin has improving its position in the rank of Swiss top watch manufacturers.
I guess you know about the “…seemed TO plain…” by now, I think that I’m quite a few years behind in reading your article…
I was hoping to learn about the movement in re it being BI-or UNI-directional? If UNI, which way should I set up the winder, clockwise or counter???