Ulysse Nardin’s independent legacy: Innovation and excellence under Patrick Pruniaux

What is the main message that you wish to convey?

That Ulysse Nardin is a brand with no boundaries. There is a sense of freedom here and freedom means creativity. It means you dare to use recycled plastic to make high horology pieces. It means you dare to use silicium in a movement. It means you dare to create a watch like the Freak X.

So it’s essentially about thinking outside the box.

Yes, but doing it with a lot of credibility. We have some of the best watchmakers in all of Switzerland. Traditional watchmaking is at the core of who we are; we got our credibility early on by being one of the best manufacturers of chronometers. Then we became one of the leaders in complications, especially astronomical complications. With the Freak, we’re an inventor of contemporary watchmaking.

How do you encourage your team to keep innovating?

It’s not hard because there is so much passion and watchmaking knowledge within the team. The challenge is deciding what to do. We nurture the people who have been on our team for a long time. A good example is Ludwig Oechslin, a genius watchmaker who is part of the team that develops new movements. [Ed note: Oechslin is credited with creating the Freak.]

But everyone always delivers new ideas. We always try to bring groundbreaking ideas to the table. A good example would be the Grinder winding system that allows the Freak to be an automatic watch.