Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
11296
Everyday Beauty - Marine Annual Chronograph experience review, pt. 2
Everyday Beauty:
Ulysse Nardin’s Marine Annual Chronograph
An experience
review
by Marcus Hanke
Part II
Dial and Hands
When I acquired this watch, I originally opted for the black dial with flat silver hands. The reason for my choice was that I already had the Marine Diver with a silver/white dial and blued hands, and consequently I wanted to avoid having two watches with a too similar style. Additionally, I thought that the black colour would more effectively hide the framework of the big date window, making it less apparent that there were two windows aside, separated by a bar.
Indeed I was absolutely stunned when i got the black faced Marine Annual. The embossed Arabian numerals, held in flat silver, looked great, with a high contrast on the deep black dial. The same was the case with the hands, that also were flat silver, unlike the highly polished hands of the Maxi Marine Chronometer, for example. The former’s’ big advantage was their perfect legibility under all lighting conditions, while polished steel/rhodium hands on a black background always are somewhat problematic to read.
After some months, though, tiny specks appeared on the dial and the sapphire crystal’ underside. Since these were moving around, I suspected them to be particles chipped away from the Super Luminova either of the hands or of the luminous dots aside the numerals. After I checked back with Ulysse Nardin’s after sales service department, the watch was sent to Le Locle. About two weeks later, I was informed that indeed, the small dots were SL particles, and most probably came from the luminous dots. The reason was the movement of the rehaut ring.
Since dial, case, rehaut and sapphire crystal show different behaviours in temperature changes, it would not make sense to glue or solder all components firmly together. Sooner or later, small cracks would appear. Therefore, the rehaut is normally not attached to the dial, but is squeezed between dial and crystal, leaving both a certain freedom to stretch or move. If now the luminous mass is applied a little bit too generously onto the dots, which are very close to the rehaut ring, there is the slight possibility of the rehaut to abrade this SL that is too much. And, apparently, this was what happened to my watch.
However, a simple cleaning and replacement of the dial was not enough in this case, since it could not excluded that SL particles had entered the movement through the big date window, which could cause mechanical trouble later. As a consequence, the service staff notified me they would completely disassemble the movement and clean it, before I would get back my watch. Also, dial and hands would be replaced, since they wanted to make sure that the SL particles did not come from the hands.
This was when I decided to ask whether a refit with a white dial and blued hands is possible. I have to admit that I never was really happy with the Marine Annual’s black dial. Somehow, the classic, even antique design of dial and hands, shaped after the marine chronometers of the old days in my eyes does not match the sportive colour combination of black, silver and red. And finally, I realised that I absolutely love heat blued hands, and those used in the UN watches always are exceptionally beautiful, with a deep, saturated blue, and perfectly polished surfaces and edges.
Consequently, it was like the arrival of an entirely new and unknown watch, when the white faced Marine Annual finally returned to me. What a difference the colour makes! Before, the watch was unmistakable a chronograph, and thus immediately disclosed its ambitions as a sports watch. Now, the silver index rings around the two subdials loose their conspicuousness, and despite the two pushers on the case side, the watch appears to be a non-chronograph, a very classic and elegant timepiece.
On close inspection, the dial is not plain white, but discloses a certain silvery shimmer, that is only noticeable when direct sun light hits the surface. The dark blue numerals look a little bit thinner and finer as the silver ones did. The absolute highlight, though, are the heat blued hands: slightly domed, and flawless even under a 15x loupe, they are the perfect stuff to satisfy my personal horology fetish.
Needless to say, that the unique shape of the hands is proprietary to Ulysse Nardin, since the company presented its Marine Chronometer wristwatch. What fascinated me from the very beginning, was the designer’s clever integration of luminous elements into the classic and slim design of the classic "poire corps renflé" hands. Many thanks to Raimondo Brenni, UN’s ingenious watch designer!
If you are interested in reading an article on the evolution of the Marine Chronometer’s hand design, you are invited to follow this link:
The result of the integration of the luminous mass into the slim hands is a very good legibility, even in complete darkness. The luminous dots aside the numerals even become optically enlarged, due their refraction on the faceted edge of the crystal, and the hour and minute hands are easily distinguished from each other, thanks to the different shapes of the Luminova zones.
What I fail to understand, however, is the reason why the hands of the chronograph’s minutes and hours counters are luminous, while the stop second is not; this does not make much sense in my eyes. Since the counters are lacking any luminous markers, which would permit a reading of measured time intervals in the darkness, I think this has to be taken as a design idea without any practical value whatever. In my opinion, the red and - due to the SL - wide chronograph counter hands do not match the classic style of the dial very well. Yet I heard several other watch enthusiasts telling me the exact opposite, so I accept this as an issue of personal taste.
This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2007-07-19 10:25:59 This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2007-07-19 10:28:09 This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2007-07-19 10:29:17 This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2007-07-24 11:17:26