Denes_Papp
160
Gear porn
Some of might already guessed that my personal favorite watch is my Marine Perpetual Limited from Ulysse Nardin.
It is from the great time of the company under Rolf, when they were daring and inventing.
For me it is not only the fantastic guilloche lacquered dial, but the fantastic perpetual movement.
It is also the fantastic digital perpetual calendar. I personally do not favor perpetual calendars with hands in several subdials. For me it just renders the the whole image just too busy.
And add it to it the intuitive, painless and very easy setting of the calendar function. The creation of one of the giants of modern watch making, Ludwig Oechslin.
I always wanted to learn more about his perpetual creation since I read this:
Recently I came across a UN perpetual movement on sale on Ebay. I could not resist.
Once I received it, I proceeded to do exactly the same as in the above article.
And boy, what a journey it became.
We are talking about really small gears here!
The beauty of this construction is that there are no cams, click and springs, therefore the adjustment can work both back and forward.
The simplicity of the concept and the mechanics is just amazing.
I can pat myself on the shoulder since I was able to put everything back together, and not just together, but working correctly.
Just to dig deeper, I modeled the program wheels from teflon and made a working enlargement of the program module:
This shows the "short month" and "February 20" wheels
And this all three with the "leap year" wheel.
All the gears put together for a February 28th date change.
For size illustration I put the original parts net to the teflon ones.
Gear porn
Some of might already guessed that my personal favorite watch is my Marine Perpetual Limited from Ulysse Nardin. It is from the great time of the company under Rolf, when they were daring and inventing. For me it is not only the fantastic guilloche lacque...
Well done! I tip my hat to you.
I also love this Marine Perpetual, a most friendly Perpetual Calendar. ...
I was there once on a cruise and again several for business; I agree with your observations
And such a photogenic building! I stood there for 24 hours taking photos (well, I stood up in my hotel room at least 4 times) And the food was good too! Seiko perpetual; I did not have the UN at that time One great thing about WPS - here we can see the wo...
Fully agree about the one great merit of WPS...
One more pic of the UN with the beautiful Parliament Building. Thanks for sharing, Mike. ...
I am with you, my friend. I own one
myself and won’t part with it. In fact I just ordered and received a new rubber strap for mine as the one I originally had is a little tight now. Oh the impacts of aging . . .
This was while watching the America’s
Cup in Bermuda in 2017. Perfect Watch for it! Ulysse Nardin was a sponsor. ...
You have the rarer version methinks
The steel running seconds at 9 o’clock in most of the pieces I’ve seen or handled are red. It’s a brilliant watch. Cheers, Tim
Hello my friend Tim! How are you
mate? So my watch is unlike the others but is it still one that was factory produced by UN? I bought it brand new. I did have to send it back to repair the enamel bezel but I cannot imagine them replacing the second hand from red to steel. Any insight? Th...
Yes, I’ve never found out the truth as to why the different second hand colors exist.
We may never know now, sadly as I suspect with the “Dream Team” of Rolf, Ludwig and Pierre Gygax long gone, those details are probably lost to history. The possible explanation is that a small series came out with the steel hand like yours. Then someone a...
Why is it so rare for someone to be aware of the proper name for this gem. "Marine Perpetual Limited"! I also much prefer it's windows display over multiple dials and hands and love it's
ability to be adjusted forwards and backwards. What a great era for UN with Rolf at the helm and Ludwig creating amazing movements like this! After lusting after these since they came out I finally bought one of the last ones available from an AD in the e...
UN Perpetual Naming & Numbering
The Marine Perpetual and Acqua Perpetual came out together in 1999. The Marine Perpetual Ref. 333-77-7, the blue one, was a limited edition of 500 and it has a sapphire caseback. The Acqua Perpetual came in white Ref. 333-88-7 and black Ref. 333-88-3/92 w...
Yes, I often see the Marine Perpetual ltd being called an Acqua Perpetual. Another point of confusion is with the dial. I remember it supposedly being enamel yet it's often
stated to be lacquer. Recently I had this conversation with a store owner friend. His store was an AD and he also owns a blue Marine Ltd. He was sure that it's enamel. The next time I saw him he said he had called UN and they said it's enamel. But I suppo...
Can’t do enamel with such small windows
At least that’s what Marcus Hanke told me a long time ago when I conversed with him about the Marine Perpetual’s dial. He said that the enamel would crack at the corners of such windows. He stated that the lacquer was laid over the guilloche in several la...
There was also this rarity. Made in an edition of 99pcs.
It came out in 2006 or 2007 from memory. The final Marine Perpetual. The reference 333-55-7/02 It had a wider lug width, which actually to my eye was a better balance. Only bummer was no exhibition back. The dial was meant to look like carbon fiber. Cheer...
Superb post, Denes. The UN PC is brilliant, especially the fact that you can set it forward AND backward, all that through the crown.
Merci MM OESCHLIN and SCHNYDER. Add MM GYGAX and HUMAIR, and you have THE Team who gave life to some of the most marvelous and innovative masterpieces, such as the Astronomical watches, the Sonata, the Freak and so on... What an era! As for your Marine Pe...
It was the first watch I coveted
When it came out in 1999 it retailed for over 25K USD and it was unobtainable for me at that time. It took me nine years and market crush in 2008 (that made high end watch prices to fall), to make my dream come true.
I thought it was more like $23,000 when it came out but could be wrong. Either way it blew my mind, I wanted it but also couldn't afford it. Eventually my local AD told me that
they're sold out. A couple of years later we were at a favorite multi brand store in Vegas looking at UNs and my wife says isn't that the Perpetual ltd you love? Yep!! They said a good customer had put a down payment on it and then got sick and passed awa...
If I remember correctly, I may have traded 2 watches and my Jaguar for mine
Worth it even though I had to say Goodbye XJ… sniff, sniff but also Good Riddance! ...
I resemble this deal…😉
Still got the boat anchor🤦♂️ I am very happy though that you got that brilliant watch. Ludwig’s QP is still brilliant and was so far ahead of its time. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your journey
with this movement. It’s impressive. And I can only admire your love for your Marine Perpetual Limited and its ingenious movement. Well done, Denes! Best, Emmanuel
That’s awesome 👍🏻👏🏻
Making the gears larger for demonstration purposes - simply great! Thanks 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Another tidbit
Another lesser known fact about the Marine Perpetual that it has a white gold bezel. If I am correct it has to do with the blue lacquer, that would not work on stainless steel. Very much like on the Maxi Marine 43 WG limited. Actually they share the same ...
How abaout the little anchor medallion in the rotor? is it enamel?
I’m just wondering after all these other fine details we are discussing: Perfect props for UN photos! ...
No, it is the same lacquer.
When I was working on the movement disassembly I took a good look at the rotor also. Checked with my fingernail, it felt the same as the bezel. It is still the same beautiful boy🤩🤪
My ultimate dream
The one watch wish I would love to be granted is a GMT/Chrono/Perpetual with this blue dial. UN has the GMT +\- Perpetual already and they have the Caliber 150 chronograph. Both based on the same Lemania DNS. Wondering how possible it would be to put the ...
This is a most serious strip-down ...
I love your post, and especially the working model you made. I would disassemble the movement, put everything in a plastic bag and send it to UN: "Please undo what I did ..." Regards, Marcus
A great perpetual
You did a great job with the movement breakdown and model of the program wheels. I always liked the El Toro watch. I'm surprised to learn that this particular model is now worth more parted than whole.