A once-in-a-century partnership produces one of the most daring and rarest timepieces of 2024.
A Century of Curating the Extraordinary
In 1924, Watches of Switzerland opened its doors with a singular mission: to bring the world's finest timepieces to discerning collectors. One hundred years later, that mission hasn't changed but the scale certainly has. What began as a single shop is now a publicly listed group generating over $2 billion in annual revenue, with an unrivalled portfolio spanning more than 80 luxury watch brands.
To mark this centenary, Watches of Switzerland launched a series of limited-edition collaborations with some of watchmaking's most prestigious names Cartier, Bulgari, TAG Heuer among them. But the most ambitious and complex of those tributes? An icon of a watch, made even more special for the occasion: the Ulysse Nardin Freak S Watches of Switzerland Centenary Exclusive.
The Watch That Broke Every Rule
To understand why this release matters, you need to go back to 2001 the year Ulysse Nardin introduced the original Freak and, in doing so, upended everything the watch industry thought it knew about design.
The Freak had no dial. No hands. No crown.
Instead, the movement itself became the hands, rotating once per hour to display the time. Winding and time-setting were done through the bezel; a mechanism hidden in plain sight. But the design wasn't even the most revolutionary part. The Freak was the first watch in history to incorporate silicon in its movement. At the time, silicon was common in electronics but completely unproven in horology. Ulysse Nardin saw its potential: lightweight, anti-magnetic, shock-resistant, and virtually frictionless exactly the properties needed for precision timekeeping.
Watches of Switzerland was among the very first retailers to recognize the vision behind the original Freak and its collectability. That relationship, built on shared admiration for the avant-garde, has spanned generations. The centenary edition is its most eloquent expression yet.
The Freak S: A Spaceship for the Wrist
The Freak S arrived in 2022 as the most ambitious evolution of the Freak lineage. Its movement took on a sci-fi, spaceship-like silhouette that instantly became recognizable among watchmaking enthusiasts a complex architecture of bridges, oscillators, and a flying carousel that looks as much like a piece of kinetic art as it does an instrument for telling time.
The WOS Centenary Edition is built on this same platform, housed in a 45mm anthracite-PVD-coated titanium case paired with a natural grey titanium bezel. The two-tone combination is low-key but refined, a deliberate contrast to the visual drama happening beneath the crystal. True to the Freak DNA, there is no dial, no hands, and no crown time is read from the rotating movement itself, with a lume-coated bridge serving as the minutes indicator as the carousel completes one revolution every 60 minutes.
Setting the time is done the old-fashioned Freak way: the bezel is released by a locking tab at 6 o'clock and rotated elegant, unconventional, and entirely in keeping with the watch's rebellious spirit.
The Crystalium Plate: Where Science Becomes Art
If the Freak S is the stage, the crystalium plate is the show-stopper.
Crystalium is formed by crystallizing ruthenium a rare, lustrous platinum-group metal through a process that unfolds over several days. The result is a surface with a shimmering, multifaceted violet finish that shifts and glows with the light. Because the crystallization process is organic and time-dependent, no two plates are identical. Every one of the ten pieces in this edition is, in that sense, truly unique.
In the WOS Centenary Exclusive, this vivid purple base plate sits beneath the movement carousel, visible through the open architecture of the Freak S. The effect is unlike anything else in the watch world somewhere between a geode and a spacecraft console, beautiful and completely unexpected.
The violet theme carries through to the "ballistic" anthracite rubber strap, which features a woven texture and violet stitching a subtle but cohesive design decision that ties the whole piece together.
Calibre UN-251: The Movement as Masterpiece
Powering the Freak S WOS is the Calibre UN-251 Manufacture, an automatic flying carousel movement of breathtaking complexity.
The movement comprises 373 parts and 33 jewels, spread across a total diameter of 42.15mm nearly as large as the case itself. Its defining mechanical feature is the flying carousel, which rotates on its own axis once per minute, carrying with it two oscillators inclined at 20 degrees in opposite directions. These twin silicon balance wheels are linked by a vertical differential with ball bearings, allowing them to average out positional errors and deliver exceptional timekeeping accuracy.
The escapement is Ulysse Nardin's proprietary DIAMonSIL® a diamond-coated silicon component that eliminates the need for lubrication, reducing wear and extending service intervals. The movement beats at a frequency of 2 × 18,000 vph (2 × 2.5 Hz) and delivers a 72-hour power reserve.
Automatic winding is handled by Ulysse Nardin's patented Grinder mechanism, engineered to deliver high winding torque so the large mainspring winds swiftly and efficiently. Manual winding remains possible via the caseback a Freak tradition going all the way back to the first generation.
The caseback itself is a collector's detail: a sapphire crystal in a grey titanium surround, engraved with the words "Watches of Switzerland 1924–2024" a quiet but permanent mark of this extraordinary partnership.
Ten Pieces. One Hundred Years.
The Ulysse Nardin Freak S Watches of Switzerland Centenary Exclusive is limited to just 10 pieces worldwide, each available exclusively through Watches of Switzerland. Priced at approximately $163,500 USD / £143,870 GBP, it occupies the same rarified space as comparable haute horlogerie from Richard Mille and MB&F timepieces where engineering ambition and artistic expression are inseparable.
For collectors, the proposition is compelling. The WOS Centenary Exclusive is the only Freak to feature a crystalium plate, it carries a historically significant engraving, and its production run of 10 makes it one of the most limited references Ulysse Nardin has ever released. It is, in every sense of the word, a collector's piece.
Final Thought
The Ulysse Nardin Freak S WOS Centenary Exclusive doesn't ask to be understood immediately. Like all great art, it rewards patience the more time you spend with it, the more there is to discover. The violet glow of the crystalium plate. The hypnotic rotation of the carousel. The twin oscillators, tilted and dancing beneath the sapphire. And behind all of it, a century of shared history between two institutions who both, in their own way, love watches without reservation.
Ten pieces. One hundred years. No dial, no hands, no crown and no compromise.
