The Ulysse Nardin Chairman sees the Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin take its fine chronometer crafting, combine it with a luxury mobile phone and somehow come up with a mobile phone with a watch mechanism stuck on the back.
The Ulysse Nardin Chairman seems to be the luxury watchmakers attempt to deal with a world in which fewer people wear watches – relying instead on the clock function of their mobile phone. In the spirit of if-you-cant-beat-em-join-em, Ulysse Nardin have produced the Chairman.
On the face if it, merely a ‘luxury’ mobile phone with a design aesthetic straight outta Ratners, flipping the phone over reveals a the internals of a mechanical watch above the battery cover. Cleverly, just as a watch can auto-wind from the movement of your wrist the Ulysse Nardin Chairman works the other way – the movement of the mechanism actually creates a small electrical charge that can top up the phone’s battery.
There is a chunky winder on the edge of the phone, which works just like a regular watch winder and looks like someone found a broken Timex and glued bits of it to the side with a light dusting of gold paint.
The actual phone has decent enough specs – 5 megapixel camera, wifi and multimedia player. In a move that may come as a surprise to Apple, the 2.8 inch screen supports multitouch, although it is not clear via which operating system. No pricing available yet (though lets just say we don’t see this one selling as a PAYG any time soon) the phonewill be on display at the BASELWORLD trade show next month.
TBC | £tbc | Ulysse Nardin
