Close

ULYSSE NARDIN LAUNCHES: BLAST MOONSTRUCK

February 1, 2022

BLAST MOONSTRUCK: FLY ME TO THE MOON!

As a new lunar year starts today, Ulysse Nardin is launching an ultra-design version of one of its historical astronomical complications: the Moonstruck. With this Manufacture Worldtimer housed in the geometrical case of a Blast, Ulysse Nardin offers exceptional aficionados a new celestial odyssey, with reinvented watchmaking mechanics reproducing as faithfully as possible the sun’s visible trajectory and the lunar cycles. Today, this new Blast, descended from the trilogy of astronomical watches created nearly forty years ago by the master watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin, proposes to set in motion the primordial elements of the visible celestial mechanisms so that everyone can gain a poetic understanding of the universe that envelops us thanks to a contemporary and intuitive display.

“I am delighted that my watches and astronomical clocks enable people to think about their position in the universe and perhaps realize that we are not the center of the world.” – Ludwig Oechslin

The Blast Moonstruck reproduces the moon’s rotation, the apparent movement of the sun around the globe as we observe it from Earth and a tidal chart. Designed to make this dance between the sun and the moon intelligible and intensely poetic, the geocentric display of the Blast Moonstruck is easy to understand, even for a beginner with no knowledge of astronomy.

Explanations.

The starry firmament is a map for sailors, a playground for lovers and the primordial calendar of all civilizations. In this sparkling ballet where, as seen from the ground, Earth always appears to be at the center of the universe, the sun and moon define the cycles of the days, months and seasons. It took the genius of astronomers to decipher this waltz that keeps time so well. Ever since the Bronze Age, they have been setting up observatories that enable them to devise calendars that are accurate to the nearest day. Over the generations, they have built up their grammar of the heavens.

“Why an astronomical watch? Because everything that has regular cycles can be reproduced mechanically and so be read on a dial. Encapsulating time is the watchmaker’s art. Freeing it is that of the philosopher. In a way, the Blast Moonstruck encapsulates… but above all it liberates the mind. It’s that simple.” – Ludwig Oechslin

For full press release, click here.