New to Watches and Wonders 2021, the Hourstriker watch joins the Blast collection, one of Ulysse Nardin's latest additions. Its 45-millimetre pink gold case, surmounted by a titanium bezel, houses a self-winding mechanical movement with a passing chime and tourbillon device, visible at 6 o'clock on the dial. It is the IWC-manufactured UN-621 calibre (330 components, 23 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour, 60-hour power reserve), with a sound amplification system by Devialet, a French company specialising in the manufacture of high-fidelity audio equipment. Equipped with a variable-inertia balance and silicon balance-spring, it comprises 330 components and allows the dial side to reveal a highly sophisticated mechanism that is often hidden from view. Admiring it is very simple: every hour and every half-hour, when the chime is in the 'on' position, the different elements come to life as the chime strikes. The mechanism, driven by a specially dedicated barrel, can be activated on demand by pressing the pusher located at 11 o'clock. This allows aficionados to contemplate the activation of moving components, such as the hour rake and the inertia regulator, as they rotate, and to observe the hammers, visible through an aperture at 12 o'clock, as well as the striking of the gong whose shape has been finely crafted to contour the cage of the flying tourbillon. Moreover, in order to ensure the harmonious expansion of the sound waves produced by the action of the hammer on the gong every hour and a half, the watchmakers have decorated the caseback with a motif forming a double X, the signature of the Blast line. The watch comes with a strap in velvet, rubber or alligator. It will be on sale for 91,100 euros.
