Ulysse Nardin Triple Jack Minute Repeater, Reference 739-80 | A...
Dial: mother-of-pearl
Calibre: cal. UN-73 manual winding, jewelled
Case: platinum, sapphire crystal display case back secured by 6 screws
Case number: Nº6
Closure: 18k white gold Ulysse Nardin folding clasp
Size: 40 mm diameter
Signed: case, dial and movement
Accessories: Ulysse Nardin numbered Guarantee card, product literature, wooden resonance box and presentation box with outer packaging
Please note the leather strap derived from endangered species is not sold with the watch. The watch will be shipped with a Sotheby’s branded calf leather strap.
Please note that Sotheby's is not able to assist buyers with the shipment of any lots containing restricted materials into the US. A buyer's inability to export or import these lots cannot justify a delay in payment or a sale's cancellation.
Catalogue Note:
There are watches designed to tell the time, and others that seem determined to put on a performance. Ulysse Nardin’s Triple Jack Minute Repeater belongs firmly to the latter.
When Rolf Schnyder took control of Ulysse Nardin in 1983, he began one of the most remarkable revivals in modern Swiss watchmaking. Working closely with the brilliant and unconventional watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin, he transformed a manufacture historically celebrated for its marine chronometers into a laboratory for complications, bringing mechanisms more commonly associated with clocks and pocket watches onto the wrist.
In 1989, Ulysse Nardin introduced the San Marco Minute Repeater, combining a minute repeater with animated Jacquemarts on the dial and beginning a tradition that would become one of the manufacture’s most distinctive signatures.
The term Jacquemart describes an animated figure traditionally used to strike a bell. Ulysse Nardin initially looked to perhaps the most famous examples of all, the large bronze figures standing above the clock in Venice’s Piazza San Marco.
Here, that centuries old spectacle is miniaturised to the scale of a wristwatch.
The Triple Jack takes the concept further, with three sculpted figures brought to life in concert with the minute repeater. Upon activation, the Jack on the left strikes the hours, the two figures on the right animate with the quarters, while the figure furthest to the right accompanies the minutes. One of watchmaking’s most demanding complications therefore becomes both audible and visible. The wearer does not simply hear the passage of time, but admires it performs.
The movement itself, calibre UN 73, is a later evolution of the minute repeating movement originally developed by renowned complications specialist Christophe Claret. This collaboration marked an important chapter in the manufacture’s pursuit of complicated automaton wristwatches, produced only in very limited numbers and combining traditional métiers with some of the most ambitious mechanical watchmaking of their period.
The present example, reference 739-80, numbered 6, gives this mechanical theatre an especially striking setting. Its platinum case surrounds a mother of pearl dial, whose natural iridescence provides an ever changing backdrop to the three sculpted Jacquemarts. Preserved as a full set, the watch is further accompanied by its original warranty card, presentation box and outer packaging.
With its platinum case, iridescent mother of pearl dial and three animated figures, the present Triple Jack captures something wonderfully rare in watchmaking: a complication that appeals not only to precision and ingenuity, but also to imagination.
Dial: mother-of-pearl
Calibre: cal. UN-73 manual winding, jewelled
Case: platinum, sapphire crystal display case back secured by 6 screws
Case number: Nº6
Closure: 18k white gold Ulysse Nardin folding clasp
Size: 40 mm diameter
Signed: case, dial and movement
Accessories: Ulysse Nardin numbered Guarantee card, product literature, wooden resonance box and presentation box with outer packaging
Please note the leather strap derived from endangered species is not sold with the watch. The watch will be shipped with a Sotheby’s branded calf leather strap.
Please note that Sotheby's is not able to assist buyers with the shipment of any lots containing restricted materials into the US. A buyer's inability to export or import these lots cannot justify a delay in payment or a sale's cancellation.
Catalogue Note:
There are watches designed to tell the time, and others that seem determined to put on a performance. Ulysse Nardin’s Triple Jack Minute Repeater belongs firmly to the latter.
When Rolf Schnyder took control of Ulysse Nardin in 1983, he began one of the most remarkable revivals in modern Swiss watchmaking. Working closely with the brilliant and unconventional watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin, he transformed a manufacture historically celebrated for its marine chronometers into a laboratory for complications, bringing mechanisms more commonly associated with clocks and pocket watches onto the wrist.
In 1989, Ulysse Nardin introduced the San Marco Minute Repeater, combining a minute repeater with animated Jacquemarts on the dial and beginning a tradition that would become one of the manufacture’s most distinctive signatures.
The term Jacquemart describes an animated figure traditionally used to strike a bell. Ulysse Nardin initially looked to perhaps the most famous examples of all, the large bronze figures standing above the clock in Venice’s Piazza San Marco.
Here, that centuries old spectacle is miniaturised to the scale of a wristwatch.
The Triple Jack takes the concept further, with three sculpted figures brought to life in concert with the minute repeater. Upon activation, the Jack on the left strikes the hours, the two figures on the right animate with the quarters, while the figure furthest to the right accompanies the minutes. One of watchmaking’s most demanding complications therefore becomes both audible and visible. The wearer does not simply hear the passage of time, but admires it performs.
The movement itself, calibre UN 73, is a later evolution of the minute repeating movement originally developed by renowned complications specialist Christophe Claret. This collaboration marked an important chapter in the manufacture’s pursuit of complicated automaton wristwatches, produced only in very limited numbers and combining traditional métiers with some of the most ambitious mechanical watchmaking of their period.
The present example, reference 739-80, numbered 6, gives this mechanical theatre an especially striking setting. Its platinum case surrounds a mother of pearl dial, whose natural iridescence provides an ever changing backdrop to the three sculpted Jacquemarts. Preserved as a full set, the watch is further accompanied by its original warranty card, presentation box and outer packaging.
With its platinum case, iridescent mother of pearl dial and three animated figures, the present Triple Jack captures something wonderfully rare in watchmaking: a complication that appeals not only to precision and ingenuity, but also to imagination.
