Ulysse Nardin Freak X 43mm 2305-270/02 Review

“This is probably the most perfect watch I’ve seen!” proclaimed my wife a few evenings ago when we were out with our twin 16 month daughters for some live music and drinks near our house.

Now this is a massive statement, since she’s been in the business and around watches for over half of her life. She’s been around everything from G-Shocks to million dollar Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillons. So when she said that, it kind of took me aback.



The watch she was referring to was the Freak X from Ulysse Nardin in rose gold, which was sent to us from FX and his Team at Ulysse Nardin. The funny thing is that she is familiar with the Freak from the first generation of the Freak that came out in the mid 2000s. I even had a Freak in white gold for some time. Maybe it’s time that had erased her memory of the watch, or maybe the new packaging and movement (dial) of the Freak X made her appreciate the Freak so much more.



This new Freak X is a much more approachable Freak than the original. While the Freak X measures 43 mm in case diameter, the lug to lug is only 49.5 mm. The original Freak is just 1.5 mm larger in case diameter at 44.5 mm, but it’s lug to lug is a massive 54.5 mm. Now to me, 54.5 mm is just fine, since I do like Offshore’s and Big Pilots, but I feel this new Freak X is something my wife could see herself wearing. She did ask if it comes in other metals besides rose gold, because with two toddlers the watch would be wrecked if she wore it. Plus the fact that she just is not easy on watches. The Freak X does indeed come in various composites as well as a titanium version. I’m very easy on my watches, and I still was overly careful when wearing the Freak X.

After questioning my wife about what exactly made her like the watch so much, of course the first thing that caught her attention was the calling card of the Freak… the flying carousel. Maybe since the Freak X is a lot less cluttered and easier to read than the initial Freak, it had more of an effect on her. She also mentioned just how clear the box sapphire crystal looked, and it seemed as if there was no crystal on the watch at all, with the movement just being exposed. She said there really wasn’t anything she’d change with the watch, as is “Perfect”.



I’m not sure if I’m just harder to please than my wife, but after collecting watches and being in the business for over twenty years, to this day I still can’t say I’ve found a “perfect” watch. Currently my favorite two watches out there are watches I currently own in the IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Juan Pablo Montoya in titanium. Are they perfect? No… the Top Gun Perpetual in my mind is close, but the “Top Gun” colored logo on the caseback is a bit goofy and having a display caseback showing off the massive rotor of the 5000 series movement would have made it pretty much perfect. The Montoya, a watch I’ve lusted over forever also has issues. Due to the modular construction of the watch, AP had to add a Rolex like Cyclops under (!!!) the crystal to make the date large enough to see. Also, the watch uses a super delicate crown that can be stripped by just looking at it wrong, which I just had to have repaired. Otherwise, I love both watches, but like I said not perfect.



Well you already have my wife’s 10 out of 10 review for the Freak X, so I guess you can stop here, or if you’re interested in my thoughts, you can read on.

Now as I’m probably going to have to do with every review I do of a watch that isn’t 44 millimeters plus, I really tend to prefer larger watches. Typically 50 mm lug to lug is the border of what I consider “small” for my 7.25 wrist. I do believe my wrist is a little flatter than round, so watches less than 50 mm lug to lug will typically end up favoring one side of my wrist which drives me crazy. It did take me a long time to learn that case diameter isn’t nearly as important to me as lug to lug when sizing a watch.



The Freak X is an interesting one… while it has a healthy case diameter of 43 mm, the lug to lug is only 49.5 mm. I knew combined with the rather slim thickness of 13.7 mm, it had the potential to feel rather small to me. Also all of my personal watches are titanium or ceramic, so I was a bit nervous that the Freak X in rose gold would be a heavy beast. Interestingly when the watch showed up, it was very lightweight. The Freak X in rose gold with a ballistic rubber strap only weighed in at 102 grams on our scale. Obviously the Freak X does not only use gold in its construction. Ulysse Nardin used a generous amount of titanium with a DLC finish on this watch for both added strength and reduced weight.

Before the watch was sent to me, Ulysse Nardin put a new black ballistic rubber strap on it. At first the strap was super stiff, but after leaving it closed on a smaller size on a watch pillow the strap had some form to it and was super comfortable. From then on the strap was extremely comfortable while wearing it. The Freak X features a rose gold pin buckle attached to a black, what I would guess is DLC treated titanium, deployant clasp. The first few times I used the clasp, I had to double check the clasp had indeed caught since I never felt a “click”. After messing around and wearing the watch for a few weeks, I now know this by far the smoothest deployant clasp I have ever used. Sure enough the clasp always caught, but the catch is so subtle, it’s almost as if it used magnets. I have to say this clasp truly blew me away.



The Freak X is also drastically different than the original Freak since it uses an automatic movement and can be set via the crown. The older Freaks were set via the bezel while the watch was wound with the caseback. Having the ability to set the time and wind with the crown, as well as have a self-winding movement makes the Freak X seem more like a regular watch than the original Freaks did. Truth be told, I looked at a video of the Freak X before I went about winding it and setting it, to make sure there was something I had to avoid doing that could damage the watch. Turns out there was nothing, you can wind and set it like any automatic watch.

Upon first glance, it can seem very hard to decipher the time on the Freaks… but it is actually extremely simple. The hour hand is attached to an outer ring and has a shorter wide hand. The minutes hand is a longer narrow hand that is actually an orbital flying one-minute carousel. With no date window or seconds hand, the Freak has a very straight forward, non-cluttered dial making telling the time a breeze.



Powering the Freak X is an Ulysse Nardin in-house caliber UN-230. The UN-230 is a self-winding movement consisting of 206 components boasting a power reserve of 72 hours. In the time I had with the watch, I only had to wind it once after I took a different watch on a short weekend trip. The movement beats at 21,600 VPH (3 Hz), a little slower than the more standard 28,800 (4 Hz). Ulysse Nardin was a pioneer in the use of silicon in watch movements, and this Freak X has its balance wheel, escarpment wheel, balance spring and anchor all made out of silicium. Silicium was developed by an affiliate of Ulysse Nardin, Sigatec, and is a material that resembles metal and even has a similar hardness while retaining the benefits of silicon.



So now that we have discussed all the boring technical stuff, let’s talk about how I felt about the watch.

Ulysse Nardin was nice enough to loan the Freak X to me for a few weeks, over which I pretty much wore it as my only watch. Typically when it comes to a gold watch, I am overly careful when wearing it. It’s no secret that gold will scratch by just looking at it funny. As my personal collection has become more valuable, I have also just found myself being more careful in general when wearing a watch. Even with my ceramic pieces I still get a moment of dread when I bang a watch on something.



I feel Ulysse Nardin really thought out the design of the Freak X, especially when it came to the gold case and accumulating damage. Most of the areas where the Freak X would take a bump are not gold. If you put the watch down on its side, the watch will sit on the numbered plaque and will not pick up scratches. The sapphire is a glass box design and sits well above the case, and with sapphire being so hard, it stands to take a lot of bumps with minimal wear. The “bezel” of the watch is also not done in rose gold, but instead DLC treated titanium. Titanium is much more durable than gold and should be able to take most accidents without issue. The areas of concern when it comes to damage would be the lugs and the gold buckle. Over the course of the few weeks I wore the watch, as far as I can tell, I didn’t pick up any scratches or dings to the gold portions of the watch.

Over the past two decades plus I have worn an endless amount of nice watches. What I’ve come to find out during that time is that complements and questions about the watches I’m wearing are few and far between. Over the past year, I could probably count the number of times I’ve been asked about a watch on one hand. It just doesn’t happen. Now this drastically changed over the few weeks I wore the Freak X. Now we do have two very young daughters, so we really don’t go out too much, but every time we went out I was asked at least once, if not more often, about the Freak X.



I typically do not wear rose gold watches, even though I totally love the hue, so maybe just seeing a gold watch caught peoples’ eyes. Now I don’t think just seeing a gold watch would be enough for somebody to stop you and ask about your watch, that can only be attributed to the minute hand and its flying carrousel. When you combine the way the glass box sapphire makes it look like there is no crystal on the watch with the movement the carrousel brings to the party, this watch just forces people to take notice. Now I’m always ready to talk watches, so it was really fun being able to tell people about the Freak and Ulysse Nardin. Surprisingly enough, even in our not so watch centric city of Austin, a few people even knew what the Freak was! Would you get the same attention with a titanium or carbon Freak X? I’m not so sure, but if people paid enough attention to notice the carrousel, then I’m sure people would start asking questions.



The watch did amazingly well as a daily wearer after getting past the stiffness of the strap I had issues with the first time I wore the watch. Even being crafted in rose gold, all the titanium, the open caseback and rubber strap really made the watch pretty lightweight. The clasp operates like a dream and never really dug into my skin at all. The watch pretty much sat flat on my wrist and didn’t really favor either side, which can bug me about watches that don’t cover my entire wrist. If I wore cuffed shirts, the watch would easily fit under a cuff. I had no problems when wearing it with a hoodie…

For the most part, the Freak X accompanied me on all of our errands and when we’d venture out after work. The watch made a perfect companion and it never really made itself known while on the wrist. Once broken in, the ballistic rubber strap in conjunction with the deployant clasp made wearing the Freak X a true delight. Despite being rose gold, the case never felt top heavy or moved too much on my wrist. I have to say, the choice of going with a deployant clasp over a pin buckle was a smart move by Ulysse Nardin. I’ve had way too many watches fall while putting them on with a pin buckle.



For all these boring everyday tasks, the Freak X was more than up to the task. From the grocery store to our favorite little bar and a nice dinner out, the Freak X just fit in. Whenever I caught myself checking the time, I was always treated to the little dance of the carrousel on its dial. The warm tones of the rose gold case combined with the muted blacks of the titanium and the strap really helped the watch go with pretty much whatever I was wearing.

I did ask Ulysse Nardin if we could keep the Freak X an extra day or two past when we were supposed to send the watch back in so we could have it for the total solar eclipse. Our house just west of Austin, Texas was pretty much right in the center of the path of the eclipse. I thought it would be fun to try to get some pictures and video of the Freak X during this freak occurrence of nature. Although the weather was mostly cloudy, the clouds did break for about a minute during the three and a half minutes of totality we got, which was pretty special. We were also able to get a fun time-lapse video of the Freak X going through the eclipse. My camera’s night mode is pretty strong, so it didn’t show just how dark it got outside, but you can see by the watch’s lume that it was total darkness outside. The craziest thing I can take from the eclipse is just how quick it became dark, it was almost as if somebody was sliding a dimmer switch down inside your house.



At a retail price of $38,200 there are endless watches that you could purchase for the price of the Freak X in rose gold. The problem is when you start to look at other watches from top manufactures that contain a tourbillion or carrousel, the prices of those watches are going to start at least twice as much as the Freak X. When you look at the titanium and composite versions of the Freak X, the prices are now in the twenties, which you can’t touch for what you’re getting with the Freak X. It is even hard to find a time only skeleton watch from other top manufactures in that price range.



If I had the type of job where I go to work every day and needed a watch to daily that wasn’t over the top but still was a horological marvel, the Freak X would be pretty much the perfect watch. I’d say even with some of the protection against banging up the gold and the lightweight nature of the watch with the use of titanium, I’d even go for the rose gold version. Being rose gold, it could easily be dressed up or down as well…

But I don’t have a job like that. For the most part, I work from home and when I go out, I like to wear something a bit more out there. This kind of reminds me of when I bought a BMW M6 years ago. The car was great in every possible measurable metric and I told my wife and friends, if I had to drive to work every day, this would be the perfect car. In reality, my drives were 3 or 5 mile drives to get dinner, go have drinks or drop off a package. The M6 was just too buttoned down and reserved, although an amazing car, to make those short drives very memorable. My favorite car for those types of trips was a Shelby GT350 I bought a few cars later that was loud, obnoxious and just fun for those short trips.



It’s weird I see such a parallel between the M6 and the Freak X. They are both amazing and I really can’t fault them for anything but some weird intangible personal reason. There are people, like my wife, that will find the Freak X a perfect 10 out of 10 watch which I totally understand and pretty much agree with. For me though, I feel like Ulysse Nardin does have that GT350 type watch for my short trips out and about though… those being the Freak One and the Freak S. The Freak One is one millimeter larger than the X, while the Freak S is two millimeters larger than the X. Even this small increase in size more than likely means these watches will be right in my wheelhouse size wise. More importantly, I feel that the Freak S and Freak One are just that much more brash and out there… which is more of what I look for in a watch personally.



With all that being said, I am actually incredibly sad to send the Freak X back. Every time I wore the watch it made me feel just that much more special. I knew I was wearing something different from everyone else and an off the cuff conversation about watches was bound to happen.

I’d really like to thank FX and his team at Ulysse Nardin for loaning us the Freak X over the past few weeks. We also can’t wait to see what they send our way next!

For more information about the Blast Dual Time please visit : Ulysse Nardin

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: 2305-270/02

Retail Price: $38,200

Case Size: 43 mm

Thickness: 13.7 mm

Weight: 102 Grams

Case Material: Rose Gold and DlC Treated Titanium

Bezel: DLC Treated Titanium

Strap: Rubber with Rose Gold / Titanium Deployant Clasp

Movement: Automatic UN-230

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Flying Carrousel

Power Reserve: 72 Hours

Water Resistance: 50 Meters