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Lot Essay
Only a very small number of such watches were ever produced by Ulysse Nardin, one remains the property of the Ulysse Nardin company museum.
The karrusel mechanism was invented around 1890 and patented in 1893 by Bahne Bonniksen (1859-1935), a Danish watchmaker working in England. Recognizably similar to the tourbillon, the karrusel was designed to ensure that a watch kept time regardless of how it was positioned. Although the rotating escapement of the karrusel has the same equalizing effect on positional errors as the tourbillon it is constructed in an entirely different way. The genius of Bonniksen’s invention was that, unlike the tourbillon, it could be made in quantity and serviced by any competent watchmaker. Furthermore, the karrusel watch was an exceptionally good timekeeper due largely to the relatively slow rotation of 52 ½ minutes. In fact, the timekeeping performance of the karrusel is usually equal, in many cases better and certainly more consistent than the tourbillion. Exceptional results were seen at the Kew Observatory trials with most watches obtaining between 79 and 89 marks out of 100. By 1904, thirty-eight of the best fifty watches tested at Kew were karrusels and in 1905 even a standard (without Kew certificate) karrusel was advertised as being “guaranteed to be well within the limits of the Kew Observatory class “A” requirements”. Interestingly, the karrusel was not very widely used outside Britain and as such, examples like the present watch by Ulysse Nardin are extremely rare. Richard Lange/Lange & Söhne in Germany produced around 100 karrusel watches from 1901 and Patek Philippe only made one karrusel watch which is still retained by the company.
The karrusel mechanism was invented around 1890 and patented in 1893 by Bahne Bonniksen (1859-1935), a Danish watchmaker working in England. Recognizably similar to the tourbillon, the karrusel was designed to ensure that a watch kept time regardless of how it was positioned. Although the rotating escapement of the karrusel has the same equalizing effect on positional errors as the tourbillon it is constructed in an entirely different way. The genius of Bonniksen’s invention was that, unlike the tourbillon, it could be made in quantity and serviced by any competent watchmaker. Furthermore, the karrusel watch was an exceptionally good timekeeper due largely to the relatively slow rotation of 52 ½ minutes. In fact, the timekeeping performance of the karrusel is usually equal, in many cases better and certainly more consistent than the tourbillion. Exceptional results were seen at the Kew Observatory trials with most watches obtaining between 79 and 89 marks out of 100. By 1904, thirty-eight of the best fifty watches tested at Kew were karrusels and in 1905 even a standard (without Kew certificate) karrusel was advertised as being “guaranteed to be well within the limits of the Kew Observatory class “A” requirements”. Interestingly, the karrusel was not very widely used outside Britain and as such, examples like the present watch by Ulysse Nardin are extremely rare. Richard Lange/Lange & Söhne in Germany produced around 100 karrusel watches from 1901 and Patek Philippe only made one karrusel watch which is still retained by the company.