Ulysse Nardin has made chronometers for the world’s seafaring forces since the 19th century, but the Swiss watchmaker’s first collaboration with the United States Navy began more recently, in 1905. It was in that year that the Washington Naval Observatory organized its “Precision Torpedo Boat Timepieces” competition to supply the U.S. Navy and its superior officers with the most precise on-board chronometers. Ulysse Nardin won the competition several years in a row, becoming the official supplier of the American Navy. This year, the pocket chronometer that Ulysse Nardin produced during this period for its military client has been resurrected as a limited-edition wristwatch, the Marine Torpilleur Military Semper Fortis, intended as a tribute piece to America’s navy. The Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Semper Fortis celebrates the U.S. Navy.
The watch is distinguished from its predecessor, the original Marine Torpilleur launched earlier this year at SIHH 2018, in several significant respects. While it shares the same 44-mm-diameter, 50-meter water-resistant stainless steel case, with the fluted bezel reminiscent of those on early sea captains’ pocketwatches, the dial of the Torpilleur Military Semper Fortis features vintage-style Roman numerals rather than Arabic ones, along with a railway-track minute circle and blued, vintage-look hour and minute hands. Absent on the new watch’s prominent small seconds subdial is the red serial ...