San Marco Cutty Sark

Ulysse Nardin is remembered today for the Freak and for marine chronometers. The chapter I care about is smaller. In the years after Rolf Schnyder took over the company, Ulysse Nardin put cloisonné enamel dials by Donzé Cadrans into its San Marco line, at a time when almost nobody else was commissioning them. Ships, maps and classic sailing subjects, each dial built from bent gold wire and fired enamel.

Mine shows the Cutty Sark, the tea clipper launched in 1869, in a 37mm platinum case from a very small series. The subject suits the brand better than any logo could: a company that once made chronometers for navies, painting a sailing ship in fire.

It is the older of my two enamel dials. The other is the Lundis Bleus custom piece, made three decades later by a single enameller. Put them side by side and you see the same craft heading in two directions: one toward the picture, one toward the colour.