Ulysse Nardin Returns the Blast Moonstruck to Rose Gold

Ulysse Nardin’s astronomical watches have never been simple exercises in decoration.

The new Blast Moonstruck in rose gold continues that tradition with a display that turns the relationship between Earth, Moon and Sun into something readable on the wrist. It’s theatrical, certainly, but the real interest is how much useful information sits beneath the spectacle.

At a glance

Astronomy with a Ulysse Nardin accent

The Moonstruck sits in a lineage that goes back to Ulysse Nardin’s modern astronomical chapter of the 1980s.

After Rolf Schnyder acquired the manufacture in 1983, he pushed Dr Ludwig Oechslin to create wristwatches capable of translating celestial motion into mechanical displays.

That work led to the Astrolabium Galileo Galilei, the Planetarium Copernicus and the Tellurium Johannes Kepler, a trio that helped define Ulysse Nardin as one of watchmaking’s more credible names in astronomical complication.

The Moonstruck arrived later as a more direct interpretation of that thinking, focused on the changing geometry between Earth, Moon and Sun.

This rose gold edition brings that idea into the angular Blast case architecture first used for the modern Moonstruck in 2022.

The suspended globe and moving sky

The display is arranged around a geocentric view, showing the apparent movements of the Moon and Sun as seen from Earth.

At the centre sits a three-dimensional Northern Hemisphere, engraved on the underside of a domed sapphire crystal so it appears to hover above the dial.

An aventurine base gives the composition its dark, star-like backdrop without pushing the watch into pure ornament.

Around the central globe, the Sun and Moon indicate their relative positions, while also driving the moon phase, the days of the lunar month, tidal coefficients and the apparent positions of both bodies around the world.

The illuminated portion of the Moon always faces the Sun, preserving the actual visual logic of the Earth-Moon-Sun system.

The moon phase is impressively precise, needing a one-day correction only after 40.3 years.

Worldtime built for real travel

The Sun is mounted on a rotating 24-hour worldtime disc that works with a fixed city ring and a two-tone day-night scale.

The result is a display that lets the wearer read time across principal time zones while watching the Sun’s apparent 24-hour path around the globe.

Ulysse Nardin’s patented worldtime mechanism adds a practical touch.

Local time can be adjusted forward or backward in one-hour increments using pushers on the left side of the case, without disturbing the minutes hand or the astronomical indications.

That matters because this is a large, complex watch that still acknowledges how people actually move through time zones.

Rose gold, black titanium and calibre UN-106

The case measures 45mm and combines an 18k rose gold upper section with a black DLC-treated titanium middle case and bezel.

Satin-brushed and polished finishing gives the gold enough contrast to keep the case from feeling like a single bright mass.

The sapphire glass box is more than a visual flourish, as it creates room for the suspended central globe and opens the dial architecture from the side.

Inside is the automatic manufacture calibre UN-106, made from 338 components and fitted with 42 jewels.

It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a 50-hour power reserve.

The movement uses a silicon escapement and silicon hairspring, two technologies closely tied to Ulysse Nardin’s modern technical identity since the Freak of 2001.

A rose gold oscillating weight is visible through the sapphire caseback.

Details & Specifications

The Blast Moonstruck in rose gold is aimed at collectors who want Ulysse Nardin at its most mechanically idiosyncratic.

It’s not a discreet complication, nor is it trying to be, but its appeal lies in the way it connects navigation, astronomy and travel time in a single unmistakably contemporary object.