Ulysse Nardin’s USD $190,700 Freak [S Howlite] Has a Dial Made From Canadian Stone

By Elliot Nash - News

Updated: 16 October, 2026

Readtime: 5 min

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Ulysse Nardin has unveiled the Freak [S Howlite], a USD $190,700 (roughly AUD $275,500) watch limited to just 15 pieces and available exclusively in North America.
Its rotating hour disc is cut from naturally occurring Canadian howlite, and each piece features a unique grey-veined pattern.
The 45mm titanium watch uses the dual-oscillator UN-251 automatic movement, with 373 components and a 72-hour power reserve.

No hands, no conventional dial and no crown. Over the past 25 years, Ulysse Nardin has enjoyed breaking just about every rule of traditional watchmaking with its aptly named Freak collection. For its latest showpiece, the Swiss watchmaker turned to something that existed millions of years before humans started measuring time: a piece of ancient Canadian stone.

Meet the Freak [S Howlite], a gorgeous but extraordinarily complicated timepiece that pairs a naturally white, marble-like mineral with one of the brand’s wildest movements. Limited to just 15 examples, the North America-exclusive release celebrates both the Freak’s 25th anniversary and Ulysse Nardin’s 180th birthday. And at USD $190,700 before tax (roughly AUD $275,500), it’s certainly not your everyday watch.

But while there’s plenty of mechanical wizardry going on inside this Freak, it’s the relatively understated white stone that caught my attention. Beneath those exposed gears and spinning components sits a rotating hour disc cut from natural howlite, with distinctive grey veins that make each of the 15 watches ever so slightly different. Talk about being unique.

Ulysse nardin freak s howlite images 3 — A closer look at the dual-oscillator movement and grey-veined howlite hour disc. | Image: Supplied

A Dial Millions of Years in the Making

For the non-geologists, howlite is a naturally occurring white mineral, well known for the grey-to-black veining that gives it an almost marble-like appearance. First discovered in Nova Scotia in 1868 by Canadian geologist Henry How, it’s an unusual choice for a watch, particularly one where the so-called dial is actually part of the movement. How quaint? Not this watch.

For the Freak [S Howlite], Ulysse Nardin sourced the millions-of-years-old mineral from Canada, then brought it to Switzerland, where they drilled it and cut it into thin discs. They inspected each disc for colour and natural veining, rejecting 60 per cent before polishing and coating the chosen lot with a protective varnish.

It’s a hell of a lot of effort just to sit under an already spectacular movement. But once you see the finished watch, it’s easy to understand its freakish appeal. The white howlite provides a surprisingly calm backdrop for the mechanical chaos above it, while its natural veining means no two examples will look alike. But when there’s only fifteen of them, who’s counting?

And unlike the decorative dial on a conventional watch, this disc actually tells the time, completing one rotation every 12 hours with a pointer indicating the hour.

Ulysse nardin freak s howlite images 1 — Ulysse Nardin Freak [S Howlite], featuring a natural Canadian stone hour disc. | Image: Supplied

Two Oscillators, No Hands, No Crown, Pure Freak

The Freak [S Howlite] uses Ulysse Nardin’s automatic UN-251 calibre, the same extraordinary architecture that made the Freak S such a spectacle when it debuted in 2022.

Rather than hiding any of it beneath the stone dial, Ulysse Nardin has put it front and centre. Its flying carousel completes one rotation every 60 minutes, with a pointer at the end indicating the minutes. Within that rotating assembly sit two oversized silicon oscillators, inclined at 20 degrees and connected by a tiny vertical differential that averages their rates to help keep time.

If that sounds complicated, it’s because it genuinely is. The movement comprises 373 components across six gear planes. And each of the 15 watches is assembled from start to finish by a single Grandes Complications watchmaker.

There’s still no crown, either. To set the time, you unlock the mechanism at six o’clock and turn the bezel. To wind the watch manually, flip it over and rotate the caseback instead. Ulysse Nardin’s patented Grinder automatic winding system helps keep everything running, with a 72-hour power reserve.

All of this sits inside a 45mm titanium case, paired with a white textured rubber strap and titanium folding clasp. It’s hardly a small watch, but the pale stone and matching strap make it look remarkably restrained for something with two oscillators spinning away on its face.

The Freak [S Howlite] is available exclusively in North America for USD $190,700 (roughly AUD $275,500). Sadly, that rules out a straightforward purchase in Australia, but with only 15 in existence, getting your hands on one was never going to be easy. Maybe in a million years.