This Ulysse Nardin watch features one of the rarest dials ever made

While many contenders for the crown of best watch look much like you'd expect, others have a more distinct personality. That's exactly how you'd describe the Ulysse Nardin Freak – distinctly stylish and unapologetically assured, while standing out like a sore thumb among a sea of three-hand steel designs.

When the core design of a product looks like that, any special editions have to go even further. And that's exactly what the new Ulysse Nardin Freak [X Crystalium] does.

The dial is crafted – as the name probably should have given away – from Crystalium. That's a material made from ruthenium – a platinum-group material which is ten times rarer than platinum itself.

Over the course of several days, that undergoes a slow process of vapour deposition, which causes crystallisation. This incredibly delicate process sits at the cross-section of art and science, and the result is truly stunning, shining like freshly unearthed gold ore.

To help accentuate that even more, the watch is crafted from black DLC-coated titanium. That hue is matched on the hands and indices, to ensure the dial can really pop without clashing.

Inside, the brand's in-house UN-230 movement beats away, offering a 3Hz beat rate and 72 hours of power reserve. That sits within the 43mm case, which gives a reasonable 50m of water resistance.

The watch comes with a trio of strap options on offer. The first is a rubber strap, which is textured with a 'ballistic' pattern to make it look more like fabric. That's stitched with a rose gold colour, to match the dial.

There's an alligator leather strap option on offer with the same colour-matched stitching on offer, and a black ceramic strap option as well. That's a solid array of options which should suit just about anyone looking to put one of these on their wrist.

Priced at £37,130 / €42,700 / CHF40,000 (approx. US$50,000 / AU$76,000), you'll pay a bit of premium for this model over the standard UN Freak, but that's pretty well justified when you consider the dial on offer. All in all, If you're seeking something special to add to your watch box, they don't get much better than this.