I saw this last night and in my late night haze I though I might have been hallucinating. Ulysse Nardin makes nice watches, mostly designing for yachting and diving, and they have a certain style that I particularly like. However, some douche convinced them to make a phone with a little automatic movement weight attached.

Apparently this movement will actually “power” the phone although the modicum of energy released by the motion of a small weight. It is more than enough to wind a watch, but I suspect the energy necessary to charge a battery is considerably higher.

It seems to me that there is some consortium of unscrupulous phone makers out there preying on foolish and desperate watchmakers. If an oligarch can afford $25,000 for a watch, they can certainly afford a $100,000 phone, right? This seems to be the company they partnered with, SCI Innovations. Looks promising. Please, watchmakers, innovate in your industry instead of trying these ham-handed attempts at “expanding” the luxury market.

Best of all, they call this hunk of crap the Chairman. Maybe they’re going for the Chinese contingent.