Intro:
When I launched my web page, I tried to transfer all of my old reviews, which had already been published on the local watch portal in the past, here as well. When this morning I put the Ulysse Nardin (further on UL) Streamline Cathedral on my wrist, it just crossed my mind: "Hey, that was one of the first watches I ever reviewed, and yet that review is still not published on my page!" I checked the original text and realized that it needed some modifications. Therefore, I decided to upgrade the original review with some necessary additional information—directly in the original draft—but in such a way that the added text would not ruin the first impression feeling.
The result of all these modifications is the next chapter—an upgraded version of my review, or better said, a short notice about my first impressions from 2019. For better transparency, all these upgrades are marked in italic.
That is not the end of the story. To conclude everything properly, I decided to add one more chapter at the end—today’s perspective, or better said, a long-time user’s perspective of the watch. That part is again marked in italic.
As mentioned, the original review was previously published on our local forum "Portal Satova" (on March 19, 2019, to be precise) and everything that is written in italic was not part of that original review.
Original first impressions:
The latest novelty in my alarm collection is, in my opinion, one of the most controversial watches. I’m talking about a watch that is a technical masterpiece, yet it has several issues that prevent it from being placed on the pedestal of the most admired timepieces.
The first problem is that it’s made by the “wrong” brand—Ulysse Nardin—a brand which, despite the unquestionable quality of its watches, is not very desirable among watch enthusiasts in our region. And then there’s an even more problematic issue: the general appearance—or better said, the design—of the watch. It is either repulsive or exciting. I’m talking about a watch from the Sonata Streamline Cathedral collection.
The Streamline Cathedral was first launched in 2003, and the release of that watch shocked the watch world. Even though UL was known as one of the few brands that consistently had mechanical wristwatches in its collection, up to that point, all UN alarm watches had used third-party alarm movements, mainly the AS 5008. But with the Sonata, a new in-house alarm movement—the UN-67—was introduced. And this UN-67 was by far the best mechanical alarm movement ever produced up to that point. It was the first alarm movement to introduce a 24-hour alarm setting, where the alarm is time zone–independent (the alarm rings at the correct time even if the time zone is changed). And as the cherry on top, the alarm doesn’t sound like the standard buzzing or dinging but has a beautiful church bell gong—that’s why Cathedral is part of the watch’s name.
Even though the movement and the complications used were state-of-the-art, the collection was not successful. The biggest problem was the design. A simple Google search will show you some truly awful watches from that collection, with terrible hands and subdials—hard to digest.
My version is a later release (from 2013–2014), a limited edition with a titanium case, golden pushers and crowns. What makes the biggest difference compared to other watches in the Streamline collection is the design of the upper two dials. In my watch, they are not white, but instead match the color of the main dial. So, those two dials are not as visually dominant. All the hands, too, are slightly more conventional—not as excessively striking as on other models.
As said, the movement itself is a mechanical masterpiece (even though it looks quite standard, right?). It consists of over 400 components, has 107 jewels, and its hairspring and escapement are made of silicon. But the most important aspect that shows it truly is a masterpiece are the supported complications:
1) It is a mechanical alarm movement where—in contrast to 99.9% of all mechanical alarm watches—the alarm can be set 24 hours in advance, while almost all other movements allow only 12-hour settings. Both upper subdials serve for the alarm setup. The dial in the upper right corner shows the alarm time (and it can be set very precisely for a mechanical movement—to the almost exact minute). The left subdial counts down the time remaining until the alarm rings.
In the picture on the right, you can see that the alarm is set to 7:10 (right subdial) in the morning. How do we know it won’t ring at 19:10? Check the hour hand (plus the Dual 24h time dial)—you can see that it’s 8:13 in the morning. And the upper left subdial shows that there are still 22 hours and 57 minutes before the alarm will ring.
What’s also worth mentioning is that the alarm can be set in both directions—something not so common in the world of mechanical alarm movements!
2) The watch also features a marvelous GMT complication, arguably the best I have ever encountered. The small dial shows home time in 24-hour format, while the main dial displays local time. Setting the local time is done via the right pusher (one hour back) or left pusher (one hour forward). Each push adjusts the local time by exactly one hour. And you don’t even have to take the watch off your wrist to set it! The only limitation is that the watch doesn’t support half-hour time zones, which do exist in some parts of the world—and there’s no way to adjust for them manually without changing the home time as well.
But that is not all. The best part is yet to come! When you set the local time and pass midnight in either direction, the date follows the change. For example, if you have just arrived from Paris to Istanbul and it is 23:00 on the 9th of the month in Paris, press the left pusher twice and your watch will be set to 01:00, with the date automatically changing to the 10th. If you then return from Istanbul on the 15th at 01:00 Istanbul time, press the right pusher twice and your watch will be set to 23:00 on the 14th.
That, of course, cannot work when the month does not have 31 days. In that case, you have to change the date manually or press the pushers as many times as needed to get the correct date.
And even that is not all! When you change the time zone, the alarm setting automatically follows your new local time. So, if you want the alarm to still ring at 7:10 AM local time, you don’t have to do anything. By switching the time zone, the countdown timer will automatically adjust and either shorten or extend the time until the alarm.
3) The big date complication itself is interesting, but not particularly special. What is special is the fact that the date can be set in both directions. So, you don’t have to cycle through the whole month just to set the date one day backward. This is especially useful if this is not your only watch and you don’t wear it all the time.
4) The watch has a beautiful alarm sound. It doesn’t buzz like the majority of mechanical alarm watches, but instead has a pure church bell sound. And that is the main reason why it carries the name Cathedral. The mechanics behind it are based on minute repeater watches. You can hear the alarm sound in the following video:
The watch, of course, also offers easy access to the alarm on/off function. With just one press of the pusher on the left crown, you can turn the alarm on or off. If you don’t stop the ringing manually, the alarm rings for approximately 20 seconds, with two gongs per second.
I am wearing this watch today for the first time. It is very light and fits nicely on the wrist. Even though the size of the watch is "only" 44 mm, and even though it has multiple pushers and crowns on both sides of the case (with a crown protector), the watch does not feel large—neither visually nor on the wrist. It can easily be worn as a dress watch. The alligator strap with clasp is 22/18, soft, and elegant. No complaints at all.
The watch comes in top-quality packaging. It is delivered in a huge wooden box, and all documents are stored in a leather case, for which a separate drawer inside the box is provided.
That’s it, folks. For now...
P.S.: Unfortunately, I just noticed that the sound of the alarm in my video is not very loud. That’s due to the poor video quality. In reality, the alarm rings much louder.
Appendix
What else should be said? First, I have to mention the movement itself. It runs at 28,800 bph, with a power reserve of 42 hours. It is very accurate, with only a slight positional deviation. The watch runs between -2 and +2 seconds per day, depending on the position. With regular use, it gains less than +3 seconds per week! However, for watch geeks who demand absolute precision, there’s bad news: the movement does not have a hacking function, so you cannot set the time to the exact second.
What I really miss here is a power reserve indicator, at least for the alarm. It seems the movement uses a single shared barrel for both the alarm and the timekeeping. After the alarm rings, you can set the next alarm for at least half an hour later, and it will still ring. That suggests that a large, single barrel is used. But I might be wrong—it’s possible that the watch uses two separate barrels. I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer anywhere, so if you know the truth, please let me know or leave a comment below the review.
The tricky part is that you can’t be sure whether the alarm (not the timekeeping) barrel has enough power left to ring.
As can be seen in the pictures, the hands have illuminated tips. The hour indexes are also illuminated. Unfortunately, the luminous tips are very small; I would have preferred if the entire hands (or at least a larger portion) were filled with Luminova. It would improve both the aesthetics and nighttime legibility. The Luminova itself is decent, nothing spectacular. Certainly not as strong as in some diver’s watches—but that’s somewhat expected.
Both local time and home time hands are illuminated, but to be honest, you need very good eyesight to read the home time in the dark. Check the pictures taken in semi-dark and full dark conditions. The illumination lasts approximately 6–8 hours.
I have to say that I am surprised that in these three years, no serious negative comments about the watch have been received. Quite the opposite—there have been more positive than negative remarks. I must admit, I expected a different distribution of opinions.
Since I’ve reviewed a relatively old model of the watch here, let me also share some information about what has happened with the Sonata Streamline since then.
Around 2015 (I believe it was 2014, but I’m not entirely sure), UN changed ownership. The new owner recognized that the Sonata was a great watch with a very unfortunate design. And they took action. In 2016, they released the new Sonata Streamline Classic. I don’t own this model, so I had to "borrow" a picture from the web.
What have they done here? Most importantly, they removed the countdown dial, which resulted in a much cleaner watch face. All hands now have pure, clean lines—no more bulky or extravagant shapes. In my opinion, this new look is a huge improvement. They also added an alarm power indicator (hmm, does that suggest two barrels?). Clearly, they listened to user feedback.
But not everything is better. From what I’ve read, they changed the GMT complication so that the left and right pushers now adjust the small dual time hand instead of the central hour hand. If that’s true, it’s definitely a major mistake. If you travel frequently, you always want to have the local time displayed on the main dial, not on a small subdial.
I believe this change was necessary in order to preserve the 24-hour alarm setting without the countdown dial. The alarm is now linked to the dual time function, which helps maintain the 24-hour alarm functionality. But to keep the traveler’s alarm adjustment, they likely had to swap home and away times.
Again—important disclaimer! I haven’t had the chance to see this watch in person or test its functions. Everything stated is based on a few articles I’ve read about the watch. I even found an instruction manual, but it doesn’t clearly explain how the watch really operates. I would be more than happy if you shared your insights in the comments below the review.
All Sonata watches have been—and still are—very expensive. As far as I know, there are no new models currently available. The last listed price for the steel version was around 25,000 USD (plus taxes). Even used pieces on Chrono24 are priced well above 10,000 USD, closer to 15,000 USD. For a UN-branded watch, that’s a surprisingly good retention of value. At this price point, you really have to think more than twice before making a purchase.
I admit that I originally bought the watch primarily to add the UN67 movement to my alarm collection (which truly is a must-have for any serious alarm collector). But the watch has become one of my favorite pieces in the entire collection! It’s simply so intuitive and so practical that you just have to love it.
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