This Swiss Luxury Dive Watch Just Made Retro Rubber Look Expensive

• The Ulysse Nardin Diver watches bring bold retro styling that nods to vintage diver aesthetics.
• 44mm blue PVD-coated titanium case with 300m water resistance and a lightweight feel despite its size.
• Powered by the in-house UN-118 movement, offering 60 hours of power reserve and Ulysse Nardin’s DIAMonSIL® escapement tech.

Cartier’s been doing it. So has Vacheron Constantin. Even Jaeger-LeCoultre got in on the act this year at Watches & Wonders. The new rule of modern watchmaking seems to be: “Look backwards to go forwards.” And it’s working a treat.

Ulysse Nardin’s latest Diver Hammerhead Shark and Diver AIR are certainly no exception. The new releases take the dive watch formula, injects it with retro orange and blue attitude, and straps it onto your wrist with unapologetically modern materials. The result is a high-spec underwater timepiece with just the right amount of nostalgic flair… the perfect daily diver for your collection.

The Hammerhead Shark’s vivid blue dial, the red ‘X’ signature, the pops of orange on the chapter ring and rubber strap are eye-catching. This is certainly more subtle than some of Ulysse Nardin’s more daring and audacious novelties in previous years, but I wouldn’t exaclty call this a subtle diver, either. But that’s kind of the point.

The Diver AIR harks back to the golden age of adventure watches when saturation diving was sexy and orange was the international signal for “Don’t lose this if your life depends on it.”

Brands like Doxa have made a name for themselves with vibrant diving watches; Bell & Ross has also included this aesthetic for its timpieces – perfect for a pragmatic instrument built to carry you home safely. Hermès has even got in on the act with its growing catalogue of contemporary releases.

Now it’s Ulysse Nardin’s turn, and they’ve done it with a routine swagger.

Breaking down the timepiece, the Ulysse Nardin Hammerhead Shark’s 44mm blue PVD-coated titanium case is no lightweight.

It’s a bold frame for a tool watch that offers serious capability such as 300 metres of water resistance, a sapphire crystal, and a high-horology UN-118 movement with 60 hours of power reserve and DIAMonSIL® escapement tech, all inside a package weighing just 104 grams. Not bad for something that can survive a shark dive.

What’s interesting is that Ulysse Nardin, best known for its horological oddballs like the Freak, the Blast, or the perpetual calendar with a forward/backward date, has opted for something relatively classical here. Sure, it’s beefy. But there’s restraint. Elegance, even. The old-school colourway offsets the tech-forward materials, like rubber and titanium, in a way that feels both playful and purposeful.

The AIR’s slightly elevated. Of course, it’s three times the cost of the Diver Hammerhead Shark, so you’d hope so.

Instead of simply switching steel for titanium, the Diver AIR is the result of a radical rethink. Born from the Diver Net concept and powered by the entirely redesigned UN-374 calibre, it’s a masterclass in lightweight engineering. At just 52 grams including the strap, it’s a tech-forward, eco-conscious flight of fancy.

To pull it off, Ulysse Nardin didn’t just call up their titanium supplier, either. They collaborated with both established players and start-ups to integrate unconventional materials like upcycled silicon into the escapement and oversized oscilator to produce a skeletonised movement with 90 hours of power reserve, encased in a design that feels more aerospace than nautical.

Each Diver AIR ships with two featherweight fabric straps, orange and white, both weighing less than 6 grams. Add the R-STRAP or classic rubber for more flexibility, but don’t expect to add much heft. This is a diver that floats, in every sense.

Maybe that’s why retro design is having such a moment. It’s more about pragmatism than enduring nostalgia. When everything’s connected, automated, and over-designed, something like the new Diver feels tangible. It’s a tool watch, yes, but it’s also a throwback to an era when form really did follow function… and function’s never looked so good.