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The Watches

Ulysse Nardin Launches Eco-Friendly Dive Watches

Ulysse Nardin this week debuts the Ocean Race Diver, a commercial version of its environmentally friendly Diver Net concept watch launched in 2020.

The new Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver might be the greenest luxury watch available.

With a strap created entirely from recycled fishing nets and a case and caseback made using recycled steel, a carbon composite called Carbonium and more recycled fishing nets, the new Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver might be the greenest luxury watch available. Ulysse Nardin teamed with French recycling experts Fil&Fab to source and develop the recycled material for the new collection.

Ulysse Nardin wants to raise awareness to protect the oceans by creating “new from old and regenerating materials, especially plastic.” The watchmaker co-branded the watch with its partner, the around-the-globe Ocean Race, for which Ulysse Nardin is official timer.

On the case back, the sapphire crystal is embellished with a white transfer of the logo of the brand’s partner, The Ocean Race.

As a 44mm dive watch, the Ocean Race Diver is water-resistant to 300 meters and features a high-visibility, green-accented unidirectional bezel made using Carbonium, the same fibers that are used for the fuselage and wings of the latest-generation aircrafts. The manufacture of Carbonium has a 40% lower environmental impact than other carbon composites, since it makes use of the offcuts of aircraft parts, according to Ulysse Nardin.

Ulysse Nardin taps an automotive industry steel recycling channel for the 44mm case, which is 80% to 85% recycled.

Ulysse Nardin teamed with Fil & Fab to make the strap and other components using recycled fishing nets.

Diver X

The watch’s dial echoes the watchmaker’s Diver X series with a double X signature on the dial, a power reserve indicator at the top and a small seconds hand at 6 o’clock. The dial, toned down when compared to the concept version, is composed of neutral textured anthracite (ruthenium) surface treatment.

Like the brand’s X-Skeleton series, you’ll also find the Ulysse Nardin logo etched into the crown and a visible crown protector.

Ulysse Nardin’s own dial maker stamps its double X on the dial with its half-matte, half-satin finish.

Even the movement, Ulysse Nardin’s own UN-118, is made with materials 95% sourced within a 30 km radius of the Manufacture, half of them coming from recycling channels (recycled steel and brass). All Ulysse Nardin movements utilize recycled brass.

The watch will be sold in a water-resistant pouch slipped into a dry bag recycled from the sea by Helly Hansen, a brand that is also a partner of the round-the-world Ocean Race.

Ulysse Nardin will offer the watch as a limited edition of 200 pieces starting in June. Price: $11,500.

 

Specifications: Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver

Reference: (1183-170LE-1A-TOR/0A
UN-118)

Movement: Caliber UN 118 manufacture, 
Silicium & DiamonSil escapement technology. Power reserve is 60 hours.

Case: 
44mm steel with unidirectional concave rotating bezel, bezel decoration 100% Carbonium, sapphire crystal, 300 meters of water resistance.

  • Side-case and case-back 40% Carbonium and 60% recycled fishing nets.
  • Stainless steel case at least 80% recycled from automotive industry.

Dial: 
Green Super-LumiNova markers, 
 anthracite (ruthenium) surface treatment 
Double X
, The Ocean Race logo (white transfer), power reserve indicator.

Strap: Recycled from fishing nets, gray with green and white stitches, scratch closing.

Price: $11,500.

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The Watches

Corum Expands Admiral 42

Corum broadens its nautically themed Admiral collection with the watchmaker’s new three-dimensional patterned dial, previously found only on the collection’s 38mm and 45mm cases. Corum now places its Grenadier fendu dial, designed in house in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2019, on new models within the Admiral 42 Automatic collection.

A new blue-dialed example of the Corum Admiral 42 Automatic.

The twelve-sided (dodecagonal) Admiral, with its colorful sailing flags, was first seen in 1980. Originally a square-cased watch when it debuted in 1960, Admiral has since 1980 been offered in myriad versions, including those displaying time-only, as a chronograph and even hosting complications.

Most recently, Corum has launched numerous contemporary iterations of the Admiral with monochrome dials and sailing pennants.

The six new Admiral 42 watches boast two dial colors (blue and black), with each dial color offered in three models: stainless steel case and bracelet, a stainless steel case with matching alligator leather strap and a stainless steel case with a rose gold bezel and crown, matching alligator leather strap with triple folding clasp.

The Admiral’s signature pennants line the outer chapter flange in minimalist outline form alongside minute indexes. Corum finishes the dial with applied hour markers and white SuperLuminova-coated Dauphine skeletonized hands, a date window and a small seconds subdial.

And finally, Corum powers the Admiral 42 Automatic with the CO 395 caliber, visible through a sapphire screwed-in caseback. Prices: $4,600 (steel) and $7,600 (with rose gold bezel).

 

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The Watches

Nomos Brightens its Tetra Neomatik

Nomos launches four square-cased Tetra watches with automatic calibers and shiny, enamel-like dials.

The new Nomos Tetra Neomatik – 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte Blue.

The new watches, called Tetra Neomatik – 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte, retain Tetra’s well-known shape and the Tetra Neomatik’s existing 39mm diameter and automatic DUW 3001 caliber, but reveal four crisp dial colors.

Nomos explains that the red, blue, black and off-white dial colors here are lacquer-coated using a technique similar to that used when making enamel dials. Incoming light is not absorbed by the opaque surfaces but instead reflected, creating depth, according to the watchmaker.

Incoming light is not absorbed by the opaque surface but instead reflected. Pictured is the new Nomos Tetra Neomatik red.

Recognizing the decidedly unsubtle dial hues, Nomos says the new watches “are not for everyone.” The few Existing Tetra Neomatik watches are available in more subdued silver, blue or white dials.

The Tetra is a signature Nomos collection primarily offered only with a manual-wind caliber.

“The watches are bolder than sneakers with a jacket,” according to Nomos product manager Heike Ahrendt.

The automatic DUW 3001 caliber, visible through the sapphire crystal glass back, is regulated according to chronometer values.

The chronometer-adjusted Nomos DUW 3001 automatic caliber is visible through a sapphire caseback on each watch, framed by an engraving noting the limited nature of the Tetra Neomatik – 175 Years Watchmaking Glashütte collection. The new series is limited to 175 units of each color.

Nomos attaches each case to a remborde strap made of Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan, oiled by hand and struck with glass balls to create a shiny finish. Price: $3,860.

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The Watches

Bulgari Races Alongside Ducati with New Chronograph

With the new Aluminum Chronograph Ducati Special Edition, Bulgari combines its sporty aluminum-cased chronograph design with Ducati’s racing-infused motorbike colors and typography. The watch’s conspicuous use of materials such as titanium (caseback, crown and pushers) and rubber (bezel) also match Ducati’s high-performance image in this colorful iteration of the original Bulgari Aluminum watch first seen in 1998.

Bulgari Aluminum Chronograph Ducati Special Edition.

In its premiere co-design with Ducati, Bulgari’s new 40mm, 1,000-piece limited edition features three dark subdials set within a dial colored with the same deep red hue used throughout historic Bologna-based factories. And more specific to Ducati, the dial’s 10, 11 and 12 o’clock numerals echo the same layout found on the dashboards of famed Italian motorbikes.

As Bulgari’s sportiest design, the Bvlgari Aluminum series has long been one of the Italian-Swiss watchmaker and jeweler’s most successful collections, with its lightweight case and bold Bvlgari Bvlgari-branded black (and sometimes blue) rubber bezel.

Bulgari originally fit its Aluminum series with a mechatronic-quartz movement but updated the collection in 2020. Here, Bulgari fits the latest in the series with its automatic BVL 130 caliber.

Bulgari offers the watch with its own aluminum and rubber presentation box bearing the logos of both the Italian brands. Price: $5,000.

Specifications: Bulgari Aluminum Chronograph Ducati Special Edition

(1,000-piece limited edition)

Movement: Automatic Caliber BVL 130 with chronograph and date, 42-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph (4 Hz) frequency.

Case: 40mm aluminum, titanium caseback with DLC coating and engraved Ducati logo; rubber bezel, crown and pushers in DLC-coated titanium. Water-resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Red Ducati-color, hour-markers and hours and minutes hands filled with SuperLuminova, three black counters with red hands; date window.

Bracelet: Rubber strap with aluminum links, aluminum pin buckle.

Price: $5,000.

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The Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Adds Sparkle to Tonda

Parmigiani Fleurier adds diamonds to a time-only Tonda Automatic to create the glitteriest model within the watchmaker’s recently updated Tonda collection.

While not specifically an extension of the new, widely acclaimed Tonda PF collection, the new offerings do enhance the broader Tonda collection by debuting its first fully gem-set models.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Automatic Rose Gold.

Focusing on the watchmaker’s trademark barleycorn-pattern dial, each watch dial on this new model is fully set with diamonds that follow the distinctive lines of the pattern, which really sets this jeweled series apart from other glittering updates we’ve seen recently.

At 36mm by 3.9mm and cased in either a rose gold or white gold, the new watches are meant to be a “refined tribute to feminine elegance,” according to Parmigiani Fleurier. The watchmaker explains that its artisans have set more than a thousand high-quality diamonds of varying sizes on the dial, case and bezel. And unusually, each dial displays gems specifically set to generate light-reflecting sparkle within the signature barleycorn pattern, known as a Grain d’Orge motif.

The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda Automatic White Gold.

The setting process involved highlighting the Grain d’Orge pattern with a diamond “snow” setting that uses diamonds of seven different diameters, set in a very limited space on the finely patterned gold dial, according to Parmigiani Fleurier.

On each dial you’ll see light reflected and refracted from 979 brilliant-cut diamonds. The bezel and the lugs are also set with an additional seventy brilliant-cut diamonds. The artisans didn’t forget the crown, which is adorned with a cabochon in either blue sapphire on the white gold model, or white opal on the rose gold model.

Inside, Parmigiani Fleurier fits its PF310 caliber that boasts a 50-hour power reserve and an oscillating weight in 22-karat rose gold and engraved with the same Tonda signature Grain d’Orge guilloché pattern. Hermès makes alligator leather strap for the watches, with a blue strap on the Tonda Automatic White Gold and a brown/grey strap for the Tonda Automatic Rose Gold. Price: CHF 59,000.

 

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