Ulysse Nardin Diver Air Watch Review
The Ulysse Nardin Diver Air is billed as the ‘world’s lightest mechanical dive watch’, weighing a mere 52 g. A captivating fusion of two horological genres, a divers’ watch and a skeleton timepiece, the new Diver Air is packed with innovative ideas. With a strong emphasis on sustainability and recycling, this latest model delivers an avant-garde take on traditional Haute Horlogerie.
Ulysse Nardin x Watches & Wonders
Ensconced within the plush surroundings of Watches and Wonders, visitors are momentarily cocooned from the harsh realities of life, focussed solely on viewing the numerous watches on display. Happily marooned in a glorious cosmos of wrist candy, utterly lost in wonder and none the wiser, there is much to take in. Tray after tray of ticking novelties are served to visitors, a horological banquet; a ticking feast for the eyes. If only there was more time to spend with each ‘novelty’, savouring its flavour and digesting what it delivers.
Of course, it’s much easier to do that while perusing the delights of Ulysse Nardin. By comparison, exploring this brand’s releases at Watches and Wonders each year proves a rather leisurely and enjoyable experience, as the company intentionally rolls out significantly fewer releases than the average brand. The idea is that each timepiece gets to tell its story as a hero piece, percolating its purpose as the wearer gradually connects with it.
In these first few moments, you may agonise over the precise angle of a chamfered bridge or marvel at a Grand Feu enamel dial. All the while, a picture of what life would look like with this watch on the wrist continues to build in the layers of the subconscious. Regardless of whatever that new release may be, Ulysse Nardin ensures it has a purpose and intention that is instantly understood. This year, the clue is in the name of the brand’s new Diver release, ‘Air’.
Ulysse Nardin Diver Air – a light dip
Ulysse Nardin has always been a technical maverick, operating within an industry often dictated by tradition. The brand made a revolutionary contribution to marine chronometers in its early days, yet its fearless spirit during the modern era forever changed the landscape of timekeeping thanks to its ability to radically rethink the laws of watchmaking. It overcame challenges relating to magnetism and friction with concepts like the Free Wheel. Some Ulysse Nardin watches can also withstand the rigours of the underwater environment, promising water-resistant capabilities that can fathom depths of 200 metres and beyond.
Like many watch manufacturers, Ulysse Nardin began experimenting with water resistance in the mid-20th century, as recreational and professional diving became more mainstream. The manufacturer’s Diver collection is where you can find diver chronographs, deep dive models, chronometers and artistic, limited-edition dials. All examples bear the hallmarks of a bona fide dive tool, featuring robust cases, unidirectional rotating bezels, screw-in crowns and legible dials. It’s also where you’ll find the new Ulysse Nardin Diver Air which holds the title of the world’s lightest mechanical dive watch, conferring an almost weightless presence on the wrist thanks to its 44 mm case engineered from a mix of titanium and carbon fibre.
Ulysse Nardin Diver Air – case
The Ulysse Nardin Diver Air is a watch with an openworked dial that takes the skeletonisation concept a step further, shaving weight from its architecture, not only by modifying the case but also the movement.
This is not the first time the brand has successfully merged dive watch requirements with a skeletonised torso. Back in 2021, the company released the 44 mm Diver X Skeleton – clad in a striking blue PVD-coated steel case with vibrant orange accents and a Carbonium bezel inlay (microscopic carbon fibres that have been baked at a high temperature). For comparison, that watch weighed 105.8 g. The new Diver Air is 50% lighter, weighing in at a staggering 52 g, including its bold elastic fabric strap.
The case of the Diver Air plays host to a number of recycled components. Ulysse Nardin enlisted the help of several technical material experts, including TiFast and Thyssenkrupp, to create the model’s titanium movement bridges and mainplate as well as the middle case. This material was sourced from Switzerland’s bio-medical industry and refined in Tuscany. The ‘side parts of the case’ are made from 60% Nylo, supplied by Fil & Fab (the first French recycling company to specialise in upcycling fishing nets), and 40% carbon fibre sourced from Extracthive, a company that specialises in recycling carbon fibre from the hulls of racing sailboats. Fusing these two materials forms a synthetic polymer known as Nylo-Foil, which gives the surface of the material a striking marbled effect that is both strong and lightweight.
The case’s lack of heft creates a cognitive dissonance between what you expect to feel when you look at it and what you actually experience when you pick it up and affix it to your wrist. The Diver Air defies the laws of physics, delivering something incredibly strong but light as a feather. It resembles the case shape and appearance of the Diver X Skeleton, but upon handling the watch you’re instantly reminded of the technical challenges involved in making a watch much lighter than the principles of physics would suggest.
The watch, water-resistant to 200 m, measures 14.7 mm in thickness and is shock-resistant to 5,000 G. Sapphire crystal glass has been fitted to both sides of the case, each pane of glazing providing an insight into a world of mechanical virtuosity. Even the luminous bezel insert, forged from 100% upcycled carbon fibres, augments the UN’s green credentials and delivers an illuminating aesthetic.
Ulysse Nardin Diver Air – dial
Being a skeletonised watch, the dial of the Diver Air reveals the revolutionary mechanics sitting deep within the case. The UN-374 calibre supports the brand’s signature X-shaped rotor seen on the Diver X Skeleton, albeit it is a tad subtler in its execution.
The only colours afforded by this watch are the flashes of orange or white seen in the elastic fabric strap that secures to the wrist with a Velcro-style fastening system. Depending on which strap you opt for, a streak of orange or white can be seen through both the upper and lower sapphire panels of the watch, contrasting starkly with the Super-LumiNova coating the hour and minute hands, the baton hour markers and the count up scale on the rotating bezel.
Ulysse Nardin Diver Air – movement
In its quest to mitigate mass, Ulysse Nardin must have expended many hours looking at every component in minute detail. Ultimately, the Maison has pared everything back to the essentials, often skeletonising components in its pursuit of lightness. Replacing the weighty brass components, typically found in a traditional mechanical movement, Ulysse Nardin needed to think outside the box. The resultant automatic movement, the Calibre UN-374, features bridges and plates formed of titanium, mitigating weight. The openworked mainspring barrel favours a flying configuration, eliminating the need for an upper barrel bridge, further reducing mass. Meanwhile, the bridges of the movement are triangular, a geometric shape that’s often employed in architecture to confer strength.
The movement has a frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour, a power reserve of 90 hours and weighs a mere 7 grams. The silicon escapement was supplied by Sigatec. The balance spring is also formed of silicon, while the escape wheel and anchor are made from upcycled silicon wafers, aligning with the brand’s focus on sustainability. The lightweight characteristics of silicon reduce energy consumption, no doubt a factor that has contributed to the movement’s impressive power-reserve.
Closing remarks
The new Ulysse Nardin Diver Air watch pushes the envelope, claiming to be the lightest mechanical diver on record. It has an almost ethereal lightness to its case construction, departing from the typical bulk often associated with dive watches. Even so, it is engineered to conquer the crushing pressures of the abyss. Most of the technical achievement takes place in the movement and the stripping away of extraneous material.
Most impressive of all is that, despite removing so much movement material, the watch is no weaker nor less capable of keeping perfect time and can withstand impacts of 5000 G. Put simply, this sustainable approach to watchmaking delivers impressive performance but not at the expense of wearability or practicality. It seems there is much wisdom in concentrating on just a few products at a time.
Further reading
https://www.ulysse-nardin.com/
Technical specification
- Model: Ulysse Nardin Diver Air
- Reference: 3743-170-2A/0A
- Case: Titanium middle case, case flanks made from Nylo-Foil and carbon fibre, bezel inlay made from Carbonfoil, weight 52 g, diameter 44 mm, height 14.79 mm, water resistance 20 ATM (100 metres), sapphire crystal to front, exhibition case back
- Functions: hours, minutes, centre seconds
- Movement: Calibre UN-374, self-winding movement, frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz), 21 jewels, power reserve 90 hours, 199 components
- Bracelet: orange or white elastic fabric strap with Velcro-style fastening
- Price: £33,420 (RRP as of 30.7.2025)