Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver
The Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver is one of the brand's few trademark collections with some unique design features that have long set this model apart. In fact, it was the first diver's watch we remember of a decidedly sophisticated and elegant style, a successful experiment in combining the prestige of a high-end brand with the cool factor of a diver's watch. In 2014, Ulysse Nardin decided to update its Marine Diver collection, focusing on some important aesthetic improvements, while keeping its fundamentals intact.
You see, despite the company's 170-year history of making extremely accurate nautical chronometers and unique anchor emblems, it's not one of the first names that comes to mind when we think of a nautical-themed Swiss brand. The reason is that recently we have been overwhelmed by the range of beautiful and highly complicated watches released by the brand, hence the more sophisticated and fragile watches, truly sublime pieces such as the 4-Gong Sonnerie or the "Stranger Things" music box watch.
With that in mind, it's easy to see why this facelift -- as they like to call it in the auto industry -- is the most popular news from the makers of Le Locle. New to the Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver for 2014 are several aesthetic improvements, let's take a look.
The most obvious modifications are made to the watch's 44mm wide stainless steel case. While previous models offered a more angular, dare we say "tool-like" look, the 2014 model has a more organic look thanks to some notable changes in its construction. For one thing, its lugs are now flared, and those elegantly curved two-tiered lugs certainly help create a more refined look. The crown protector is closer to the shape of the case than the rather blocky crown we've seen on previous models. Suffice to say, the crown is also new and is now covered in "claw" rubber for better grip and a sportier look.
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Available in black or blue, the dial and bezel feature the wavy pattern that has always been the signature design feature of the Athenian marine diver’s watch. Having said that, the bezel has been slightly revised and now includes frame numerals for the more important ten-minute markers, improving legibility somewhat. With the same goal in mind, the dial has also been revised and now has some clearly visible red markers in the center of all indexes as well as the hour and minute hands. Since the previous Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver reference had few issues with legibility, we think these aesthetic improvements are more about updating the look than actually enhancing performance.
The in-house movement remains the UN-26, which is the brand's "personalized" ETA 2892A2, first trimmed to match Ulysse Nardin's standard and price point, with the addition of a swirling Côtes de Genève stripe, circular Shaped textures, and custom UN rotors. As far as the UN-26 is more technical and practical, the base 2892 has been further modified by adding the brand's own movement module, which can display the movement's power reserve, as well as reposition the movement. The central seconds hand of the basic movement enters the running seconds hand of the subdial at 6 o'clock. The seemingly insignificant height of the module makes the date disc located at the base of the movement rather small and difficult to read, so a tiny cyclops is placed on the sapphire crystal to improve legibility.
In short, the new Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver offers some, albeit certainly a noticeable aesthetic improvement over the previous iteration, while still being a strong contender for high-end bench-top divers.