« New releases from Certina, Mühle, Omega, Rolex and Ulysse Nardin »
Whether for sailing, swimming or diving – or simply as an elegant accessory for an evening stroll along the beachfront promenade or on a cruise vacation – nautical watches are hugely popular with watch enthusiasts. The range extends from rugged, sporty dive watches to elegant marine watches and unconventional reinterpretations of ocean themes.
The revival of a dive watch classic from Certina
Among Swiss luxury watch brands, Certina is known above all for its wide selection of sporty models and its excellent value for money. Since Baselworld 2018, the manufacture's lineup has included another sports watch, one that marks the return of a heritage classic in modernized form. We're talking about the DS PH200M, whose retro design recalls the first "golden age" of dive watches, from the 1950s to the early 1970s. Inside, however, this masterpiece is anything but "retro": it is powered by a high-performance, latest-generation automatic caliber.
The DS PH200M features a 42.8 mm stainless steel case, a black unidirectional rotating bezel and a black dial. The hands and indices are coated with Super-LumiNova, making them easy to read even in the dark. As on the original model, the caseback is adorned with a turtle in relief, a kind of emblem for Certina's DS concept. The watch comes on either a black-and-gray textile NATO strap or a brown calfskin strap.
As is essential for a dive watch, water resistance is guaranteed to a pressure of 20 bar, or 200 meters. The modern Powermatic caliber offers a generous power reserve of 80 hours.
Supporting sea turtle conservation – with a special edition of the DS Action Diver
Another new release under the sign of the turtle is the DS Action Diver Sea Turtle Conservancy, which Certina also unveiled in Basel. This special edition of the successful automatic dive watch is dedicated to the brand's partnership, in place since 2017, with the "Sea Turtle Conservancy" (STC), a Florida-based organization founded back in 1959 that focuses on protecting sea turtles and their habitats.
Coincidentally, the STC was founded in exactly the same year that the concept of double security – DS concept for short – was first presented to the public. A share of the proceeds from sales of the new special edition goes to the STC, and naturally this special version of the nautical watch meets all the requirements of the ISO 6425 dive watch standard just as easily as the standard model, which is water-resistant to 30 bar.
Visually, the special edition can be recognized by its blue seconds hand and the blue lettering on the dial. The caseback of this luxury watch also bears the official STC turtle logo.
Two new nautical watches from Mühle Glashütte: the "29er" with day display and the ProMare Go
A look at the Mühle Glashütte collection impressively shows that nautical watches can be far more than just dive watches. Among the latest creations from this long-established specialist in nautical instruments is the "29er Tag/Datum" automatic watch, now with an added day display. Its unusual-sounding name refers to the 29er dinghy. This sailboat class was developed in the late 1990s as a smaller version of the Olympic 49er and has since enjoyed steadily growing popularity, especially among young sailors. The new Mühle 29er comes with a gray dial and a sand-metallic rehaut.
In addition to the date window on the right, a small window opposite it at 9 o'clock displays the current day of the week. The 42.4 mm round stainless steel case with screw-down crown is water-resistant to 10 bar – not suitable for diving, but certainly regatta-ready and robust enough for a shower or a dip in the pool. For the new 29er version, Mühle uses the self-winding Sellita SW 220 caliber, fitted with the brand's own woodpecker-neck regulation and a rotor also made in Glashütte. Besides a textile strap matching the dial color, the 29er Tag/Datum is also available with a stainless steel bracelet on request.
An alternative for divers
If you actually want to go diving with your Mühle watch now and then, you can choose the new ProMare Go instead. Thanks to its 2.5 mm thick sapphire crystal, it is water-resistant to 30 bar, or 300 meters. Unlike the "base model," the ProMare Datum, the Go has a rotating bezel. Since the bezel turns in both directions rather than just one, it is strictly speaking not a true dive watch. On the other hand, the bezel is very handy for marking the start of a sailing trip, a bike ride or a hike, for example.
Omega: the Seamaster Professional Diver 300 m with a fresher look
With the new Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300 m, the renowned luxury watch brand has marked the 25th anniversary of this now-classic dive watch line with a watch that has not only been refreshed on the outside but also comprehensively modernized from a technical standpoint.
Longtime Seamaster Professional fans will likely be pleased that the key features responsible for the line's high recognition value have been retained. At the same time, the careful changes compared with the first generation should help win over new and, above all, younger customers for the Omega Seamaster Professional. This distinctly nautical watch is now available in 14 standard versions in stainless steel, two-tone or gold. The case diameter, previously 41 mm, has been moderately increased by one millimeter. The movement is now Omega's Master Chronometer caliber 8800.
Bezels in ceramic and Ceragold or enamel, black or blue dials in polished ceramic, and the familiar wave pattern on the dial are further signature details. New additions include a matte gray dial variant and slightly modified skeleton hands. In addition, the date now appears at 6 o'clock instead of 3 o'clock.
The ultimate deep-sea watch: the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea withstands forces its wearer couldn't even begin to survive. The new Sea-Dweller version, also presented for the first time at Baselworld 2018, differs from its predecessor not only in its modified case design but above all in its state-of-the-art caliber 3235 movement and its wider bracelet with a correspondingly larger Oysterlock safety folding clasp.
What's remarkable about this Rolex luxury watch is that its 44 mm case isn't even unusually large for a dive watch, despite its ability to withstand extreme forces. Its water resistance is guaranteed to a pressure of 390 bar, or a depth of 3,900 meters. The model owes this enormous pressure resistance to its Ringlock System and patented case architecture.
The fairly strongly domed sapphire crystal is a full 5.5 mm thick, and the Triplock winding crown, which has three gaskets and screws down tightly onto the case, is considered as secure as a submarine hatch.
Nautical watches with a freak factor from Ulysse Nardin
With its Freak collection, Ulysse Nardin has launched a series of extraordinary timepieces that seem to break with almost every convention of classical watchmaking. What may be the most unusual collection in the luxury watch segment was recently expanded with four new Freak Out models, powered by the hand-wound in-house caliber UN-205 and boasting a number of special features. They have no crown, no dial and no conventional hands.
The pallet fork and escape wheel are replaced by two silicon impulse wheels, each activating a generator that transfers its energy to the balance staff. The design requires no lubricating oil and ensures that energy is always released in the direction of the balance's oscillation, which reduces friction. A small lever mechanism between the lugs and above the lower strap unlocks the rotating bezel, which lets you set the hours and minutes simply and precisely. The barrel delivers a power reserve of a full week and is wound via a rear bezel on the caseback. The clearly visible anchor motifs give the Ulysse Nardin Freak Out the look of a nautical watch – yet it defies any further classification and has a truly unique recognition value.
The luxury watch is available in four versions. The sportiest is considered to be the Freak Out Full Black with its black PVD coating. The Ulysse Nardin Freak Out Black Gold looks particularly original and, thanks to its gold gear train, is equally sporty and elegant.
The all-blue Ulysse Nardin Freak Out of the Blue is conceived as an especially nautical watch and a tribute to the manufacture's close ties to seafaring, with silver stitching on the strap and a silver gear-train bridge providing contrasting accents. An even more exclusive variant of this already very exclusive watch is also available: the Freak Out of the Blue Gold.