Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver Chronograph 44mm

Over the dial is a domed sapphire crystal with AR-coating on both sides. The dial is designed for legibility and just a hint of glitz in the form of the polished hands and hour markers. Ulysse Nardin made sure to keep the dial utilitarian with a matte, textured dial, and easy-to-see-chronograph hands. (Note that both the chronograph and main hands are given luminant for darkness viewing.) Dial symmetry is ideal with even the date being balanced within its own round window right above the 6 o’clock hour marker. Dial text is minimized and neatly integrated into places such as the out seconds scale or within the chronograph subdials. While at first, the Diver Chronograph dial can appear simple, its refined nature allows it to grow on you after having it on your wrist for a while. I further appreciate how Ulysse Nardin was able to take the essence of previous Marine Diver watches but also create something new that we’ve not seen before for the Diver Chronograph 44mm collection.
Around the dial is a smooth-acting rotating bezel that has pleasant audible clicks and whose design again takes inspiration from traditional Ulysse Nardin Marine watches, but also does something a bit new. Aside from the design of the case itself, the bezel of the Diver Chronograph is what gives this Ulysse Nardin watch its primary visual distinctiveness. The chronograph pushers are screw-down, which is a bit of a retro feature, in my estimation. While this is a tried and true means of getting more water-resistance in a diver’s chronograph timepiece, I’d like to see brands move in a direction where the chronograph complication doesn’t need screw-down pushers and that can even be fully operated underwater (maybe not down to 300 meters, but at least 50 or 100 meters). On the left side of the watch is a small metal plaque with the timepiece’s serial number. This area is used for limited-edition numbers, such as on the limited edition America-only red, white, and blue “Hammerhead” reference 1503-170LE-3/93-HAMMER version of the Diver Chronograph.
Inside the watch is a fantastic movement, the in-house-made Ulysse Nardin caliber UN-150. This movement debuted around 2013 and is the brand’s premium automatic 12-hour chronograph movement. The UN-150 is beautiful to behold and operates at 4Hz (28,800 bpm) with 48 hours of power reserve. The 322-part movement is individually regulated for performance at Ulysse Nardin and also benefits from having a silicon escapement for added timing performance. Turn the watch over to view the UN-150 movement through the caseback, which helps add an impressive presentation to this luxury sports watch.
The titanium case makes the watch really feel light on the wrist, which is a good thing. Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver Chronograph 44mm also features an all 18k rose gold reference 1502-170-3/93) version of the Diver Chronograph 44mm that is nearly four times the price (at $38,500 USD) of this titanium model — and comes with the extra weight of gold to boot. That is a wonderful option for those who want to go swimming with a gold watch, but as a tool piece I’m not sure that gold is the best choice — so, my option would be titanium. I think the real value of the Diver Chronograph is a daily wear timepiece if you live in the tropics or warm place where you not only will sweat a lot, but also don’t want to think about swapping out your “nice watch” for something else when you want to submerge yourself in water. That also makes the Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronograph a great “vacation” watch if you are traveling to a tropical zone.