This Is the Wildest Military Dive Watch I’ve Ever Seen

Ulysse Nardin turns the classic tool watch style on its head with its latest extreme divers.

Published May 23, 2024

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Few watch styles are as iconic or as stylish as the classic military dive watch. Conceived in the 1950s and ushering in the era of the modern dive watch, mil-spec divers like the original Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Rolex Mil-Sub prioritized legibility and robustness while sticking to a simple and similar tool watch blueprint. But who says all military divers have to look the same?

Certainly not Ulysse Nardin. The high-end Swiss brand is in its third century as a business, but despite its age, it’s viewed as a vanguard of avant-garde horology and ultra-modern styling. The company’s latest display of its unconventional credentials is illustrated in a pair of military dive watches that are just about the craziest take on the form I’ve ever seen.

Forget the 1950s. Ulysse Nardin’s new military divers look straight out of the 2050s.

Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton OPS

$27,500 at Ulysse Nardin

Ulysse Nardin Diver Net OPS

One of the most extreme military-style divers around, Ulysse Nardin’s rugged Diver Net OPS also happens to be the “most sustainable sports watch with a manufacture movement on the market” thanks to a case made from a mix of 95-percent recycled steel, upcycled fishing nets and Carbonium, UN’s proprietary carbon fiber composite made from airplane manufacturing scraps. That’s right, this dive watch contains airplane parts.

$13,300 at Ulysse Nardin

Military style meets haute horology

Last year, Ulysse Nardin unveiled its first OPS watches with the Freak X OPS and Freak One OPS, both a rugged and militarized take on the brand’s flagship Freak complication. The OPS style (pronounced “ops,” as in special ops) combines black and khaki green colors for a special forces-ready look, while also utilizing performance-minded materials like carbon fiber.

Now, UN has brought the OPS treatment to a pair of dive watches with the Diver Net OPS and Diver X Skeleton OPS.

two ulysse nardin dive watches on a rock — These aren’t your granddad’s military dive watches.

The Diver Net OPS is the more traditional of the two, if you can call it that (I personally wouldn’t). Its busy-yet-symmetrical dial has a textured, sand-blasted finish in khaki green and features a small seconds display at six o’clock with a slyly integrated date and a power reserve indicator at 12 for tracking the manufacture caliber UN-118’s 60 hours of power.

The watch’s case makes heavy use of recycled and upcycled materials, leading UN to declare the Diver Net OPS as the “most sustainable sports watch with a manufacture movement on the market.” The case is made up of a mix of 95-percent recycled steel, Nylo (a polyamide made from upcycled fishing nets) and Carbonium, UN’s proprietary carbon fiber composite made from airplane manufacturing scraps.

The watch’s bezel is also crafted from Carbonium, while you have two choices for the strap: a khaki green rubber strap featuring hard-wearing ceramic hardware or a khaki green fabric strap made from upcycled fishing nets.

A Skeletonized military dive watch. Cool.

Moving on to the more extreme of the two, we have the Diver X Skeleton OPS. Rather than steel, the watch uses black DLC-treated titanium for its case, while still utilizing light and strong Carbonium for its bezel. The strap options are the same as what you get on the Diver Net OPS, but the big difference here is the movement and dial.

ulysse nardin skeleton watch — Both watches are available on a fitted rubber strap or a recycled nylon strap, both in khaki green.

The Diver X Skeleton OPS uses Ulysse Nardin’s in-house skeletonized UN-372 automatic movement, and its striking X-shaped architecture is clearly visible through the dial. Also visible on the dial-side is the movement’s prominent silicon oscillator and escapement (the brand was the first-ever to use silicon parts in a watch around the turn of the 21st century), and the mainspring barrel, which has a cover crafted from Carbonium.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Are these traditional military dive watches? Stylistically, they’re obviously not. And if you want to get technical with your definition, they weren’t commissioned by any military branch and weren’t built to any government specifications (the day a military starts issuing $27,000 luxury watches to recruits is the day I enlist).

But who cares? They’re lightweight and plenty rugged and are well-suited for any sort of adventurous activity with high water resistance (200m on the Skeleton OPS, 300m on the Net OPS) and strong khaki-colored lume applications. These look like watches The Expendables would wear, so if that’s the aesthetic you’re after, you may have just found your perfect watch.

Ulysse Nardin Diver X Skeleton OPS

Specs

Case Size	44mm
Movement	Ulysse Nardin Cal. UN-372 automatic
Water Resistance	200m

$27,500 at Ulysse Nardin

Ulysse Nardin Diver Net OPS

One of the most extreme military-style divers around, Ulysse Nardin’s rugged Diver Net OPS also happens to be the “most sustainable sports watch with a manufacture movement on the market” thanks to a case made from a mix of 95-percent recycled steel, upcycled fishing nets and Carbonium, UN’s proprietary carbon fiber composite made from airplane manufacturing scraps. That’s right, this dive watch contains airplane parts.