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New launch: Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] is the world’s lightest mechanical diver’s watch

Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] (reference 3743-170-2A/0A)

As the flagship for Watches & Wonders Geneva 2025, Ulysse Nardin has just unveiled the world’s lightest mechanical diver’s watch. Made from high-tech recycled materials, the new Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] is driven by a highly skeletonized automatic movement, with bridges machined from titanium and, like the rest of the collection, water-resistant to 200 meters; however, the entire watch (including the strap) weighs just 52 grams, less than half the weight of the brand’s standard Diver X Skeleton model.

Despite sharing the same overall silhouette as the brand’s standard diver’s models, the new Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] measures 44mm in diameter and 14.7mm thick, making it one millimeter thinner than its Diver X Skeleton sibling. As you’d expect, the top of the case features a domed sapphire crystal surrounded by a unidirectional rotating chronograph bezel, while the back of the watch features a screw-down exhibition caseback with a signature winding crown at 3 o’clock that screws into the middle case to ensure the 200 meters of water resistance this model offers. With this in mind, and in order to significantly reduce the weight of the new Diver [Air], Ulysse Nardin had to resort to materials different from those typically used in its dive watch manufacturing.

The Diver [Air]’s case is made from titanium and carbon fiber, but rather than working with traditional suppliers, Ulysse Nardin worked with forward-thinking innovators in the field of high-tech materials to source these materials. Titanium is used for the internal container that houses the movement, as well as the watch’s bezel, crown, and caseback. The titanium used in the Diver [Air] is 90% made from recycled materials and is manufactured by TiFast, a leading titanium producer, and ThyssenKrupp, a specialist in materials and engineering solutions focused on automotive technology and marine systems. TiFast recycles titanium from the Swiss biomedical industry, which is then processed by ThyssenKrupp using its various technologies and heat treatment methods to further enhance the alloy's processing and deformation properties.

The rest of the case is made from Nylo®-Foil, a carbon composite material that is lighter than traditional carbon fiber. Nylo®-Foil is composed of 60% Nylo® (a polymer made from recycled fishing nets by French recycling startup Fil & Fab) and 40% carbon fiber, which comes from the IMOCA sailboat manufactured by CDK Technologies. The carbon fiber is recycled and returned to its original fiber state by Extracthive, a company committed to the circular economy, and then Lavoisier Composites processes the Nylo® and carbon fiber to create the Nylo®-Foil material. Meanwhile, the bezel insert of the Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] is made of CarbonFoil, which is made from 100% recycled carbon fiber from IMOCA sailboats that are chopped and compressed into a sturdy structure with a unique marble-like forged carbon pattern.

Rather than a heavy rubber strap like most brands’ dive watches, the new Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] comes with two ultra-light elastic fabric straps. The two straps are bright orange or white, but other than the color difference, the two straps are identical, both with a wraparound design and a Velcro-style connection system. Since the straps are connected to the case via Velcro, the two included straps can be easily replaced without the use of any tools, and the Velcro-style closure also provides users with a nearly infinite range of adjustability. Additionally, since the strap is essentially just a piece of stretchy fabric with a black plastic pull tab, it only adds a few grams of weight, and the Diver [Air] weighs 46 grams for the watch head, and only 52 grams with one of the included straps.

Creating a lightweight case and strap certainly helped keep the watch’s weight down, but to create a watch that’s close to breaking the record, the movement inside also needed to be redesigned. The Caliber UN-374 automatic movement, visible through two sapphire crystals on either side of the Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] case, is highly skeletonized, with bridges and mainplates made from 90 percent recycled titanium to further reduce weight. The skeletonized titanium bridges have been redesigned to form a triangle for maximum strength, the skeletonized mainspring barrel has been changed to a flying configuration, and by eliminating the upper barrel bridge, Ulysse Nardin was able to further reduce the weight of the movement.

The Cal. UN-374 movement consists of 199 individual parts, is set with 21 jewels, beats at 21,600 vph (3 Hz), and has a power reserve of 90 hours. Similar to other in-house movements of Ulysse Nardin, the Cal. UN-374 is equipped with an oversized balance wheel, whose hairspring and anchor-shaped escape wheel are made of silicon. The 90% recycled titanium used for the plates and bridges is produced by TiFast and Thyssenkrupp, and the silicon used in the regulating organ comes from recycled silicon wafers provided by Sigatec. At the same time, the rotor of the Cal. UN-374 has been hollowed out to the essential elements, and the use of large areas of hollowing out and lightweight materials makes the movement weigh only 7 grams, but it can withstand shocks of more than 5,000g.

Dive watches and skeleton watches usually exist at opposite ends of the horological spectrum, and it is undeniable that the highly hollowed-out display is completely opposite to the legibility that dive watches usually have. That being said, ultra-lightweight skeletonized sports watches have become a very popular horological style, and these haute horlogerie creations are not intended to be purely utilitarian products, but rather to be technical showcases that demonstrate the manufacturing prowess of their respective brands. The Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] aims not to be the world’s most powerful dive watch, but to be the world’s lightest dive watch, and its appearance is designed to reflect this extreme, with approximately 80% of the space within the case being completely occupied by air.

The Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air] pushes the boundaries of one metric without compromising the others, and although the new Diver [Air] weighs less than half of the brand’s standard Diver X Skeleton model, it still offers a proper automatic movement with the same 200-meter depth rating, and also provides users with 25% longer power reserve.