After the Diver Net concept watch of 2020, Ulysse Nardin moves on to the production model with its first Diver made largely of recycled fishing nets. The case is the result, for the 40%, of the use of Carbonium, supplied by the French company Lavoisier Composite and composed of the fibres used for the fuselage and wings of latest-generation aircraft, and, for the 60%, of Nylo, a polyamide supplied by FIL&FAB, also French, and obtained from fishing nets no longer used by ports and transformed into plastic. Both these materials, Carbonium and Nylo, are then combined with recycled steel at least 80-85%, supplied by Voestalpine Boehler of Austria. The same Carbonium is also used for the unidirectional rotating bezel, while the strap is made entirely from recycled fishing nets.
Water-resistant to a pressure of 30 atmospheres, the watch sports bright green touches, from the stitching on the strap to the hour markers and bezel, including the "double X" signature on the dial, from the power reserve indicator at 12 o'clock to the small seconds hand at 6 o'clock, to the Ulysse Nardin logo engraved on the crown, the crown cover and the single plate. Finally, an association of white, grey and black completes the palette of colours used. Its driving force is the IWC-manufactured UN-118 calibre, a self-winding mechanical movement that makes use of recycled steel and brass for its components.
The watch will be the official timekeeper of the fourteenth edition of The Ocean Race, an around-the-world crewed race that will start on 15 January 2023 from Alicante, Spain, and finish in Genoa in early summer 2023. The Ocean Race Diver is on sale at the price of €10,400 in an original package: a waterproof R-PET case housed inside a bag recycled from the sea by Helly Hansen, another partner brand of the race as official clothing supplier.
