Unimatic’s Rugged Toolwatch Gets a Significant Performance Upgrade

It’s the same but lighter.

Close-up of a gray metal wristwatch with a black dial, white numerals, and a black fabric strap with orange stitching.Unimatic

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When a brand that almost exclusively produces tool watches names a design the Ultratool, you should expect it to be damn near indestructible.

Unimatic delivers on that promise with a titanium case that minimizes the impact on your wrist. Better still, it comes in two varieties and is priced well below $1,000.

Silver Unimatic wristwatch with black dial, white numerals, and black fabric strap with orange edge.
The Ultratool is a Modello Quattro Toolwatch with a titanium case.
Unimatic

The Ultratool is the newest addition to Unimatic’s Toolwatch collection, which is slightly confusing because almost everything the brand designs is purpose-built and practical enough to fall under that general category.

For the Milanese watchmaker, the “tool” variety of watches maximizes durability and functionality while maintaining the brand’s signature industrial beauty.

Unimatic’s regular production Toolwatch collection includes a Modello Uno dive watch with a unidirectional rotating bezel and a Modello Quattro with a fixed bezel, available in time-only and GMT variations.

Wristwatch with a black dial, white numerals, and a black strap with orange edges worn on a wrist.
The Ultratool is available in time-only and GMT variations.
Unimatic

But both Ultratool references follow the Modello Quattro design, and look nearly identical to their steel predecessors. The big difference is in the feel, as the titanium case reduces the watch’s weight to 65 grams, a thirty-percent reduction.

A real tool

While the Ultratool unmistakably resembles a Unimatic, featuring the brand’s signature handset, case shape and oversized crown, its functionality has more in common with a G-Shock.

Silver stainless steel watch case back with engraved tools and text, including "Made in Italy" and "Unimatic.
The Ultratool has a cheeky caseback engraving featuring a series of hand tools.
Unimatic

Inside the 40mm-wide by 12mm-tall case is Unimatic’s 360° protection system: a thermoplastic polyurethane shell placed between the case and the movement that muffles impact damage.

Both the time-only and GMT versions run on quartz movements, a Seiko and a Ronda, respectively, because they are exponentially more durable than mechanical movements due to their lack of moving parts.

Matte gray Unimatic wristwatch with black dial and glowing green numerals and hands on a black fabric strap.
The Ultratool has green-emitting Super-LumiNova on the hour markers and hands.
Unimatic

The numerical hour indices Unimatics Custom Variable Font, developed by the brand to optimize legibility under any condition. For lowlight visibility, the hour markers and hands are coated in green-emission Super-LumiNova.

Rather than a traditional hand, the GMT reference features an aperture below 12:00 with a dragging 24-hour disc, indicated by a small orange triangle. It also has a frameless date window at 6:00 with a color-matched disc.

Silver stainless steel wristwatch with black dial, white numerals, and black fabric strap with orange edges.
The GMT reference has an aperture below 12:00 with a trailing 24-hour disc indicated by an orange triangle.
Unimatic

Both Ultratools come on the same black nylon two-piece pin buckle strap with an orange core exposed along the edges. The orange core is the only detail that differentiates it from the strap found on Unimatic’s regular production Toolwatch collection.

Availability and pricing

It is a testament to the effectiveness of Unimatic’s standard Toolwatch collection that the only way to improve it is to make it lighter and easier to wear with a titanium case.

The Unimatic Modello Quattro Ultratool is available now from Unimatic, with the time-only UT4-U-TI priced at $700, and the GMT-and-date UT4-U-TI-GMT priced at $840. Both references are limited to 99 pieces each.

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