Rolex’s Most Extreme Dive Watch Just Got Some Unexpected Company

In 2019, Omega created three prototype Seamaster Planet Ocean watches to accompany the Five Deeps Expedition, which included a world record-breaking piloted-DSV dive of 10,935m to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

This dive narrowly broke a record held by an experimental Rolex worn by James Cameron during his 2012 descent into the Mariana Trench. After a decade of additional R&D, the Crown released its first titanium production model, the Deepsea Challenge, with an advertised 11,000m water resistance.

U-Boat

Omega’s record-holding Seamaster was never meant for commercial production, although it was used to market a spin-off Seamaster Planet Ocean, which has a still-impressive 6,000m water resistance.

Rolex’s Deepsea Challenge is available for purchase, but retails for $27,600, if you’re fortunate enough to find one through an AD, and fetches double that on the resale market.

If you’re in the market for a dive watch that can withstand 1,000 times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere without springing a leak or imploding, Italian watchmaker U-Boat is the place to look.

U-Boat

The new Prodondo 10,000 MT boasts the same deep-diving capability as the Omega prototypes and ultra-rare Rolex. An absolutely massive 46mm wide by 27mm tall titanium case is claimed to be tested for 10,000m water resistance.

A titanium leviathan

Cameron’s prototype Rolex from 2012 proved that stainless steel was too heavy for a wearable case with the desired aquatic performance. First, Omega and then Rolex turned to titanium for watch cases that were enormous but still theoretically wearable.

U-Boat

U-Boat followed the same basic specifications as Rolex’s Deepsea Challenge production model. It has a titanium unidirectional bezel holding a 9.7mm domed sapphire crystal.

However, rather than a ceramic insert with a PVD-coated scale like the Rolex, the dive scale is etched. It is also missing the luminescent pip found on the Deepsea Challenge.

U-Boat

On the other hand, the Profondo 10,000 MT is four millimeters narrower than the Rolex. On paper, U-Boat is giving up at least 1,000 meters with that size differential, but at those depths, whose counting?

U-Boat

Another advantage of the Profondo 10,000 MT is that it has two straps. It comes on an aged Italian leather two-piece strap with a titanium double-pin buckle, and U-Boat provides an additional three-link titanium bracelet.

A deep dial

Omega and Rolex modeled their super watches after each brand’s marquee dive watch, but U-Boat created a completely original dial design for the Profondo 10,000 MT.

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The unusual sandwich dial consists of three layers of metal that have been laser cut and aged with oxidizing acids to resemble scraps pulled from a shipwreck.

The applied hour markers are titanium and filled with beige Super-LumiNova. The 1970s-style diver hands are differentiated by size and color, with lume inserts in the hour and minute hands.

A chapter ring featuring hexagonal bolt hour markers resembles the hull of a submarine.

U-Boat

It would be foolish for a small watchmaker like U-Boat to follow the record-breaking, celebrity-featuring marketing stunts that promoted the Rolex and Omega 10,000m dive watches.

Instead, the ostentatious Italian brand stuck to its design ethos and made a unique diver with water and pressure resistance that claims to push the limits of human engineering.

Availability and pricing

The U-Boat Profondo 10,000 MT is available now from U-Boat for $4,200.

That is less than 10 percent of the current market value for the Rolex Deepsea Challenge, and U-Boat provides an additional strap!

U-Boat

U-Boat Profondo 10,000 MT

Specs

Case Size	46mm
Movement	Sellita caliber SW200 automatic
Water Resistance	10,000

• $4,200 at U-Boat

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