ON THE WRIST: Ulysse Nardin Diver X 44 Limited Edition Automatic Watch

 

1183-170LE/92-CAP

Watches of Switzerland Boutique / Regent Street, London 23rd Sept 2023

I've only ever tried on one Ulysse Nardin before as far as I can remember, that was also here in the Regent Street branch of Watches of Switzerland and a good few years ago to boot. In fact, despite visiting this store many times this was the first time I ever managed to get up to the top floor - where UN's boutique is now situated, alongside the Patek Phillipe store and a selection of pre-owned watches.

Well I say 'watches', mostly it was just 'Rolex'... perhaps unsurprisingly. There were a few other things, including a steel Nautilus for nearly £100,000 and a solid gold version of the same for nigh on £140,000. Neither of which I can get overly excited about if I'm honest. The Nautilus doesn't have anything like the presence of the Royal Oak (even though it's a bit passe to like it these days), and paying 2.5x list for a watch that starts at £35,000 is hilarious.

Thankfully this super-cool limited edition Ulysse Nardin Diver X 44 was a lot more approachable (although at £10,190 still not exactly 'cheap') and features a DLC coated titanium topped with a carbon bezel and a textile strap. Ah yes the strap... I'm not a fan of this kind of thing generally speaking, but this was pretty neat, the only problem was I couldn't get the strap over my hand to try it on. 

This seemed rather odd to me. I do have a decent sized wrist (7.1/2") and I have on occasion struggled when somebody with a much smaller wrist has given me their (bracelet) watch to try on, but it's never happened in a shop before. Even odder when you consider this watch is 44mm in diameter so unlikely to attract those that are particularly slight of wrist.

I must say that holding it in my palm I don't think I would have guessed it was 44mm. It struck me more like a 42mm; perhaps the slender strap and (largely) black colour scheme can be thanked for that. Speaking of which the colour scheme really is killer. You can't really go wrong with black and yellow and it reminds me of the Breitling Hurricane Avenger 45mm in Breitlight that I lusted after for a while a few years ago.

I'd say this was more than a step up from that one, looking much classier, despite the large 'X' on the dial, which as you can see from my picture below isn't quite as obtrusive as some of the renders suggest.

The engraved backplate is a cool feature and I particularly like the little XXX/300 plaque mounted on the side of the case. Nice to see the watches being individually numbered too. The Watches of Switzerland website doesn't expand on the simple premise that the watch is a 'Cape Horn' limited edition, which we can already see from the backplate.

I seem to remember I was quite taken with the first Diver X I tried on and a quick Google brings up plenty more that stand out to me. £10,200 is definitely more than I'm likely to spend on a watch, and if I had that available I'm not sure I'd rush to the Ulysse Nardin boutique. But still, this a cracking looking watch, it's just a pity I couldn't get it over my hand to actually try it on - though the assistant assured me they would offer a larger strap if I wanted one.