Mario Canonizado 
Purpose-built for extreme environments is the Tudor Pelagos Ultra! With their Watches & Wonders 2025 novelties, the Shield has unveiled one of their most technically impressive timepieces to date.
The dive watch is one of the most popular subgenres of watch design. In fact, it’s perhaps the only style of watch that hasn’t lost any popularity since its conception in the mid-20th century. From no-nonsense, utility driven timepieces to luxurious expressions of its storied heritage, the dive watch is as ubiquitous in the watch industry as the watch itself. You must admit, though, that in the modern horological landscape the dive watch/sport watch space has become rather congested; These days, it seems like every budding watchmaker and their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and even their dogs are releasing a new dive watch with every passing minute.
This is an issue Tudor would face coming into the 2020s, as they would find themselves slowly getting lost in the rapidly expanding dive watch crowd. While they certainly were still able to rely and innovate on their existing roster, such as with the ever-popular Black Bay collection, there was still significant room for improvement – room that could only be found within a brand-new collection. Thus came the Tudor Pelagos, which from 2019 became the brand’s take on a professional dive watch. Using cutting edge-materials and a new, modern aesthetic, the Pelagos stood out enough to carve out its own space within the dive watch niche.
However, Tudor was not content to just call it a day from there. They decided that the best course of action for the Pelagos’ longevity was for it not to survive, but thrive. Over the next few years, the Pelagos line did exactly that, as the Swiss brand released line after line of new innovations for the collection. Much success was found with releases such as the Pelagos FXD series, the Marine Nationale, the Ailinghi Red Bull collaboration, and the Pelagos 39mm, which would eventually go on to win the inaugural GPHG Award for Best Sports Watch in 2023.
Related Reading: All The GPHG Winners From Geneva As Audemars Piguet Take Out Top Honours!
It seems, then, that Tudor isn’t quite done with innovating the Pelagos lineup, as the release of this brand-new Pelagos Ultra demonstrates. With a 43mm case diameter and a 14.5mm thickness, the Pelagos Ultra certainly sports an imposing frame that makes small wrists everywhere shudder in fear. Thanks to the clever use of titanium, though, the Pelagos Ultra actually wears significantly lighter than the on-paper dimensions would suggest.
The case and bracelet construction use a mix of Grades 2 and 5 titanium, providing a tough and light exterior whilst allowing for detailed finishing that add to the aesthetic. A helium escape valve is also present at nine o’clock, which serves not only as a nod to the dive watch’s heritage, but as a functional tool for saturation divers; The Tudor Pelagos Ultra sports an insane 1000m water resistance that warrants such a feature.
For such a watch in such an extreme environment, legibility is paramount, and the Tudor Pelagos Ultra is more than happy to tackle such an issue. The dial is completely black and features a handset as well as heavy block indexes filled to the brim with lume. The numerals on the black ceramic diving bezel are similarly filled with lume, and the minute hand and bezel pip contrast the dark environment with the use of green lume amongst the predominant blue.
Across the outside, the Pelagos Ultra sports a fully brushed titanium bracelet with the option of a black rubber strap. On the former, you get access to the micro-adjustable ‘T-Fit’ clasp system that is slowly becoming pervasive across the Tudor catalogue. For those who prefer a rubber strap, however, fear not, as the Pelagos Ultra’s rubber strap also comes with an extension piece that can lengthen it by up to 110mm as you please.
Finally, within the Tudor Pelagos Ultra beats the returning MT5602-U, which you may have seen before in previous Black Bay releases such as the Black Bay Burgundy, VCARB Ceramic, or Monochrome. With the standard 4Hz (28,800VpH) beat rate and a 70-hour power reserve, the MT5602-U serves as a reliable running buddy alongside the beefy silhouette of the Pelagos Ultra. Not only that, though, but it’s also deadly accurate, with COSC Chronometer and METAS Master Chronometer certifications. The difference between the two is that METAS, once the major bragging point of brands like Omega, requires a stricter accuracy rating than COSC. Not only that, but they still require it even after the watch has been assembled.
My Thoughts
With how saturated the market is, it can be tough to not roll your eyes at the prospect of yet another dive watch in a grossly crowded market of them. The modern watch landscape, complete with social media and wider accessibility to watchmaking, has made it extremely easy for any enterprising enthusiast to jump headfirst into the watch world. While I absolutely love the prospect of that (goodness knows how many more people I wish were into watches here in Australia), it’s also a double-edged sword for the dive watch subgenre. As my favourite super villain of all time – Syndrome from The Incredibles – puts it, “When everyone’s super… no one will be.”
Despite this, Tudor’s newest Pelagos Ultra is a super addition to their professional Pelagos roster. While from the surface it can come off as just a mere size up, it’s also much more than that. I mean, a 1000m water resistance, titanium build, and METAS Master Chronometer status? That’s incredible territory to be treading for the price point these are at. And while I know that, inevitably, the Pelagos Ultra isn’t going to be a value-for-money monster forever, I can still appreciate the lengths that Tudor are going to fill out their engineering and design portfolio.
References: M2543C1A7NU-0001
Specifications:
- Dimensions: 43mm case diameter x 14.5mm thickness
- Case Material: Grade 2/5 titanium with black ceramic bezel insert
- Dial: Black with teal accents
- Movement: Automatic Cal. MT5602-U with COSC Chronometer/METAS Master Chronometer certifications
- Power Reserve: 70h
- Water Resistance: 1000m (100bar)
- Strap: Titanium T-Fit micro-adjustable bracelet with folding clasp & complementary black rubber strap with titanium buckle
