The Omega Ultra Deep Grade 5 Titanium watch hands-on

When Omega announced the Ultra Deep Professional project in 2019, we couldn’t imagine a new commercial collection was in the making. The digitally-broadcasted Omega Days 2022 was the venue for an incredible four-piece top-end Seamaster lineup reveal, including a flagship titanium option and three standard models debuting a proprietary steel alloy.

The Mariana Trench is the explorers’ and directors’ favourite location as it is to the luxury watchmaking industry since several brands have partnered with several prestigious oceans’ expeditions to either support exploration and preservation or promote their breakthrough new diving watches.

Victor Vescovo‘s Five Deeps expedition descended to the Mariana Trench‘s deepest spot, located at 10,325 meters under sea level, in 2019 while carrying a prototype of an experimental new Omega wristwatch fastened to the Triton, which adopted the same Grade 5 titanium used to craft the submarine’s hull. The project killed two birds with one stone as it established a new record while placing Omega as the undisputed record-holder, outperforming the 2014 Rolex Deepsea Challenge expedition led by movie Director James Cameron. Unlike its fiercest competitor, Ultra Deep is about to roll out the production line.

The titanium Omega Ultra Deep is the collection’s hero and the original project’s legacy; the outcome brings the Seamaster‘s technical pedigree to new heights and boasts a specs sheet so impressive that it looks like a skunk-works engineered product and not the umpteenth consumer-luxury timepiece instead.

The ISO 6425: 2018 standard is the foundation of any genuine diving watch.

If you aim to get the recognition of an authentic diving watches manufacturer, the ISO 6425 standard is the leading guideline. I can’t stop praising Omega for finally adopting this design approach, and I also hope the Ultra Deep is the forerunner of an extensive Seamaster lineup’s re-design moving forward. If you’re eager to get familiar with the specification mentioned above and get a sneak peek of the tests to carry out, I suggest you head over to our Diving Watches section.

In brief, the Omega Seamaster Ultra Deep can withstand water pressures at depths up to 7500 meters according to the official testing criteria (125% of 6000 meters) and – big news for the brand – it is the first-ever Omega Seamaster designed for saturation diving with no helium escape valve, at all.

Product philosophy and competitive landscape

What about the project goals and the benchmark? Let’s try and figure this out. I assume Omega has equally challenged Seiko from a technical perspective and Rolex from a premium-ness standpoint instead, in one go. The Seiko group is among the ISO 6425‘s main contributors and leads the industry in the accessible-luxury diving watches’ product placement, no doubt. In contrast, Rolex has been regarded as the premium-luxury divers’ watch manufacturer par excellence since the helium escape valve first appeared.

Omega‘s Japanese like-for-like contender is Grand Seiko, not Seiko; yet GS, whose diver’s watches are exquisite, still lacks the brand awareness an Omega can ensure. Rolex was so brilliant to have turned its 1967 patent into a signature market key feature, making the Sea–Dweller and the Deepsea highly sought-after. Adopting a quintessentially Japanese engineering approach, Omega proves that the watch community knows that a helium escape valve is an obsolete technical choice.

The Ultra Deep is a close call to watch experts in the most daring Omega livery so far, and the titanium model on the NATO strap showcased here adds that wow factor you won’t find on the equally outstanding, yet a bit “deja vu”, iterations crafted in the new O–Megasteel alloy.

The 6000–meter rating is jaw-dropping, but it’s not the main topic or not the only one: you won’t find any standardization process throughout (mechanical movement excluded); the titanium Ultra Deep is a unicorn and breaks any design-to-cost industrial approach, which makes it kind of romantic for a brand this big and high-volume based.

The design team has slimmed the case down as much as possible; it now measures 45,5 mm across and 18,12 mm from the centre top of the glass to the case back (bear in mind that the prototype measures 28 mm). Despite being a hefty watch, both figures are not that outrageous on a timepiece designed to withstand the forces you’d expect at 7500 meters down below. Putting these numbers into context means the case and glass are engineered to withstand 622 kg per square centimetre on paper, raising to 774 kg/cm2 per the ISO standard.

Grade 5 titanium, an alloy of 90% titanium with the addition of aluminium and vanadium, guarantees mechanical resistance while helping stop total weight to 123 grams. Please consider that a titanium-made ordinary automatic diving watch (on a strap) weighs around 105–110 grams, but the bar is not this high. The sapphire crystal alone is 5,2 mm thick!

Regarding the glass, I’m happy to confirm that Omega‘s technicians have fixed an annoying (minor) issue with their double anti-reflective coating. Up close, you won’t notice any blueish reflections any longer, which most users experienced on their Planet Ocean models. The build quality is nothing short of extraordinary and way above the standards found on any ordinary Omega Seamaster and the competition; every detail is thoroughly-thought, from the case’s milling to the brushing finish, down to the dial and the pin buckle execution. The package is compliant, flawless, and criticism proof, but titanium looks too dull and doesn’t give full justice to the timepiece’s execution, as showcased by the O–Megasteel models instead.

Yet, you can please yourself with the hallmark “Manta” lugs and a specific black and cyan strap made from recycled plastic. The lug-to-lug distance measures 56 mm and helps taper the watch onto your wrist in conjunction with the oversized pin buckle. However, dear small-sized wrist gentlemen, I suggest you look elsewhere.

To get the most out of the product’s specs, please scroll the datasheet; Ultra Deep comes with a ceramic–titanium dial and a matte grey ceramic bezel whose scale is in Liquidmetal™. I didn’t find the lume performance as strong as expected but consider the product pictured here is a “not for sale” sample; let’s, therefore, expect a standard-production timepiece to perform in line with the competition; I’d love to compare the Ultra Deep‘s lume against the likes of Seiko‘s Lumibrite™, the market top-performer.

The central sweeping second’s hand’s cyan colour mimics the official Five Deeps Expedition logo’s palette and applies to the blue varnished Arabic numerals. Let’s turn the watch on its back to discover that the Seamaster seahorse comes in a new livery while the “sonar-like” geometry found on the Ultra Deep Professional pairs with a contrasting black-lasered pattern.

Who’s the Omega Ultra Deep titanium’s prospect buyer?

The Ultra Deep Titanium is a “halo product” and indeed not a one-piece-collection model. It showcases Omega‘s new take on diving watches and, as such, offers unprecedented details and content that place it outside anything that has carried the Seamaster insignia to date. The Ultra Deep collection has first and foremost succeeded in establishing the Seamaster collection into a new scenario; I wouldn’t be surprised to discover it works as mainstream to more rugged and better performing 600 meters and 300 meters models moving forward.

It is not for everyone, and that’s not just a matter of size. Early adopters and fans of innovation looking for their new luxury “tool watch” will no doubt cross their paths with this watch. The premium luxury market offers many models that often lack innovation; in contrast, we are provided many authentic professional diving watches that either miss any ISO certification or adopt the luxury brand we’d love to. I guess that Omega aims at squaring the circle with their Ultra Deep. Finally, I see the Ultra Deep Titanium as a future collectable piece; I predict the brand will not produce tons of watches, and as a consequence, the 13,100 Euro price list will grow in the blink of an eye.

(Photo credit: Marco Antinori for Horbiter®)

Editorial Team @Horbiter®