News · U-Boat

The extra metre is the entire point

U-Boat's Profondo 10001 is rated one metre deeper than the Profondo 10000, costs 600 euros more, and sets a meteorite fragment at six o'clock. Fifty pieces.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 9 August 2026

The U-Boat Profondo 10001 on its titanium bracelet, its hand-oxidised copper and turquoise dial showing a meteorite fragment at six o'clock — Image: U-Boat

One metre. That's the entire gap between the Profondo 10000 MT, which U-Boat sells at 4,350 euros, and the Profondo 10001 Limited Edition it now lists at 4,950. The old one's rated to 10,000 metres. The new one's rated to 10,001.

Neither number describes anything a human being will ever do, and U-Boat isn't pretending otherwise. There's something wonderful about a brand naming a watch after a number this silly and then committing hard enough to engrave it on the back.

A meteorite at six, and a dial aged by hand

The extra 600 euros buys a genuinely different dial. It keeps the same three-level metal construction, but this one has been hand-aged and hand-oxidised into copper and turquoise, with a fragment of authentic meteorite set at six o'clock. Numerals and hands carry beige Super-LumiNova and the seconds hand is red. The strap is aged leather, hand-painted by Tuscan artisans, and a titanium bracelet comes in the box as well. Fifty numbered pieces, against 100 for the standard model.

The U-Boat Profondo 10001 on a hand-painted brown and turquoise leather strap, its oxidised dial matching the strap — The aged leather strap is hand-painted in Tuscany. Image: U-Boat

Forty-six millimetres across, twenty-seven deep

The case is titanium, 46mm in diameter and 27mm thick. Those numbers are right, and 27mm isn't a wearable thickness by any normal measure. The domed sapphire on its own is 9.7mm thick with anti-reflective coating, there is an automatic helium valve at three o'clock, the bezel is unidirectional and screws down, and the caseback closes with what U-Boat calls its Locking Ring System.

The domed sapphire is 9.7mm thick on its own. Image: U-Boat

U-Boat describes the standard Profondo as pressure-tested to 1,000 atmospheres, and says the 10001 has been tested to withstand pressures equivalent to 10,001 metres. Those are U-Boat's own figures. The dial itself just reads 10001 METRI and leaves it there.

The movement is a Sellita, and that is fine

Inside is a Sellita SW200 with U-Boat's own modifications, beating at 28,800 vibrations an hour with 41 hours of reserve and 26 jewels, under a skeletonised custom rotor. At close to 5,000 euros the calibre is the least interesting thing here. If you're buying a Profondo for its movement, you've misread the watch entirely.

The buyer has already decided a watch can be an object first. U-Boat has built a business on exactly that customer, from a villa in the hills above Lucca, with Italo Fontana drawing every model himself. The Profondo is that idea with the dial turned all the way up.

The caseback does the certifying

The back carries the reference, 3600/A, the 46mm diameter, EDIZIONE LIMITATA, 10001 mt, a Neptune with his trident and Italo Fontana's signature. The example U-Boat photographs is numbered 40 of 50.

The titanium caseback of the Profondo, engraved with the reference 3600/A, a Neptune figure holding a trident, and the numbering 40 of 50 — Numbered 40 of 50, with the reference engraved. Image: U-Boat

U-Boat sells direct in euros and there's no Australian price. The 4,350 euro Profondo 10000 MT is already out of stock on the brand's own site, so the fifty will probably go the same way. I wouldn't wear either of them. I'm delighted they exist.