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The seconds hand sweeps and the movement is quartz

Unimatic has put a Seiko VH31A in a 300 metre diver, wrapped the movement in rubber and made 250 of them.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 8 August 2026

The Unimatic Modello Uno UT1-PD, a sandblasted steel dive watch with a black dial and orange bezel triangle — Image: Unimatic

Quartz watches tick, and most people who care about watches have decided that settles the argument. The Modello Uno UT1-PD does not tick. Unimatic has fitted a Seiko VH31A, which drives a sweeping seconds hand, holds itself to plus or minus 15 seconds a month and runs about two years on a battery.

You can have all three of those things or you can have a mechanical movement. You cannot have both, and Unimatic has been unusually clear about which side of that it is on. This is a professional diver built to be accurate and forgotten about, priced at 680 euros and limited to 250 numbered pieces.

Rubber around the movement, not just around the wrist

The interesting engineering is invisible once the watch is together. Unimatic designs and makes what it calls a 360 degree protection system in Italy, from a blend of thermoplastic polyurethane. It is a shell that holds the movement on every side, plus a protective ring over the top of the dial. The brand says the point is to take environmental stress while keeping the weight down, and the watch is tested to MIL-STD-810H.

An exploded diagram of the UT1-PD showing the sapphire glass, hands, bezel, insert, case, crown, dial, movement, gaskets and case back — The 360 degree shell sits between the movement and the case. Image: Unimatic

Military test standards get thrown around loosely, so it is worth being precise about what this one is. MIL-STD-810H is a United States military specification covering real world environmental testing, and Unimatic says the UT1-PD has been officially tested against it. That is a claim about process, and it is a more useful one than a number on a dial.

Three hundred metres and a crystal 2.5mm thick

The case is 316 stainless steel, sandblasted, 40mm on its own and 41.5mm counting the bezel. Water resistance is 300 metres, individually tested. The flat sapphire is 2.5mm thick with anti-reflective coating on the inner face, the crown is an 8mm screw-down, and the bezel is a 120-click unidirectional with a matte black countdown insert and an international orange triangle.

The dial is matte black with printed Arabic numerals and Super-LumiNova C1, an open white seconds track and orange trim, and a reverse lollipop seconds hand with an orange tip. The caseback is engraved with a dive mask. None of that is subtle and none of it is trying to be.

The UT1-PD photographed in darkness, its markers, hands and bezel pip glowing green — Super-LumiNova C1 on the dial and the bezel. Image: Unimatic

Six hundred and eighty euros, and 250 of them

The price includes tax and duties, and Unimatic ships worldwide, so an Australian buyer pays the euro figure. The black TPU strap is included. A sandblasted steel bracelet adds 225 euros, a nylon NATO in international orange adds 44, and a second TPU strap adds 82. Each watch comes numbered, in a tough case, with a warranty card carrying its own ID seal.

The obvious objection is that 680 euros buys a very competent automatic diver from plenty of brands. The answer is that none of those will still be within 15 seconds a month in two years without being touched, and a fair number of people who buy a 300 metre diver never take it below the surface of a swimming pool. Unimatic has built the watch those people actually use.