Watches & Wonders 2025: Tudor Introduces The Pelagos Ultra 1000M

The Pelagos line is named for the pelagic region of the ocean, which is the open ocean water column extending all the way from the surface to the bottom of the abyss. The original Pelagos diver’s watches were and are the personification of everything you need, nothing you don’t, including a rugged, appropriately unadorned construction, no-compromises visibility, a rugged titanium case and bracelet with micro-adjustment, and as of 2015, an in-house movement; as of today, the Pelagos 500M is also certified by METAS as a Master Chronometer. 500 meter water resistance is good for pretty much any kind of diving you can imagine, up to and including saturation diving, but dive watch enthusiasts (and manufacturers) love nothing more than an over spec’d diver’s watch, on the theory that it never hurts to buy yourself some extra insurance.

The new Pelagos Ultra doubles the water resistance of the original Pelagos, with a 1000M water resistance rating, which is not only deeper than humans can dive, it’s also deeper than military nuclear submarines can dive.

The Pelagos Ultra lives up to its name in every detail of its construction and if what you liked about the Pelagos was its unadorned, functionality-first approach, you’re going to love the Ultra. The build quality in its purposeful utility is a little reminiscent of a deep-diving ROV. The case is 43mm in diameter and is now 14.5mm thick, which is just slightly thicker than the 500M model at 14.3mm. Both the case and bracelet are in titanium (the caseback is grade 5 titanium while the case body and bracelet are grade 2) and the bracelet has Tudor’s T-fit, micro-adjustable clasp. As with the original 500M model, the Ultra is fitted with a helium escape valve.

Like all Master Chronometer watches, the Ultra is immune to magnetic fields up to 15,000 gauss, is certified as a chronometer by the COSC, and is also adjusted to the Master Chronometer standard of 0/+5 seconds per day maximum deviation in rate. Caliber MT5612-U is 31.8mm x 6.5mm, has a 65 hour power reserve (METAS verifies the power reserve of Master Chronometer certified watches as well) and is design for long term rate stability, with a freesprung, adjustable mass balance and a silicon (and therefore amagnetic) balance spring.

The Ultra uses two different colors of Super-LumiNova: X1, and BGW9; the hour hand, lume plots, bezel indexes and numbers, and zero triangle on the turning bezel are in blue BGW9, while the minute hand is in green X1, as is the round lume pip on the bezel. This gives an extra visual cue when observing elapsed time. Both X1 and BGW9 are higher grade SLN formulations, compounded to produce longer periods of higher luminosity.

One other use of lume in the Ultra – and I’m about a hundred per cent sure that I’ve never seen it used for this before – is that there is a lume marker on the T-Fit folding clasp, to give you a visual indicator of the clasp setting.

Certainly not something you see every day – in fact it’s something I don’t think I’ve seen any day ever – but it’s a cool technical detail that shows how much attention Tudor has paid to every aspect of the watch.

Nowadays dive watches seem to fall into two basic categories: functional instruments but built along all the same basic lines, with nothing to distinguish between them technically; or, on the other hand, dive watches that fulfill the basic technical requirements but which are clearly more oriented towards social signaling as their fundamental value proposition. With the Pelagos Ultra you get something a little different and considerably more rare: an instrument watch with every thought given to, not just checking the technical boxes of ISO 6425, but making sure that every technical detail is so thoroughly thought through that they become aesthetics in their own right.

The Tudor Pelagos Ultra ref. 2543C1A7NU: case, 43mm x 14.5mm, grade 2 titanium case with helium escape valve and grade 5 titanium caseback; 1000 meters water resistant; bezel, grade 2 titanium one way bezel with matte ceramic insert. Movement, in-house caliber MT5612-U, bidirectional wniding, COSC and Master Chronometer certified with 65 hour power reserve, freesprung balance with non-magnetic balance spring, running at 28,800 vph in 26 jewels, 31.8mm x 6.5mm; Master Chronometer precision of 0/+5 seconds per day. Bracelet, T-Fit folding clasp with luminnous visual indicator; complimentary black rubber strap. Price, $5950. 

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