U-Boat U-42 Lands this Autumn

Modelled on its gargantuan predecessor – reputedly equipped with the world’s largest sapphire glass – the U-42 at 53mm, is at once more modestly endowed and the more stylish for it. And if it also comes in limited quantities, its 999 pieces makes it a touch less ostentatiously select than the 29-piece U-1942.

Baselworld 2010 featured another U-Boat launch that had the watch world talking in the shape of the U-42. Modelled on its gargantuan predecessor – reputedly equipped with the world’s largest sapphire glass – it is, at 53mm, at once more modestly endowed and the more stylish for it. And if it also comes in limited quantities, its 999 pieces makes it a touch less ostentatiously select than the 29-piece U-1942.

The year 1942 is an iconic one in the U-Boat story, in which Ilvo Fontana was commissioned to design a new watch for Italy’s naval pilots. The watches were never made, but the story goes that Italo Fontana, Ilvo’s grandson, based the first U-Boat models, not to mention the concept for the brand, on the prototypes for that pilot’s watch. The U-42 stands firmly in that tradition.

Its titanium case, bi-directional diver’s bezel and distinctive winding crown – based on a flexible joint that allows it to be swung outwards at 90 degrees for winding and then back into a protected position – give it the look of a piece of submarine hydraulics. Water resistant down to 300m like any good commando watch its rugged looks are completed by a galvanised brass dial finished with a bright enamal coating.