TUTIMA Glashütte M2 Pioneer & TOLGA TASKIN Worldrecord ICE-DIVE

Wot, not another ice-adventure, I hear you say! Well, how else you supposed to properly market your diver’s watches!



Seems that everyone man and his dog dive watch is looking to some frozen wilderness or the frigid depths of some frozen lake or t'other (did I just go norvern for a moment, sorry) to put their new diver’s watch to the ultimate test.



You could say that EDOX and their brand ambassador, Christian Redl have been pioneers of the ice-diving / ice- adventure field with several ice-dives with various models under their belt.



Edox and Redl have frequented Austria’s Lake Weissensee on a number of occasions in addition to a jaunt or two, to the N. Pole, as have ZRC and Panerai. In fact Mike Horn took his Submersible 1950 3 Days GMT POLE2POLE to both Poles.



Meanwhile Delma has just recently sent a special Oceanmaster to the ANTARCTICA right on the back of a field test of their Blue Shark III in the icy depth’s of LAKE BAIKAL, no less.

ORIS have also had a couple of recent associations with Lake Baikal – the list goes on!



However, today it is Tutima and their M2 PIONEER along with record-breaking, free-diver, TOLGA TASKIN and once again the Alpine ice-tub that is Lake Weissensee, who are in the spotlight for a world record ice-dive.



Accompanied by a Tautima M2 Pioneer, expert in the discipline of apnea, Tolga Taskin descended just shy of 75 meters (245 feet) beneath Lake Weissensee’s ice-sheet – setting a new Guinness World Record!



You have to consider that recreational scuba-divers seldom venture much deeper than 30m and that’s with breathing apparatus and most likely somewhere tropical.



By comparison Tolga without anything other than a lung full of air that he held for 2mins 43secs and balls of steel, dove 2.5x deeper under an ice-covered Alpine lake!

This is why he and only he can get away with wearing those pink Crocs! ;)



Btw, Lake Weissensee can be found at an elevation of 930m in Austria’s Gailtal Alps where it covers an area of 6.5 km². It has a depth of 97 meters.



It is Europe’s largest constantly frozen natural ice surface, where the ice grows continuously. Apparently Tolga enjoyed a good 30 meters of visibility on his Worldrecord breaking, ice-dive.



So how bout' his watch? The M2 Pioneer’s 46.5mm x 16mm case has been crafted from pearl-blasted Titanium, with a soft-iron inner case AKA Faraday Cage for protection from magnetic fields.



Further diver’s features incl. a water-resistance to 300m, integrated push-buttons with a neoprene inlay, a bidirectional rotational bezel with inserted luminescent capsules, an AR-treated Sapphire crystal and a screw-down case-back and crown.



Power comes from a Tutima Cal. 521 (Lemania 5100 base) automatic chronograph movement with: a custom antique grey rotor with a gold seal, 25 jewels, polished screws and a power-reserve of 44 hours.

MSRP is 6,700USD on Titanium or 6,100USD on fabric.



Thoughts? I love a watch with a good story. Tolga Taskin’s ice-dive was truly epic – makes me shiver just thinking about it.

This was also a pretty cool way of bringing attention to the M2 Pioneer, a watch that is kinda’ like a Volkswagen, very well made, dependable but perhaps a tad boring. Also is it just me or does that crown look like it’ll be fiddly.

Don’t get me wrong, I would happily wear an M2 Pioneer all day long – especially now it has some ice-diving credentials. Considering the spec. and the Glashütte heritage the price isn't too bad either. What do you think, cool watch?