History of U-Boat
Created by owner and designer Italo Fontana, U-Boat watches distinguish themselves by their no-nonsense approach to displaying the time. U-Boat watches are big, bold, robust, and designed to keep on ticking under even extreme circumstances. The Italian company is based in a small village only 15 minutes away from Lucca in Tuscany’s heart.
Fontana comes by his interest in watch design naturally from his grandfather, Ilvo Fontana. In 1942 Ilvo was commissioned by the Italian government to design a watch for the Italian navy pilots. At the time, the goal was to ensure that the wristwatch was big enough so that the pilots could instantly read the time in all weather and light conditions. His grandfather drew the designs, but the production order never came through, and the plans remained in a drawer somewhere.
Until Italo Fontana brought the plans back out, revised them, and introduced the watch models under the U-Boat name. The design is done solely by Italo Fontana, using only Swiss movements. U-Boat loves to experiment with materials, using bronze, carbon fiber, steel, titanium, tungsten, carbon, ceramics, and more.