Yema Introduces the New Sous Marine Dive Watch, a Contemporary Diver Designed by a Pro

If you look at the most recent crop of releases from Yema, they tend to be explicitly vintage inspired, or calling upon the brand’s past, in one way or another. The Urban Traveler is their take on a 1970s era integrated bracelet sports watch, and a new Rallygraf, with a look dating to a similar time period, also appeared earlier this summer. So their latest release, the Sous Marine dive watch, feels quite a bit different, in that this really has the appearance of a contemporary sports watch in a variety of key ways. Designed with help from Jason Washington, a Yema ambassador and professional diver, the Sous Marine has the trappings of a modern “pro” dive watch, but remains accessible to desk divers and those looking for some color and competence in an everyday piece. 

The stainless steel case, which is water resistant to 300 meters, was designed to be compact and wearable, and measures 40.5mm in diameter while being just a hair over 12mm tall (including the sapphire crystal). The muscular crown guards are perhaps the first clue that this watch wasn’t designed purely by browsing old Yema catalogs. The aluminum bezel insert is perhaps a small remnant of the way these things used to be made, but even there the Arabic numerals and and hash marks to aid in timing have been given a luminescent treatment, which to me often feels like a wholeheartedly “contemporary” design decision. 

The dial is split into multiple sectors, with an inner ring in white that displays the hours via Arabic numerals, a midsection with large applied markers at the cardinal positions and smaller markers elsewhere, and outer minute track in a contrasting white. The interior hour track is a bit unusual, and might not be completely necessary from a functional standpoint, but it adds some visual interest to a dial that’s otherwise somewhat nondescript. That’s not a criticism, necessarily. This is a dive watch, after all, and legibility ought to be the primary goal. 

The Sous Marine is powered by Yema’s Caliber YEMA2000, which the brand describes as in-house, and is built on the foundation of their MBP1000 movements, which date to 2011. Production of these movements was initially funded by a Kickstarter campaign that we covered here. Yema claims that these new calibers have “optimized components” that result in greater efficiency. Stated accuracy is +/- 10 seconds per day, with a power reserve of 42 hours. 

The Sous Marine comes in a total of five variants, which collectively make up a refreshingly bright color palette. Black dialed versions are available with black, orange, and yellow bezel inserts, and there are also blue and green dial variants with matching bezels. The color really comes to life when the watches are seen on the optional rubber straps, which are color matched to the bezel for each watch. Each Sous Marine is also available on a beads of rice style bracelet. 

Pre-orders for the Sous Marine begin on August 24, with delivery anticipated in late September. The retail price is $890 on rubber, and $990 on the bracelet. Yema