Whatever your take on 2020, one thing is for sure: it?s been a great year for collaborations. We?ve seen 5 pretty cool examples just this month already, and there?s no sign of slowing down. We love it when small independent brands join forces to bring a collaborative vision to life, such as we saw with Vianney Halter and Louis Erard. Today that list gets a new entry with a(nother) watch from Unimatic and Massena LAB: the Marine U1-MLM. Inspired by French Navy dive watches of the ?60s, the U1-MLM brings a vibrant blue color scheme to the minimal dive watch stylings of Unimatic.

The Marine U1-MLM marks the second collaboration between Unimatic and Massena LAB, with the first being the Modello Uno U1-ML6 released earlier this year. Massena LAB is the brainchild of William Massena, who we recently spoke with on Episode 162 of the Worn & Wound podcast. Their first effort got the full vintage treatment, including a unique tropical dial that will lighten with age. The theme there was to bring many of the vintage dive watch tropes to life within the bold confines of the Unimatic Modello Uno, a very modern and capable dive watch from Italy. The U1-ML6 sold all 99 examples rather quickly, so it seemed a safe bet to expect a follow up. Enter the Marine U1-MLM. 
The newest watch receives a blue dial and aluminum bezel insert to match, accented by subtle, off-white hour plots and hands. Sounds pretty straightforward, but there?s more going on under the surface here. The...