The Not-So-Good Surprises
The most disappointing thing about this watch, by far, is the bezel. It looks like a dive bezel with elapsed time markings, and the watch has 300m of water resistance and a screw-down crown. For all intents and purposes, the Ultra-Chron Carbon is a dive watch, so I assumed the bezel rotated like a dive bezel.
Imagine my disappointment when I received the watch only to discover the bezel is fixed.
This effectively makes the bezel a big tease. Sure, it looks good, but it serves no function. I continually wanted to rotate it while wearing the watch and was constantly disappointed when I remembered I couldn’t. Not only that, but the non-carbon version of the Ultra-Chron, which was just released in 2022, does have a rotating bezel. What gives, Longines?
The bezel is also quite large and is made of titanium with an aluminum insert. If the bezel is going to be functionless, I’d prefer to at least see it made of carbon to increase the carbon content of the watch. With the caseback, crown, bezel and even buckle all being made of titanium, it’s really just the mid-case of the watch that’s made of carbon. I’d frankly like to see more of the high-tech material for a watch with “Carbon” in its name.