Into the abyss: Wren takes the Diver One to its darkest depths yet
Tom Austin- The Wren Diver One Abyss uses a Musou Black sandwich dial that absorbs 99.4% of visible light, allowing its aqua markings to appear suspended above an almost completely black surface.
- Built around Wren’s 41mm Diver One platform, it combines 200 metres of water resistance with a fully lumed ceramic bezel, Sellita SW200 automatic movement, and a clear DLC-coated steel case and bracelet.
- The first run is limited to 100 individually numbered pieces at US$1,195, with the Diver One Abyss also heading to the Time+Tide Discovery Studios in both New York and London.
Wren has had a busy year. Craig Karger, founder of Wren and the man behind Wrist Enthusiast, has been steadily finding new ways to push the brand’s established dive watch platforms. July’s Diver One Obsidian collaboration with Ben’s Watches paired a molten orange fumé dial with a full black DLC case and bracelet, while a couple of months earlier, things got particularly close to home for us with the Diver 38 Crimson, a red-on-red Time+Tide Boutique Edition available exclusively at our New York Discovery Studio.
Now, Wren is back with something considerably darker. The new Diver One Abyss returns to the 41mm platform with a dial coated in one of the blackest commercially available paints, surrounded by bright aqua markings that seem to float above it. There’s another Time+Tide connection here, too. This time, the Abyss is crossing the Atlantic, with the watch coming to both our New York and London Studios. For those of us on the other side of the pond who have been watching Wren’s recent output from afar, it’s a chance to get properly acquainted with the brand on our home turf.
The foundations are familiar. The stainless-steel Diver One case measures 41mm across, 47mm lug-to-lug, and 13.3mm thick, including its domed sapphire box crystal, with a 22mm lug width, keeping the proportions suitably broad and purposeful. A signed screw-down crown helps secure 200 metres of water resistance, while the steel itself receives a clear DLC coating. The coating is used for its increased hardness and scratch resistance while retaining the natural appearance of the underlying steel. Around the back, a solid caseback features a raised, polished wren emblem, with each of the first 100 watches individually numbered.
Then we discover the reason this watch is called the Abyss. Musou Black was developed by Koyo Orient Japan in 2020, and it’s a water-based acrylic coating engineered to absorb an extraordinary 99.4% of visible light. Light entering its surface is effectively trapped rather than reflected back towards your eye, removing many of the visual cues we use to understand an object’s shape, texture and depth. Under the anti-reflective sapphire crystal of the Wren, the dial doesn’t really register as a conventional black surface. It begins to look more like an empty space inside the watch.
Wren has made clever use of that effect through a sandwich construction. The hour markers and minute track are cut through the Musou Black upper dial to reveal Swiss Super-LumiNova underneath, leaving nothing raised above the surface to catch stray light or cast a shadow. The markings effectively become openings in the darkness beneath them. Aqua is then used across the indices, hands, minute track, Wren logo, wordmark and depth rating, creating the impression that the display is hovering somewhere above that seemingly bottomless surface.
The colour has some history for Wren, too. The brand’s first watch, the Diver One Aqua, established aqua as something of a signature, and the Abyss brings it back in a particularly concentrated form. It also extends beyond the dial and onto the black ceramic bezel, which is unidirectional with 120 clicks and features Super-LumiNova across its entire 60-minute scale. Wren has worked to closely match the illuminated lume to the aqua colour seen during the day, meaning the watch’s personality remains remarkably consistent once the lights go down.
Inside, Wren has gone with the Sellita SW200 automatic movement, a familiar Swiss-made calibre delivering a 38-hour power reserve. It’s an established choice for the Diver One platform and fits neatly with the watch’s straightforward mechanical nature. There’s no display caseback competing for attention either, with the solid steel back keeping the visual drama firmly on the dial side.
Wren also includes both of the strap options pictured here with every Abyss. The first is its flat-link stainless-steel bracelet, which receives the same clear DLC treatment as the case, retaining the appearance of bare steel while adding some extra protection against scratches. The second is a fitted black FKM rubber strap that arguably pushes the Abyss concept even further. With the rubber visually flowing into the black bezel and almost impossibly dark dial, those aqua elements become the immediate focal point. On the bracelet, there’s a little more visual structure, with the steel case and links framing all that darkness.
The Diver One Abyss feels like a natural continuation of the experimentation we’ve already seen from Wren through watches such as the Obsidian and Crimson, with the Musou Black dial giving the Diver One another identity that goes beyond just a simplistic black dial we’ve seen on every dive watch imaginable. And with the Abyss landing at both our New York and London Studios, Wren’s distinctive little bird on the dial is beginning to spread its wings considerably further.
Wren Diver One Abyss pricing and availability
The Wren Diver One Abyss is available to order from the Time+Tide Shop and from the Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studio in New York City, with preorders available in the London Studio, all beginning on Monday, 24th August. Price: US$1,195 / £1,050 (incl. VAT)
| Brand | Wren |
| Model | Diver One Abyss |
| Case Dimensions | 41mm (D) x 13.3mm (T) x 47mm (LTL) |
| Case Material | Stainless steel, clear DLC coating |
| Water Resistance | 200 metres |
| Crystal(s) | Sapphire box crystal |
| Dial | Musuo black sandwich dial |
| Lug Width | 22mm |
| Bracelet | Stainless steel flat link bracelet, folding clasp Additional black FKM rubber strap, pin buckle |
| Movement | Sellita SW200, automatic |
| Power Reserve | 38 hours |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds |
| Availability | Limited run of 100 individually numbered pieces, available at the Time+Tide Shop and Studios in New York and London from Monday, August 24th |
| Price | US$1,195 / £1,050 (incl. VAT) |