Samsung's marketing team apparently decided a tabletop unboxing wasn't quite dramatic enough for a watch built to follow you into the ocean. To announce the Galaxy Watch Ultra2, the company handed a sealed box to PADI AmbassaDiver Gio Prince, dropped it on the seabed among kelp and curious marine life, and had Cornwall-based underwater cinematographer Adam Radage film the whole thing for Samsung's Instagram and TikTok channels.

The video opens with Prince on the surface before cutting below the waves to a black Samsung box resting on the ocean floor. He swims down, breaks the paper seal, pulls out the watch, and fits a green vented Ultra strap - all underwater. A compass jellyfish drifts past. What looks like a catshark makes a brief appearance. Prince gives the camera a double thumbs-up.

It's a marketing exercise, but it's a well-executed one, and it makes the point in about ninety seconds without anyone saying a word.

Why the Watch Can Actually Handle This

The stunt works as demonstration rather than gimmick because the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 really does have the credentials to back it up. The watch features a 47mm titanium case and holds an IP69K rating alongside 10ATM water resistance, as well as EN13319 certification, which is the globally recognized standard for instruments that track depth and dive duration by measuring ambient pressure.

It's the first Galaxy Watch in the line's eight-year history to earn that last one. The Galaxy Watch Ultra2's native Depth app monitors live dive data - such as how far below the surface the wearer is, the surrounding water temperature, and how long they've been submerged - to a maximum of 40 metres, while the 5,000-nit screen maintains visibility even when fully submerged.

The more substantial news sitting alongside the unboxing campaign is Samsung's two-year exclusive partnership with Mares, one of the more respected names in serious diving kit. The Ultra2 Diving app won't be available on any other Android wearable - making the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 its sole home on that platform. Apple, meanwhile, has had its own comparable setup through a Mares partnership with the Watch Ultra line, meaning both ecosystems now offer similar dive-focused functionality through their respective flagship watches. T

he app adds ascent and descent rate tracking alongside decompression guidance, both of which matter significantly to anyone diving beyond recreational depths. Samsung hasn't pinned down a firm release date beyond "later this year," and pricing for the app hasn't been officially confirmed. The watch itself starts at $699.99 and has been available to order since July 22, with general availability from August 7.

Prince's background made him a natural choice for the campaign - he took up diving at 11 years old and has since built a career that spans divemastering, watersports instruction, and filming shark encounters along England's south coast and further afield. His 170,000 Instagram followers follow him specifically for the kind of underwater footage that appeared in the Samsung video. Radage, equally at home beneath the surface, handled the cinematography.

The broader point Samsung is making - that wearable technology is evolving beyond step counts and sleep scores to support genuinely demanding pursuits - is one the watch's spec sheet fully supports. Whether divers actually adopt it as a wrist computer depends on how the Mares app delivers when it eventually arrives. The hardware is ready. The software needs to show up.