TULLIO ABBATE | A Legend Of The Sea

Every day, toward evening, the postcard-perfect silence of Lake Como is broken by a thunderous roar. Between Punta Balbianello and the timeless beauty of Bellagio, where the water lies flat and the sun begins to sink behind the mountains, a bullet-shaped powerboat cuts across the lake. At the helm is Tullio Abbate. For almost a century, this stretch of water, embraced by Lenno, Azzano, Tremezzo, Griante, and the villages that have watched generations of boats race past their shores, has been the stage of a ritual unlike any other. A pagan celebration of speed, sound, courage, and craftsmanship. Here, Italian power boat racing was born. Here, Guido Abbate, Tullio’s father, helped invent the art of velocity on water. And here, Tullio Abbate continued that legacy, tracing an invisible path across the lake: impossible to see for most, perfectly clear to him.

His shipyard was born from a passion for speed and from a family story deeply rooted in the waters of Lake Como. Its symbol carries the essence of that world: blue for the solidity of the hull and the depth of the lake, gold for preciousness and victory, red for the fire of speed. Among its most powerful signs is the number 5, assigned to Tullio in 1963, when he entered and won the legendary Centomiglia race with the first plywood craft, a boat that left builder sand pilots astonished. From that day on, the number became more than a race number. It became an amulet, a signature, a symbol of destiny. These lines are a tribute to Tullio Abbate: to the man, to the legend, and to the shipyard that bears his name. It draws from the strength of his character, the generosity of his nature, and the respect he has always shown to those who offered him friendship, trust, and loyalty.

Across these lines runs the same passion that has moved the Abbate family from one generation to the next, from father to son: a passion for boats, for speed, for design, and for the endless challenge of mastering water. It is a passion born on Lake Como, shaped by the sound of engines, the rhythm of waves, and the instinct of men who saw the lake not simply as a landscape, but as a place where dreams could be tested, pushed, and transformed into legend. That passion turned Lake Como into a stage known throughout the world, a natural theatre of speed and elegance where craftsmanship met courage and where every boat became an expression of character.

Through his vision, Tullio Abbate gave form to a unique idea of performance: not only power, but balance; not only velocity, but control; not only design, but emotion. His boats were never just machines. They were objects of desire, built for those who understood the beauty of risk, precision, and movement. More than the story of a shipyard, above all, it is the story of a man who turned speed into an art form and, by following his own invisible path across the water, made history in doing so.

After tracing the story of Tullio Abbate, now we enter the place where that legacy still takes shape: the shipyard. It is here, among hulls, materials, tools, engines, and details designed for performance, that UNIMATIC x Tullio Abbate watches were photographed and brought back to their natural context.

This section explores the two timepieces created for the collaboration, not only as commemorative objects, but as instruments built around the same principles that define a Tullio Abbate boat: function, precision, resistance, proportion, and character.

In the Modello Uno U1-TAB, this approach is expressed through the solid architecture of UNIMATIC’s professional dive watch. The brushed stainless steel case, 300-metre water resistance, screw-down crown, and mono-directional safety bezel define a watch conceived as a reliable instrument. Its nautical identity appears through measured details: the reflex blue bezel, the matte white dial, the blue trims, and the Tullio Abbate number 5. These references do not simply decorate the watch; they translate the codes of the shipyard into a technical and wearable object. The Modello Quattro U4S-C-TAB pushes the same idea toward a more material-driven dimension. Its forged carbon construction recalls the world of advanced composites, lightness, and high-performance engineering, values strongly connected to offshore boating.

The matte finish, fixed monoblock bezel, flat sapphire crystal, and minimal dial reinforce a sense of control, precision, and functional restraint. The parallel between boats and watches is therefore notonly symbolic. In both cases, design is the result of discipline. The cockpit of a boat and the dial of a watch respond to the same need:to place the user at the centre of the experience. Visibility, balance, proportion, and immediate control are essential. Nothing is excessive, nothing is accidental. For this reason, the collaboration works as a true meeting of design cultures. Tullio Abbate brings the language of speed, water, engines, interiors, and technical instinct. UNIMATIC brings its contemporary vision of watchmaking, based on minimalism, durability, and precision. Together, they show that true design is not simply what makes an object beautiful, but what makes it purposeful, reliable, and unmistakable.