The Mares Airmatic and the New Wave of Reg Tech

For as long as most divers have been breathing underwater, the second stage of a regulator has worked essentially the same way. You inhale, the drop in pressure moves a diaphragm, the diaphragm pushes a lever, the lever opens a valve held shut by a mechanical spring, and air flows. It's a proven design. It's also a design with a spring in it, and a spring is a source of resistance you have to overcome on every single breath.

Mares decided to question that. Their Airmatic technology — found in the Planet 88X TBP we stock — replaces the traditional mechanical spring in the second stage with a pneumatic valve. It's a genuine rethink of a decades-old mechanism, so let's talk about what that actually means, whether it matters for your diving, and where it fits.

What "pneumatic instead of a spring" actually means

In a conventional second stage, a metal spring holds the valve closed until your inhalation generates enough force to open it. That spring is doing a necessary job, but it's also a fixed mechanical resistance — part of the effort of every breath goes into working against it.

Airmatic swaps that spring for a pneumatic valve, using air pressure rather than a mechanical spring to manage the valve. Mares' claim is that eliminating the mechanical resistance allows easier, smoother airflow — the breath opens the valve with less effort, and the air comes more freely. Paired with their Vortex Assisted Design (VAD), which channels airflow inside the second stage to help it flow smoothly, the goal is a regulator that breathes with minimal effort and stays comfortable dive after dive.

Whether you'll consciously feel it depends on the diver. Some people are highly attuned to breathing effort and notice a smooth second stage immediately; others don't consciously register it but benefit anyway, especially over a long dive or when working against a current, when a low-effort regulator quietly saves you energy and gas.

The rest of the Planet 88X, because a second stage is only half the story

A regulator is a system, and the Airmatic second stage sits on a seriously capable first stage. The 88X TBP first stage is built around cold-water and reliability features that matter for exactly the kind of diving a lot of our customers do.

It's a hermetically sealed, TBP dry-kit first stage with Mares' automatic sealing technology, which keeps water and debris out of the internals — the sealing approach that resists freezing in cold water and keeps performance consistent in silty or dirty conditions. The second stage is all-metal, specifically for use in extremely cold water. There's Natural DFC to keep air supply strong to the second stage, an integrated overpressure valve as a safety measure, a 360-degree swivel head with a well-thought-out port layout, and a manual stop button to shut down an unwanted free flow. In other words, this isn't a warm-water-only showpiece for the new valve technology — it's genuinely built for demanding, cold conditions.

Who this suits

The Planet 88X makes the most sense for divers who take breathing performance seriously and who dive in conditions where a sealed, cold-capable regulator earns its keep. That includes the cold water below the thermocline in our local lakes, drysuit diving, and anyone who simply wants a low-effort regulator that stays comfortable across a full day of diving. At $999.95 it sits in the serious-regulator tier, and it's configured with a DIN or yoke connection depending on what your diving needs — DIN if you're heading toward technical or cold-water diving, yoke if you're staying with standard recreational rental-style fittings.

If your diving is exclusively warm, shallow and occasional, you don't need a regulator at this level to be safe or happy — plenty of simpler regs do that job well. But if you want breathing performance that you'll appreciate on every dive and gear that handles cold water without complaint, this is squarely aimed at you.

New technology, sensible caution

We'll be straight with you, because that's how we like to sell gear. Any time a manufacturer rethinks a long-established mechanism, it's fair to ask about the track record. The reassuring part here is that Airmatic isn't a fragile science experiment — it's a production technology in a regulator built with Mares' established cold-water engineering around it, and it's serviceable through the normal channels. As with any regulator, the long-term relationship depends on regular professional service, and that's something our service department handles in-house.

The broader point is that the 2026 diver increasingly wants gear that's genuinely engineered rather than gear that just adds features, and a rethink of breathing effort at the valve level is exactly that kind of engineering. It's a real innovation aimed at the one thing you do thousands of times on every dive: breathe.

Have a look, or come breathe off one

The best way to understand a regulator is to breathe from it, and the best way to choose one is to talk through your actual diving with someone who knows the range. Take a closer look at the Mares Planet 88X TBP, browse the rest of our regulators, or get in touch and we'll help you work out whether the Airmatic's smooth breathing is worth it for the diving you do. And if you're still getting your head around first stages, sealing and DIN-versus-yoke in general, our earlier guide to choosing a regulator lays out the fundamentals.

A spring did the job for decades. It's genuinely interesting to dive something that asks whether it had to.