Tudor has announced a new version of the 42 mm Pelagos FXD with a black dial and matching black bezel insert.

The 2023 Pelagos FXD Ref. 25717N is essentially a black version of the 2021 Pelagos “FXD Marine Nationale” Ref. 25707B/21 which shares a 42 mm x 12.75 mm case (52 mm lug-to-lug) titanium case, solid screw-in caseback, fixed titanium strap bars, ISO6425:2018 rating, the same dial including monoblock luminous indices, Snowflake hands, 200 meters of water-resistance, and are powered by the automatic 4Hz 70-hour COSC-certified caliber MT5602.

The only differences between the two watches are the black versus blue dials, black versus blue 60-click ceramic insert titanium unidirectional bezels, and matching black or blue additional rubber straps with textile motif. And that the new black model’s woven textile one-pass velcro closure strap is olive with a red stripe down the middle whereas the Marine Nationale has a black and gray striped strap.

Interestingly, at launch, the Marine Nationale retailed for $3,900 and now runs the same $4,150 retail price as the brand-new black version. Whether an increase of $250 over a period of approximately two years is justified by cost increases or not could easily be a subject of discussion. That this Mil-Spec timepiece, which Navy Seals are reportedly using these watches in real professional use, has gone up in price is hardly relevant when you compare some of the recent releases from other well-known sports watch brands, which have gone up many magnitudes more than 6.4% over a two year period, and often those other watches started higher, despite sometimes not even having an in-house movement.

It’s safe to say that nobody at Professional Watches is ever going to applaud significant price increases on watches, but considering the Pelagos FXD is a well-priced yet highly respected timepiece, can we at least appreciate that relative to the rest of the competition Tudor is still priced reasonably ($4,150)?

 

Photos by Tudor.