Tudor

Tudor’s Black Bay line is the company’s best seller, which explains why they have so many different variations: the Black Bay (original with red bezel), Blue, Black, Dark, Bronze, Steel, and S&G. As well as the Black Bay 32, 36, 41, Chrono, and the new GMT. With all these variations, its clear Tudor (Rolex’s affordable brand) is invested in the Black Bay line, and justifiably so, as it’s a great looking watch collection, powered by chronometer certified in-house movements, with proper modern power reserves of 70-hours, for under $4K – with the exception of the Chrono which is just under $5K on strap, and the 32, 36, 41, which are powered by ETA 2824 movements. Even with all these variations, Tudor was still getting feedback from consumers that they wanted something slightly smaller than the standard 41 mm size of

After many requests for a Black Bay or Pelagos GMT over the years, Tudor has finally delivered with the debut of the all-new Black Bay GMT at Baselworld. Based on the company’s best selling Black Bay line, the new GMT is housed in the same 41 mm diameter steel case used for the majority of the collection. The dial and hands are essentially the same as other Black Bays but now with the addition of a red snowflake-tipped GMT hand that sweeps the dial every 24-hours and allows you to read the time in a second time zone, along with the local time via the central hands. And when used with the matte burgundy (daytime) and blue (nighttime) day/night rotating bezel, a third time zone can even be tracked. The GMT is driven by a new module that has been

The Speedmaster Moonwatch has a hand wound chronograph movement originally derived from a Lemania base. While it lacks automatic winding or Omega’s famous Co-Axial escapement it’s 42 mm case is one of the most iconic, plus it’s rugged, good-looking, and you might enjoy actually winding it. $5,150 Tudor took a unique approach to creating the Black Bay Chronograph; it’s actually based on a Breitling caliber B01 with some basic Tudor changes packaged in a Black Bay case. For the money, there is not much better out there. $4,725 This is a modern TAG Heuer re-issue of a Heuer Autavia with a premium chronograph a column-wheel and vertical clutch chronograph configuration. Looks great with a leather strap and is also available with a beads-of-rice bracelet for $150 extra or the limited edition with a panda dial (pictured top) for $750

After avoiding the often inauthentic brand ambassador game for almost two decades, in an apparent change of direction, earlier this year, Tudor decided to bring David Beckham on as an official brand ambassador. Now, in an even bigger change, Tudor, who two years ago stated at a press event in Basel, Switzerland that they would always present Tudor in a masculine way in regards to advertising, has pivoted on that strategy as well. Lady Gaga is now an official Tudor brand ambassador. With women making up a larger percentage of the mechanical watch market and being more involved in the sales process, this strategy makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Moreover, with a number of watches within the Tudor collection that work well on a women’s wrist, why not, I suppose.

The new Heritage Black Bay 41 comes with a slimmer middle case and fixed polished steel bezel for a more dressy look than the standard Black Bay collection. As with all Black Bay watches, this is inspired by past divers’ watches from the 1950s and 1960s. A black lacquer dial with applied rhodium plated luminous indexes, and rhodium plated luminous hands, including the signature snowflake hand. This is a no-date model, and unlike the rest of the Black Bay collection, which is currently powered by manufacture movements, this model has been equipped with a more budget friendly ETA 2824 caliber that is good for 38-hours. To keep the lines clean and maintain the elegant look, the sapphire crystal is flush with the bezel, which along with the thinner case making it easy to slide this watch under a shirt cuff.

After setting the stage for the past five years with annual debuts of new variations to the three-hand Black Bay collection, which you can see in our archives, this year, Tudor, dropped their first Black Bay Chronograph. Presented in the same size case, that measures 41 mm in diameter, and is available in stainless steel, the new Chronograph has a thinner fixed bezel, as opposed to the standard Black Bay line which is thicker and rotates unidirectionally. Plus, it is steel, which apart from the new Black Bay Steel, is completely different from all existing Black Bay models which are steel with a colored aluminum insert. One design feature I personally like the most is the engraved tachymeter scale, which is reminiscent of a Rolex Daytona or 1970s Tudor Monte Carlo. The design feature I like the least is the

The Heritage Black Bay is Tudor’s best selling watch collection – which is a modern re-interpretation of the Tudor Submariner – based on a combination the company’s dive watch references from the 1950s and 1970s. Beginning in 2012, with the original Black Bay Heritage Ref. 7930R, which features a Red bezel, Tudor has continually rolled out new editions, including the Black Bay Blue, Black, Dark, and Bronze editions. Today, that tradition continues with the launch of the Black Bay Steel, which comes with a circular satin-brushed matte stainless steel uni-directional rotating bezel inside the same 41 mm diameter case that is seen on existing models, with the exception of the Black Bay Bronze which has a larger case. In conjunction with the launch last year of the Black Bay Dark and Bronze, Tudor announced that all Black Bays will be

The newly launched Tudor Pelagos LHD (Left-Hand Drive), is fundamentally the same as the existing Tudor Pelagos line, but with a modified version of the existing movement that has the crown moved to the left side of the case (which makes it a so-called left-hand watch). To do so, Tudor re-worked the movement and the case accordingly. In doing so, they also made a few other subtle changes, namely the lume which is now a beige color, a roulette (red/black alternating numerals) date wheel, “PELAGOS” dial text in red, and for the first time since the Marine Nationale models that were produced for the French Navy in the 1970s, Tudor offers a numbered edition. As someone that is right-hand dominant (and that wears my watch on the left-hand), the Tudor Pelagos feels like the current right-hand Pelagos model, but with

In 2015, Tudor slightly redesigned their professional diver’s watch – the Pelagos – with a new dial that features five lines of text at 6 o’clock instead of two lines like its predecessor. However, the biggest change was the addition of a new in-house automatic movement, caliber MT 5621, in place of the ETA 2824 which powered the original Pelagos, and which beats at 4Hz, has 26 jewels and boasts a 70-hour power reserve. The movement uses a silicon balance spring and has a variable inertia balance wheel, with a traversing balance bridge which makes the regulator assortment, and it is a COSC-certified movement. Now, Tudor introduces a left-hand version of the Pelagos diving watch for the first time (the crown is on the left instead of the traditional location on the right side of the case, and is therefore

The Heritage Black Bay, first launched in 2012, is Tudor’s best-selling collection. Based on the first 1954 Tudor Submariner (Ref. 7922), along with design elements borrowed from multiple subsequent Submariners, the Black Bay is not a re-edition, instead, it is a contemporary re-interpretation of the original. Building on the success of the core model, last month a day before Press Day at Baselworld, in addition to debuting the Black Bay Bronze, Tudor launched the Black Bay Dark, which like the Bronze, is somewhat of a departure from the rest of the Black Bay collection. Scenes from the launch which took place just ahead of Baselworld 2016 Unlike the larger 43 mm diameter bronze-alloy case from the Bronze model, the Black Bay Dark is in stainless steel and has the same dimensions (41 mm x 12.75 mm) as the Black Bay