Tudor has now dropped perhaps its one and only release of 2020, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Blue. With rumours and spy shots littering the forums for the past couple of weeks and so called wrist watch celebrities on Youtube and Instagram teasing us, this is one product launch we were all waiting for. This is also possibly the first major post COVID release of one of the main high street Swiss brands and so a welcome distraction.
Tudor 2019 Baselworld – Steel, Gold and Prototypes
Following 2019’s lukewarm reception of the P01, an imposter and the Tudor Submariner never to be, Tudor’s push to align to to it’s older brother and rub off on some of that Rolex magic was met with little fanfare. These were a selection of slightly oversized watches with the Steel and Gold Chrono a brute of a watch and a little ostentatious in the writers humble opinion.
Tudor 2018 Baselworld – Black Bay GMT and the new Fifty-Eight
We have to go back a year further to 2018, arguably Tudors most successful Baselworld and one where they even managed to upstage Rolex with the release of the Black Bay GMT and the Fifty-Eight. At the time, the Fifty-Eight was the true successor to the 5 digit Rolex Submariner, the antidote to the super case and ceramic bezel. We had a 39mm wide and a relatively slender 12mm high case with Tudor’s new in-houe MT5402 movement. But also, the Black Bay had become bloated with the move from ETA to Tudor in-house calibres, so this slimmed down diver was and remains very popular and waitlisted still, 2 years on in most markets.
Style Icons
Some may argue that the overall aesthetic a little sober with a matt finish, off black dial and aluminium bezel with faux patina or gilt coloured indices and diver registers. But with the red inverted triangle under the lume pip and no crown guards, this watch was clearly trying to emulate the original Big Crown Rolex Submariner as worn by Connery and Moore in the early Bond movies than perhaps the Tudor Sub where this moniker was rare.
Images from Rolex Passion Market
The Fifty-Eight is therefore a coming together of the classic no guard Rolex Submariner and the Tudor Submariner of the early 70’s with the Snow Flake hands. But hang on, when I think of the Tudor Submariner Snow Flake, I think blue. Entering from the blue corner is this months release of the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight in you guessed it, Blue.
Thoughts on the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Blue
So what does The English Watch think about this latest release? Well, considering the wide variety of Black Bay models available, it’s the pure dive watches that make the most sense and have more authenticity. That’s not to take anything away from the GMT or the Chrono, and you’ll find dive watches with these complications selling well for other leading brands such as Omega. But for me, adding complication to a dive watch makes it less of a tool watch and in most instances just adds unwelcome bulk to the case size, not to mention making it more difficult to read in extreme conditions.
Most of us won’t take our watches diving, maybe getting the odd splash in a pool or dipping our toe into the sea, so size isn’t critical. What the Fifty-Eight does is hit the nail on the head for size and style. We’re moving away from large, ostentatious watches and want something discrete that slips nicely under a shirt and isn’t in danger of colliding with everyday objects as it swings around like a wrecking ball on the end of our arm.
With the introduction of the blue, this nice 2 piece line up keeps the watch in a neat box where more colour combinations will dilute its ‘essence’ as Tudor puts it. This blue is subtle, and very close to the original Snow Flake, so absolutely fits in this line up. It’s also nice to see the indices and dive registers in pure white rather than gilt. Adding more colours and varieties would only be necessary if the watch was slow to sell, but it isn’t. The 2018 black dial is still waitlisted and I imagine the new blue will be just as popular, maybe more so and appeal more widely to men and women alike. It certainly drew my wife’s attention.
So in closing, other than the not having any form of on the fly adjustment to the bracelet, this is a great value, quality watch for under £3,000.
Let’s read what Tudor has to say on the subject:
Tudor Press Release
Ever faithful to its long tradition of blue sports watches, TUDOR now offers a “Navy Blue” version of its flagship model, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight.
The Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” gets its name from its colour, of course, but also from the year 1958, in which the first TUDOR divers’ watch waterproof to 200 metres (660 ft), reference 7924 or “Big Crown”, was presented. Among other aesthetic nods to this historic watch, this model offers a 39 mm diameter case in in keeping with the characteristic proportions of the 1950s. Ideal for slim wrists, people who like more compact watches and vintage enthusiasts, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” also carries on with the long TUDOR tradition of blue sports watches.
Black Bay Fifty-Eight Specification
- 39 millimetre case in 316L stainless steel
- Navy Blue matt domed dial, grained with applied hour-markers
- “Snowflake” hands, a hallmark of TUDOR divers’ watches, since 1969, with grade A, Swiss Super-LumiNova® luminescent material
- Manufacture Calibre MT5402, COSC-certified with silicon balance spring and 70-hour power reserve
- Three straps/bracelet options: blue Jacquard fabric with silver band, blue “soft touch”, and “riveted” steel
- Five-year transferable guarantee, with no registration or periodic maintenance checks required
Tudor Navy Blue
In 1969, TUDOR introduced a divers’ watch with a blue dial and bezel. The other sports watches in the collection were soon attired in blue, immediately creating a lasting aesthetic hallmark known as “TUDOR Blue”. Adopted by the French navy for its TUDOR divers’ watches during the 1970s, this livery became part of the collective imagination. The Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” follows in this tradition with its navy blue dial and bezel insert. This is a colour that also appears on the “soft touch” strap offered with this model and made from a synthetic, tactile material resembling flannel.
10 Years of the Tudor Fabric Strap
Navy blue is also the dominant colour of the fabric strap offered with this model. The fabric strap is one of the hallmarks of TUDOR, which, in 2010, became one of the very first watchmaking brands to offer it with its products. Woven in France on 19th century Jacquard looms by the Julien Faure company in the St-Etienne region, its manufacturing quality and comfort on the wrist are unique. In 2020, TUDOR and Julien Faure, a 150-year old family company, celebrate 10 years of a partnership that started just before the launch of the Heritage Chrono in 2010, the first model of the brand to be fitted with a fabric strap created by the artisan. A fine anniversary for an enduring collaboration built on outstanding expertise.
The Calibre MT5402
The Manufacture Calibre MT5402, which equips the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue”, displays hour, minute and second functions. It has the finish typical of TUDOR Manufacture calibres. Its rotor in tungsten monobloc is openwork and satin-brushed with sand-blasted details, and its bridges and mainplate have alternate sand-blasted, polished surfaces and laser decorations.
Its build has been designed to ensure robustness, longevity, reliability and precision, as has its variable inertia balance, which is maintained by a sturdy traversing bridge with a two-point fixation. Together with its non-magnetic silicon hairspring, the Manufacture Calibre MT5402 is chronometer-certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), with its performance going beyond the standards set by this independent institute. In fact, where COSC allows for an average variation in the daily running rate of a watch movement of between -4 and +6 seconds in relation to absolute time, TUDOR applies a tolerance of between -2 and +4 seconds’ variation in its daily rate on the watch fully assembled.
Another notable feature is that the power reserve of the Manufacture MT5402 Calibre is “weekend-proof”; that is to say about 70 hours, which enables the wearer to take the watch off on a Friday evening and put it back on again on Monday morning without having to wind and reset it.
The Essence of Black Bay
Like other models in the Black Bay range, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” adopts TUDOR’s characteristic angular hands known as “Snowflake” that appeared in the brand’s 1969 catalogue. The result of a subtle blend of traditional aesthetics and contemporary watchmaking, the Black Bay line is far from offering identical rereleases of classics. Resolutely anchored in the present, it brings together close to seven decades of TUDOR divers’ watches. Whilst it is neo-vintage in style, its manufacturing techniques and its robustness, reliability, durability and precision as well as the quality of its finishing are above current industry standards.
The Tudor Divers Watch
The history of the TUDOR divers’ watch dates back to 1954 with the launch of reference 7922. Waterproof up to 100 metres (330 ft), it is the firstborn in a long line of “divers”. Affordable, robust, reliable and precise, it is representative of the philosophy of a tool-watch of the brand. The seven decades following the introduction of reference 7922 have witnessed the constant improvement of the TUDOR divers’ watch, gaining wide acclaim from professionals in the field, including some of the largest navies in the world, in the process.
The Tudor Guarentee
Since its creation by Hans Wilsdorf in 1926, and in line with his vision of the ideal product, TUDOR has always strived to make the most robust, durable, reliable and precise watch possible. Bolstered by this experience, and confident in the superior quality of its watches, TUDOR is now offering a five-year guarantee on all its products sold after January 1st 2020. This guarantee does not require the watch to be registered, or any maintenance checks, and is transferable. In addition, all TUDOR products bought between July 1st 2018 and December 31st 2019 will benefit from an 18-month extension to their guarantee, that is to say, a total of three and a half years. TUDOR also recommends that its watches be serviced approximately every 10 years depending on the model and real-life usage.
About Tudor
TUDOR is an award-winning Swiss watch brand, offering watches with refined aesthetics, proven reliability and unique value for money. The origins of TUDOR date back to 1926, when “The Tudor” was first registered as a brand on behalf of the founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf. He created the Montres TUDOR SA Company in 1946 to offer watches with the quality and dependability of a Rolex, at a more affordable price point. Because of their robustness and affordability, throughout their history TUDOR watches have been chosen by the boldest adventurers on land, underwater and on ice. Today, the TUDOR collection includes emblematic models such as Black Bay, Pelagos or 1926. Since 2015, TUDOR has also offered mechanical Manufacture movements with multiple functions and superior performance.
