By Dhananjay Pathak
Released back in Baselworld 2013, it would be fair to say that the Tudor Heritage Black Bay has gone ahead to become the crown bearer of the Tudor watch collection. Initially launched with an ETA 2824-2 movement, the first major upgrade to the watch came when Tudor launched the Tudor Heritage Black Bay Reference 79230 in 2016 with the in-house MT5602 movement. Fast forward 2 years in time and here we are at Baselworld 2018, introducing to you, the newest Tudor in town, the Black Bay GMT. Featuring the more sought after “Pepsi” bezel and the ability to track a second time zone with the help of the new manufacture calibre MT6552, this watch is all set to be the talk of the town at this year’s Baselworld event.
The dial on the Tudor Black Bay GMT has a matte black color and bears a striking resemblance to other members of the Black Bay family with a few key differences. The hour markers are a combination of applied circular and baton style markers with the exception of an applied triangle at 12. The minute track seems to have been lifted from the Black Bay steel and comprises of finely printed thin white lines along with thicker rectangular markings at intervals of 5. The number of text lines on the dial remains the same as seen on previous Black Bay models, but look closer and you would notice that the depth rating has been replaced with GMT text. The signature snowflake handset is obviously present, but this time around you have an extra GMT hand which has been rendered in red. Date lovers can rejoice as there is a date window at 3 once again reminiscent of the Black Bay steel. But if you were to ask me, I would have rather loved to see this watch without a date window or have it placed at the 6’Oclock position as with the current 3 o’clock positioning it does tend to spoil the symmetry of an otherwise perfect looking dial.
The Tudor Black Bay GMT retains the chunky 41mm case of its elder siblings, which I feel is a nice moderate size making it easy to accommodate the watch comfortably on both small and large wrists. And even though the water resistance has been removed from the dial, the watch is still very much water resistant to 200 meters. On top of the case is a 24 hour red and blue GMT bezel which adds a nice pop of color to the watch and can be used to track a second-time-zone along with the GMT hand. Powering this watch is the new in-house calibre MT6552 which offers additional GMT capabilities alongside the normal timekeeping functions. The movement operates at a frequency of 28800 bph and offers a power reserve of around 70 hours.
The Tudor Black Bay GMT is great new offering from the brand and is targeted towards all the globetrotters out there. The watch would retail at a price of CHF 3,400 on a leather or fabric strap and CHF 3,700 on the stainless steel bracelet. For more info, visit Tudor online.
