BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Our coverage of Watches & Wonders 2023 continues with Tudor now. Although we don’t have live pictures in this case, I was present and keeping notes during the official presentation, which is hilariously called a “Touch and Feel” session.
Royal
The new Royal models stretch from 28mm to 41mm in diameter and come in a range of new colours. Stainless steel models come with a salmon dial with either Roman numerals or diamonds. There’s also a two-tone version with a chocolate brown dial with either Roman numerals or diamond markers. I tried the 41mm version without the diamond dial, which was nice. Inside all versions is a movement based on a Sellita or ETA ebauche, this changes depending on which size you go for. These watches were slightly too feminine for my taste, but pretty nonetheless.
Black Bay 31/36/39/41
Like the Royal above, the new Black Bay comes in four sizes with different dial colours. I tried the 41mm version with the brown dial again, and with the Jubilee-style bracelet. It was very pleasant, the bracelet was of high quality, and the watch had mass. Unlike the above, all of these models come with Tudor’s in-house movements, MT5201 in the 31mm, MT5400 in the 36mm and 39mm and MT5601 in the 41mm.
Black Bay
The newest version of Tudor’s most popular watch features a cherry red aluminium bezel insert contrasting the gold hands and markers on the dial. It comes with a Jubilee-style bracelet, an Oyster-style 3-link bracelet, or a rubber strap matched to the 41mm case. All watches feature the calibre MT5602-U, a self-winding calibre with a 70-hour power reserve, this is a METAS-certified Master Chronometer which means it’s very precise and highly resistant to magnetic fields. The water resistance of the new Black Bay is 200m.
Black Bay 54
A tastefully-appointed watch with a 37mm stainless steel case and 200m water resistance, the new Black Bay 54 draws on the heritage of Tudor. The display stand had a timeline of different watches all the way from the beginning of Tudor’s diving watch journey, making the Rolex Submariner under a different brand name, to the watches of today where Tudor has a fully-fledged range. With a self-winding in-house MT5400 calibre, this watch oozes class.
Black Bay GMT
Finally, the Black Bay GMT is probably the most popular model in the range, which comes with a 41mm stainless steel case. With an aluminium bezel insert of red and blue, the main draw of the new model is the opaline dial. Not quite white, but too bright for silver, the opaline dial makes this watch pop in the same way as the silver meteorite dial does for the Ro– never mind, let’s not compare the two models despite their similarity. I will say that I found the bezel of the Tudor quite hard to grip properly, but I’m sure others won’t have an issue. Inside is the in-house COSC-certified MT5652 calibre with a 70-hour power reserve and 4Hz beat rate.
Overall, the new Tudor watches have something for everyone, and I was impressed with the quality overall. Over the years, it’s clear that Tudor has upped their quality game immensely, and I’m excited to see what they’ll do next.
