In seven decades of diving, other characteristic details have shaped the emblematic look of the Black Back: the literally bodybuilt indexes, the seconds hand with its patch of luminous material which evokes the first Tudor diving watches, the winding crown without shoulder, the steel bracelets with rivets used during the period 1950-1960 with links widening crescendo from the case, etc. The Black Bay line is a symbiosis between these historic aesthetic codes and manufacturing techniques that meet current requirements in terms of reliability, robustness and quality of finishes. But if the feeling remains pleasantly neo-vintage, the entire range is more the result of a clever summary than of an identical reissue work. The Swiss house (created by the founder of Rolex and visionary of waterproofing, Hans Wilsdorf) clearly proved this during the watchmaking high mass of Watches&Wonders in Geneva.
An entirely new model was unveiled there: the Black Bay 58 GMT. Burgundy and black bidirectional bezel with gold 24-hour graduation, indexes and hands surrounded by gold touches: the warm tones of this timepiece imbued with the elegance of the 1950s have seduced the eye. With a diameter of 39 mm, the case retains the proportions decided at the time, while having the ideal format to accommodate a GMT function. This is managed by a manufacture caliber whose scalable architecture avoids the need for an additional module. A technical detail, but a must in the eyes of watchmaking purists! Additional reasons to applaud this “MT5450-U GMT” movement: an openwork oscillating weight in one-piece tungsten, a silicon hairspring, sunburst and sandblasted laser finishes and above all, three certifications. The first is the Swiss Made label, the second is mechanism-based and issued by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), and the third is granted by the independent Swiss government body METAS. Very complete, it covers all the functionalities of a watch: water resistance, power reserve, resistance to magnetic fields of 15,000 gauss and finally precision standardized at a variation interval of five seconds per day. That’s one second more than Tudor imposes on its own manufacture calibers…
Info: www.tudorwatch.com
