Opaline dials provide the Black Bay models with a facelift and an uplifting identity
While its sibling brand tends to emphasise steady growth and improvements through evolution, Tudor has a more ‘gung-ho’ personality. Of course, this is tempered by the experience that its elder sibling possesses, removing any element of risk from new developments. With the Black Bay, the brand looks back at its original purpose and builds on the tool watch identity of this series. The most exciting release is naturally the Pelagos Ultra, which holds the highest level of water resistance in the brand’s current production. But not in its history: that title belongs to the Hydro 1200, which was introduced in 2009.
The Hydro 1200 was a rugged machine, while Tudor’s Pelagos Ultra has a somewhat more understated appearance. Housed in a 43mm titanium case with a brushed finish and equipped with a matching bracelet, it will survive the deep blue up to 1,000m of depth. That’s more than ample for any of us. The watch also has a METAS-certified Calibre MT5612-U, and the titanium bracelet also offers an easy adjustment function on the buckle to extend the length of the strap so it can be worn over a diving suit. 
The Tudor Pelagos Ultra looks sharp in and out of the water
Of course, what’s needed for a deep diving timepiece is a helium escape valve for fluid egress during saturation diving. Being the tiny molecule that it is, at high pressure, helium can make its way into the case, which leads to excess pressure when returning to the surface as it expands. The escape valve allows it to be released safely so that the sapphire crystal does not crack.
The second element that matters is underwater legibility. To achieve this, the design team chose larger hands and indexes on the dial, as well as a brighter luminous material. The indexes are made of Super-LumiNova-infused PMMA, and this ensures strong visibility. The use of blue and green colours is also designed to increase visibility; plus, these are also colours associated with the ocean. The matt ceramic bezel features the standard 15-minute countdown marking for safety stops, and the watch measures a reasonable 14.5mm in thickness.
The Pelagos Ultra is not the only professional model that’s been introduced. The Black Bay Pro, which has a field watch style look and feel with a useful second time zone function, is inspired by the timepieces used on the British North Greenland Expedition 70 years ago. The earlier version had a matt black dial to ensure that the watch would be easily read in the day, but a new opaline display offers a fresh, energetic aesthetic. Perhaps it’s the lemon-yellow GMT hand, which indicates the second time zone on the bezel’s 24-hour display, or the white-on-white layout used in the watch. With just black outlines for the indexes, hands, and minute track, it camouflages the additional elements of the watch with a flat material design effect.
Like the Tudor Ranger, the Black Bay Pro has brushed surfaces with polished sides to create an outdoor, explorer-type feel. The riveted links of the bracelet add to this industrial, durable identity. Although the watch is also available with a fabric as well as a hybrid rubber and leather strap, the steel model is a steal at S$6,230. The watch is powered by an MT5652 movement with GMT function, with a convenient hour-jump adjustment via the crown.
Straddling the professional and the casually sporty segment is Tudor’s Black Bay Chronograph. This watch has partnered racing teams, cycling competitions, and rugby teams. When the Black Bay Chronograph started, it cultivated a vintage look with a light champagne dial. Now it’s going to a classic format – the ‘panda’ and ‘reverse panda’ dials. The contrasting dial layout made famous by Paul Newman and its opposite, first appearing on a Breitling Superocean in 1957, emerged around the same era.
The watch has a domed dial and extruding crystal, and a gently curved, refined case that appears slimmer than the 14.4mm thickness it actually is. The two bracelet options of three or five links have the same proportions for the middle link. The five-link bracelet is rounded, and the three-link version is flattened with curved edges; both are designed for comfort against the skin and to minimise forearm hair clipping (hopefully). Within the watch, the MT5813 calibre is still the driving force for the chronograph, with column-wheel control and vertical coupling.
Expanding the Black Bay’s range
In a rather controversial act, while the entire watch industry is laser-focused on smaller cases, Tudor’s bucking the trend and going bigger. The Black Bay 68 (named for the year when Tudor integrated the snowflake hour hand into its watches) upsizes the sporty timepiece to a 43mm diameter, housed in a steel case with a matt black aluminium bezel insert. The bezel is unidirectional, with 60-minute markings and a diving countdown.
The short and curved lugs of the Black Bay 68 are designed to fit well on most wrists, and the three-hand, no-date model is well-balanced in the use of space. Well-proportioned markers and hands coated in Super-LumiNova prevent over-cluttering without making the dial look too bare. Tudor has chosen two dials to start the Black Bay 68, in a dark blue sunray finish or a monochromatic silver. It’s equipped with the METAS-certified MT5601-U, with a 0/+5 seconds daily precision and a 70-hour power reserve.
There’s also one colour addition to the Black Bay 58 in burgundy, a deeper red than typically seen, with a rich sunray-finishing on the dial and a matt finish on the anodised bezel. The 39mm watch is available in three- or five-link bracelets as well as a rubber strap. It has the METAS-certified MT5400 calibre, which also has a COSC certification, as well as a solid 65 hours of autonomy, sufficient to pick it up after the weekend for the work week.
With Tudor, the Watches and Wonders fair is just the start of its releases. We can expect more variants to appear throughout the year; it will be exciting to see what colours will pop into its catalogue this year.
