A luxurious take on the Tudor GMT.
When it was first launched in 2018, the Tudor Black Bay GMT felt like the perfect travel buddy (it still does). The 41mm steel watch leans toward a sporty disposition, but paired with a matching bracelet and endowed with the Black Bay’s retro spirit, it doesn’t look shabby either when worn with a sharp suit. More importantly, the Black Bay GMT is equipped with robust and reliable two-time zone functionality.
With the watch, one can tell the ‘local’ and ‘home’ times simultaneously. A separate 24-hour hand points to the 24-hour bezel to give you the ‘home’ time. Elsewhere, the main hour hand can be adjusted independently in one-hour increments both forwards and back, and is synced with the date display so that both the ‘local’ time and date are accurate. What’s more, the 24-hour bezel is bidirectional, which means that you can rotate and set it to ascertain a third time zone.
This brings us to this year’s Black Bay GMT S&G. The new version comes loaded with the aforementioned familiar features while emanating a distinctly more luxurious feel compared to the previous model. The watch’s ‘S&G’ suffix stands for ‘steel and gold’ and is exactly as advertised. It sports a stainless steel case middle with a yellow gold bezel set with a black-and-brown anodised aluminium disc, and is coined ‘root beer’ for the colour combination that recalls the refreshing beverage. (On the other hand, the steel-clad 2018 version with a blue-and-red bezel is popularly labelled as, you guessed it, ‘Pepsi’.)
The automatic Calibre MT5652 drives the new model, as it does the original – a trusted and reliable engine with 70-hour power reserve and COSC certification. And like before, the Black Bay GMT S&G’s 41mm case and heft are appropriate to the dive watch-inspired Black Bay collection. At the same time, it brandishes the Black Bay’s trademark features beloved by watch enthusiasts, such as large hour markers, ‘snowflake’ hands, and big crown that recalls Tudor’s vintage dive watches. Set against a black dial, the hands, markers, and brand logo are sheathed in a yellow gold tone to match the rest of the watch. As much as the Black Bay GMT S&G oozes sports-inspired allure, the gilded accents certainly amplify a sense of macho luxury.
Tudor offers three versions of the Black Bay GMT S&G: with brown leather strap, black fabric strap and with steel-and-gold bracelet, which costs significantly more – at $1,740 extra compared to the leather and fabric strap models. One would definitely feel more of a sting, but we recommend the full bracelet version.
