Tudor Black Bay diving watch
August 3, 2020Sixty years of TUDOR diving Replica Watch history distilled into one truly iconic watch. The Black Bay is powered by a mechanical movement manufactured by TUDOR.
The Black Bay draws its most characteristic features from past models in the brand’s history. Its general lines, domed dial and crystal were inspired by the first TUDOR diving watches. It features the particularly prominent winding crown from the famous 7924 reference of 1958, aka the Big Crown, while its characteristic angular hands, known as “Snowflake”, were borrowed from the TUDOR watches used by the French National Navy in the 1970s.
The characteristic features of the Tudor Black Bay Dark Replica model centre on the 41 mm wide steel case, finished with a black PVD-treated coating. Directly derived from the thin film technology originally developed by NASA for its various space programmes, PVD or “Physical Vapour Deposition” enables practically any inorganic material to be bonded with metals. The Black Bay Dark has an entirely satin finished matt finish, giving it the appearance of black military utility equipment.
In 2015, TUDOR announced its first Manufacture calibre in its history. A high-performance movement of excellent precision and proven robustness, the TUDOR MT5602 Manufacture calibre offers a 70-hour power reserve meaning that its wearer can, for example, take off the watch on Friday evening and put it on again on Monday morning without having to wind it.
The Black Bay is available with a steel bracelet, an aged leather strap and folding clasp or a fabric strap with buckle. The steel bracelet has been reworked taking inspiration from the brand’s riveted bracelets from the 50s and 60s. These were famous for having rivet heads for attaching the links in evidence on the side of the bracelet, as well as a stepped construction.
The history of the TUDOR divers watch Replica dates back to 1954 and the launch of reference 7922. The first in a long line of ergonomic, legible, accurate and robust divers’ watches, it perfectly embodies the approach formulated by the American architect Louis Sullivan, according to whom the form of an object must follow its function. Furthermore, it laid down the aesthetic and technical foundations of an ideal divers’ watch, those of an understated, functional and reliable tool.