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What The Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” Says About You

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What The Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight "Navy Blue" Says About You

July 04, 2020

Three personality traits of Tudor’s latest Black Bay Fifty-Eight watch owners

Staying true to its storied tradition of creating blue sports watches, Tudor has introduced a new navy-blue version of its flagship model, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight. Simply named the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue”, the new ticker features aesthetic nods to reference 7924, otherwise affectionately referred to among the watch collectors as “Big Crown”. Reference 7924, which was the first Tudor divers’ watch waterproof to 200m (660ft), also plays an integral role in the name of the hugely popular Black Bay model—Tudor named it after the launch year of the iconic timepiece.

While Tudor owners are generally known to be daring, bold and adventurous, we say that those, who sport the new watches on their wrists, are slightly different. Here are three personality traits of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” owners we have come to notice. Tell us if you agree with us.

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Personality trait #1: You love a touch of vintage
You are a history buff and like things with heritage value. Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album record from 1970 and an Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman are your prized possessions.

Reason: Measuring 39mm wide, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” is keeping in line with the proportions of watches from the 1950s. The watches of yesteryear tended to be smaller, lither and more compact, which were what the cognoscenti preferred back then. Today, 39mm is ideal for Asian wrists for the watch will not look oversized. Like what we all know, the Black Bay range is the crystallisation of Tudor’s seven decades of experience with manufacturing diver’s watches. Watches in the collection—the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” included—also adopt Tudor’s signature “Snowflake” hands, a key aesthetic feature that appeared in the brand’s 1969 catalogue and also one that is appreciated by many collectors.

Of course, watch buffs would also be familiar with Tudor’s collection of blue sports watches from the past. It first started in 1969 when the watchmaker released a divers’ watch with a blue dial and bezel. The blue treatment was then applied onto the other sports watches in the collection, which gained immense popularity and even left an aesthetic legacy behind known simply as “Tudor Blue”. Even the French navy adopted the cerulean livery for its Tudor divers’ watches in the 1970s. This is why the “Tudor Blue” treatment on Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue”—with its navy-blue dial and bezel insert—serves as a paean to the rich heritage the watchmaker boasts.

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Personality trait #2: You value craftsmanship
While the price tag is still an important consideration, you are willing to invest in well-made, well-crafted items. Handcrafted furniture and items, which you have amassed over the years, dot the various corners of your house.

Reason: Besides being offered with a riveted 316L steel bracelet or a blue “soft touch” strap, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” is also available with a navy-blue fabric strap. Tudor introduced the fabric strap to its watches in 2009. That was during a time when most of Swiss luxury watch brands were still not convinced if the fabric strap was worthy of complementing its offerings. But Tudor, being the gamechanger it prides itself to be, led the strap revolution and with that, the fabric strap has become one of the key hallmarks of the brand. This year, it celebrates its tenth year of collaboration with Julien Faure, a 150-year-old family business based in St Etienne, France, which produces the fabric straps for Tudor. What makes this partnership special is that Julien Faure doesn’t manufacture the straps on modern, state-of-the-art machineries but with Jacquard looms that were already in use by the family since the 19th century. This dedication to craftsmanship results in the unrivalled exquisite quality found in Tudor fabric straps—something that the watchmaker, as well as its diehard fans, truly appreciates.

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Personality trait #3: You go for quality and functionality
You have an eye for aesthetics but your acquisition also needs to have a good balance of design, quality and functionality.

Reason: When it comes to quality, the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” is filled with it—literally. It is equipped with the self-winding Manufacture Calibre MT5402, which boasts a power reserve of 70 hours. This effectively ensures the smooth and precise running of the watch over the entire weekend before the wearer puts it on again on Monday. Aesthetically, the movement retains the usual design standards of all Manufacture calibres—its open-worked tungsten monobloc rotor is satin-brushed with sand-blasted details, while its bridges and mainplate have alternate sand-blasted, polished surfaces and laser decorations. For something that is hardly in sight, a lot of work has gone into its decoration. Equipped with a non-magnetic silicon hairspring, the Manufacture Calibre MT5402 is COSC-certified, which means that the movement has passed a series of stringent tests by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute. In fact, the movement performs better than the standards set by the independent facility—the calibre has a tolerance of between -2 and +4 seconds’ variation in its daily rate on the watch fully assembled compared to the -4 and +6 seconds variation stipulated by COSC.

To further ensure the owner, Tudor has worked in a five-year guarantee on all its products sold after January 1st 2020. This new initiative comes about by the watchmaker’s confidence in the superlative and top-notch quality of its watches, which is in line with brand founder Hans Wilsdorf’s philosophy of manufacturing the most robust, durable, reliable and precise watch possible.

SPECIFICATIONS

CASE
39 mm 316L steel case with polished and satin finish

BEZEL
Unidirectional rotatable bezel in 316L steel with 60-minute graduated disc in matt blue anodised aluminium and silver gilded markings and numerals

WINDING CROWN
316L steel screw-down winding crown, with the TUDOR rose in relief, with circular satin-brushed 316L steel winding crown tube

DIAL
Blue, domed

CRYSTAL
Domed sapphire crystal

WATERPROOFNESS
Waterproof to 200 m (660 ft)

BRACELET
Riveted 316L steel bracelet with polished and satin-brushed finish, or blue “soft touch” with folding clasp and safety catch, or blue fabric strap with silver band and buckle

CALIBRE
Manufacture Calibre MT5402 self-winding mechanical movement with bidirectional rotor system

POWER RESERVE
Approximately 70 hours

PRECISION
Swiss chronometer officially certified by COSC (Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute)

FUNCTIONS
Centre hour, minute and seconds hands; stop-seconds for precise time-setting

OSCILLATOR
Variable inertia balance, micro-adjustment by screw; non-magnetic silicon balance spring; frequency of 28,800 beats/hour (4 Hz)

Tags: Tudor; Tudor Black Bay; Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue”; Tudor Rose

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