2021-The year Tudor has some serious fun with the Black Bay!
You don’t need me to sit here and tell you how popular the Black Bay has been since it was introduced. Its classic aesthetic, simplistic purpose and value proposition has resulted in it being the number one choice for someone in the market for an ‘affordable’ diving watch. However this year Tudor has been experimenting with the Black Bay, and its recent experience was announced today.
The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic - Image Credit: Tudor Watches
The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic
Continuing their newfound obsession with unique case materials, Tudor has just announced a new black ceramic cased Black Bay with a display caseback powered by a META certified movement. It feels like only yesterday that we were on here talking about how Tudor had just released a silver case Black Bay and a gold model with a green bezel, but alas here they’re again with another novelty.
The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic - Image Credit: Tudor Watches
This feels slightly different from the other new releases as the movement in this watch ( Manufacture Calibre MT5602-1U) is new and META certified, meaning a few things. It is of course Swiss made and COSC. But it also has to pass extra tests including being precise at two temperatures, in six different positions and at two different levels of power reserve: 100% and 33%. These tests are something Omega knows very well, more on them in a moment.
The watch is also anti-magnetic to 15,000 gausses, 200m water-resistant and rocking a full stealth mode look. When we say full we mean full as the movement in this watch is not only visible through the caseback, but is also fully blacked out. If stealth is your thing, this is the watch for you.
Stats:
Reference: 79210CNU
Case width: 41mm
Movement: In house movement calibre MT5602-1U
Functions: Hours, minutes and seconds
Power reserve: 70 hours
Case: Black ceramic
Water-resistance: 200m
Dial: Black
Strap: Leather or Nylon
Price: £3,550
Availability: Now
Rolex tag teams in Tudor for their battle with Omega
The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic - Image Credit: Tudor Watches
It feels like this year Tudor’s sole aim was to just show up all of those people online who make predictions ahead of their announcements. The Black Bay is the brand's defining model and although this year we’ve seen Tudor experiment and push the boundaries of what is possible, the writing has been on the wall for some time.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and taking full advantage of that luxury previous models that once seemed confusing at the time now make a lot of sense. The P01 in 2019 caused havoc in the watch world as Tudor seemingly had created a watch that quite literally no one asked for. 2020 they took things slow with the Black Bay 58 Blue but this year they have gone all-in on the Black Bay being more than just a modern-day classic creation.
The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic - Image Credit: Tudor Watches
I believe we can learn two things from this new release from Tudor:
- The Tudor Black Bay is the present and future of the brand. This isn’t a watch that is going to stay in a box, Tudor is open to pushing it as far as they possibly can.
- Have Rolex just tagged Tudor in for the age-old battle of ‘Rolex vs Omega?’ It's a battle that has never really come to an agreed winner, but it looks like Rolex are pretty keen to ramp up their case for being #1 with the help of their sibling…
Omega has a very similar looking piece to this new Tudor in their Seamaster Co-Axial Chronometer 210.92.44.20.01.001. But for the best part of £7,400, this new Tudor is right around 50% more affordable. It seems then that Tudor has come along to back up its big brother in its lifelong battle with Omega.
It’s been a fascinating year for Tudor and it's not over yet, as they recently announced a collaboration with the French Navy (The Marine Nationale) is in the works.
The Tudor Black Bay Ceramic is available for an RRP of £3,550 - head over to tudorwatch.com to find out more.
