First comes red, then blue, followed by black. No, this is not a traffic light seen through the eyes of a colour-blind person, it is the order in which Tudor presents the Heritage Black Bay. The Heritage Black Bay, a direct descendant of the Tudor Submariners that date back to 1954, is being expanded with a new model with black bezel. Bordeaux red and blue existed already and could count on a standing ovation.
For example, the first version of the Black Bay from 2012 became one of the winners at the 0024 European Watch of the Year Awards and the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in the following year. Thanks to its plain colouring the new black variant remains the closest to the original. It wasn’t just the 1954 Sub reference 7922 that served as a source of inspiration; the design team also carefully studied the ‘Snowflake’ Submariners, which were made from the end of the 1960s until the early 1980s, and the ‘Big Crown’ reference 7924, and translated these into new shapes. The name ‘Snowflake’ obviously refers to the highly distinctive shape of the hour and seconds hands and ‘Big Crown’ naturally refers to the sizeable crown at 3 o’clock.
Of the three new Tudor diver’s watches the Heritage Black Bay Black comes closest to the pioneering spirit of Tudor’s first diving models, not just because of its colouring but also because of the presence of the famous red triangle on the bezel. The 41mm case, water resistant to 200m, which houses the Tudor Calibre 2824 (i.e. the ETA 2824 movement and not the MT5621 manufacture movement that ticks in the North Flag and in the Pelagos, but you never know what the future may bring), is mounted on a brushed steel bracelet or a pre-aged leather strap for a more retro effect. The watch also comes with a black strap of ultra-strong textile, made with traditional techniques.
