One of the characteristics of a watch enthusiast is that s/he will rarely wear a watch for longer than a few days before switching to something different. I used to collect vintage watches and, until last December, I would, every four or five days, swap the timepiece on my wrist for something else in my now tiny collection. That was until I bought a Tudor Black Bay 58 just before Christmas.
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| My Black Bay 58 alongside Tudor's new 'Navy Blue' |
That watch has been firmly on my wrist for both work and play. What attracted me to it was that it was new, and wearing vintage watches in the rough and tumble of an active life isn't advisable, but it also that it's good value, robust, has a chronometer movement and was from a brand I used to collect during my watch collector days.
And now Tudor has launched a new Black Bay 58: the Navy Blue. It differs from the original BB58 (sometimes called the 'gilt') only in that it has a blue dial and bezel, but these changes make it a different watch. While the gilt BB58 has a vintage air, reminiscent of its 1950s ancestor, with gold highlights and cream numerals, the Navy Blue has a very contemporary feel - simpler in design - with a smoky blue bezel and ice white numerals. This variation gives the buyer the opportunity to select according to his/her style preferences.
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| The two Tudor Black Bays (centre) continue a tradition going back decades. Here they are pictured with a Tudor chronograph and diver's watch both dating from the seventies |
I was able to borrow a Navy Blue and wear it alongside my own watch. I wear mine on the excellent Tudor bracelet, but the new watch arrived on a matching blue nylon strap which is comfortable and gives an alternative and utilitarian look. Whether you prefer the vintage look of the original BB58 or the cleaner look of the Navy Blue is up to you. I would find it hard to select between the two if I had that choice - maybe the solution would be to buy both!
Tudor took a shrewd step introducing 39mm versions of its standard 41mm Black Bay diver's watches. Two millimetres may not sound much, but in watch terms it gives a slimmer, more compact and lighter timepiece. The move to smaller watches results partly from the growth in the vintage watch market. From the early days of wristwatches until the nineties most watches rarely exceeded 40mm in diameter.
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| The Tudor Black Bay 58 Navy Blue in action |
Until recently Tudor were seen, not entirely fairly, as a sort of poor man's Rolex. They used off-the-peg rather than the in-house movements made by Rolex, but their design was as good and even occasionally ahead of Rolex (they produced an automatic chronograph before Rolex and the 'snowflake' shaped hands used then and now on their diver's watches were both legible and contemporary in design). Even today some watch dealers describe vintage Tudor watches as 'Rolex Tudor' to give the Tudor name a totally unnecessary gloss - they were and are excellent watches in their own right. The latest Tudor watches have in-house chronometer movements, removing any last doubts that this is a quality watch brand.
Comfortable to wear, my BB58 had remained accurate despite many months' constant wear in often rugged conditions, from being subject to the vibrations of off-road cycling on my gravel bike to being knocked around swimming in cold mountain streams.
Is there anything I would change? I'd like a date to make this an even more useful, utilitarian timepiece. One could be included at 6 o'clock to preserve the symmetry of the dial, but that omission isn't a deal breaker for me. For anyone wanting a high quality, durable watch with a chronometer movement at a fair price, I recommend the Black Bay 58. Many agree, as the waiting lists for the first BB58 demonstrated.
For more information on these watches, see Tudor's informative website.
This is an unsponsored post. I was lent the Black Bay 58 by Tudor to assess and review. All views expressed here are mine alone.
