Watches come in broadly two types; the tool watch, robust and practical, with looks a secondary consideration to practicality, and dress watches, where robustness is secondary to appearance and decoration. The new Tudor Ranger comes into the first category and its credentials are supported by its heritage and origins as an adventurer's timepiece.
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| The new Tudor Ranger |
Seventy years ago, in July 1952, The British North Greenland Expedition (BNGE) left the Thames to explore Greenland and carry out important scientific experiments, some of which are still providing scientists with data today. Tudor, the more affordable arm of Rolex, had recently released the Tudor Oyster-Prince and they arranged for thirty of these watches to accompany the expedition with members using them daily and keeping detailed records of their performance.
The results were everything Tudor had hoped for, the watches proving robust and accurate in hostile conditions, useful information in their marketing of the watch (see below). Certainly my 1955 Oyster-Prince (pictured below) keeps remarkable time and performs well as a daily wear, despite no recent service history.
A few years ago Tudor discovered that one of the expedition watches had survived, owned by Major Desmond Homard who had dug it out of the back of a kitchen drawer. There's a belief that this is the only remaining expedition watch, but in researching this feature I spoke to a collector who, for a while, owned a watch used by another expedition member, Herbert 'Dixie' Dean. This watch had a sound provenance and came from a family member (both watches are pictured below).
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| Major Desmond Homard's watch, worn on the BNGE |
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| Advertising the Tudor Oyster-Prince |
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| Another BNGE watch owned by Herbert 'Dixie' Dean (left: image Martyn West @mwvintagewatches) and my own Tudor Oyster-Prince from the mid-fifties (right) |
In releasing the new Tudor Ranger Tudor has chosen not to market a watch based on the original expedition Oyster-Prince, but to revive the Tudor Ranger, a similarly robust watch with an Explorer dial first seen in the sixties. At 34mm in diameter, it was smaller than its 39mm replacement, but the new watch captures the original proportions well, making a handsome and very wearable watch (images below).
The new Tudor Ranger, priced very reasonably from £2170 to £2420 for a manufacturer made, chronometer-rated movement. See Tudor Watch.
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| Original Tudor Ranger (left) and the new model (39mm, right) |
