Style -- 1 day ago
The first time I saw Tudor’s Heritage Black Bay Black I did something I wasn’t supposed to do. I posted it on Twitter. My contact at the brand had sent me a picture of it and I found myself in such a hurry to share it with the world that I missed the instruction, ‘STRICTLY UNDER EMBARGO’. It took a friendly colleague to alert me to the fact. Oops.
As a social media moderate, I’m not prone to such knee-jerk postings, although in my defence, this preemptive strike was actually prompted by a series of events that had gone before: the launch of the first Heritage Black Bay in 2012 (the one with a red bezel); Tudor’s belated re-entry into the UK market after a decade-long hiatus in 2014 (was it really only 18 months ago?); and last year’s Only Watch auction, in which a Tudor Heritage Black Bay One sold for $375,000, more than 120 times the estimate.
The Tudor Heritage Black Bay Black – the definitive Black Bay
But for all that the Black Bay had been gathering momentum, it was yet to have its moment. The arrival of the ‘Black’ version was and is, to my mind, it. And in this grubby, self-aggrandising social age, I wanted to seize the opportunity to be the one to let the world know. More haste, less speed, man.
Thing is, and make no mistake, the Black is the superlative form of the Black Bay. The red and blue bezel versions never quite captured the clean sophistication of the 1950s Tudor Submariner 7923s on which they’re based, nor their ungroomed masculinity. They were like black and white portraits with the lips ’shopped red.
The ‘Black’ follows the red and blue-bezelled versions of the Tudor Heritage Black Bay
By going back to black, Tudor has found the definitive Black Bay look. It’s the black that brings out the best in the bezel details (the condensed, upright numerals make most sense this way); and the same goes for the pink-gold trim on the hands and hour markers, and the gold minute track running around the dial. These touches give the watch its semblance of patina and point back to that golden age of wristwatch design, but never condemn it to cliché, as per the distressed rubbish made by the U-Boats of this world in recent years.
The Tudor Heritage Black Bay Black is the direct descendant of the Tudor Submariners of the 1950s
Then there’s the gently bubbled sapphire crystal and the finely fluted coin-edge bezel. And both leather strap and bracelet options come with a military black fabric strap weaved on looms also used to make parachute cord that give the watch an extra edge. Even the red triangle at 12 o’clock feels perfectly considered. The watch looks great from every angle – and I should know. I’m wearing one right now.
In the detail – note the gentle bubbling of the crystal and the finely fluted coin-edge bezel
Its only undoing could be that at £2,120 ($3,100/€2,430) on the strap, Tudor will shift fistfuls of the thing. But ubiquity hasn’t killed Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual, or Omega’s Speedmaster, and the Heritage Black Bay Black is to Tudor what those watches are to their brands. It marks Tudor’s coming of age.
I just had to let you know.
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