Words: Josh Lee
Tudor’s accomplished line of divers’ watches backdates by almost seven decades, beginning with the 1954 launch of the Reference 7922, a piece whose seminal features included waterproofing to a depth of 100 metres and hands formed from a luminous material.
In recent times, the brand’s Pelagos family, a line of tool watches angled towards divers and explorers of deep waters, is a lead in its sector, defined by a straightforward combination of high-specs with robust, high-action aesthetics: the Pelagos and Pelagos LHD, notably, are meant for advanced commercial diving due to their helium escape valve, while the Pelagos FXD was designed in collaboration with the French Navy’s combat swimmers to aid countdowns during ‘oxygen’ dives.
However, the most recent addition to the collection, the Pelagos 39, largely avoids any bells-and-whistles heft and is a versatile creation that walks a fine line between the technicalities of a serious, sharply tuned divers’ watch and the stylings of a classic, wear-with anything timepiece.
Indeed, complementary contrasts are what define this product. Anchoring it all is a 39mm case (a 3mm downsize from the original Pelagos) that’s done out in a classic sheath of grade 2 titanium with a satin-brushed finish and an unidirectional rotating bezel. Counterbalancing this all is a black dial comprising two elements: a slightly shiny flat disc that acts as a foil to the matte finish of the conical bead-blasted flange.
Chunky hour markers, produced from a lumed ceramic composite monobloc, and the ‘snowflake hands’ – a fixture of the brand since the late 1960s and made from grade X1 Swiss Super-LumiNova luminescent material – glow an ice-blue hue and deftly add the technically driven touches. In an even more subtle move, the ‘Pelagos’ moniker is designed in a cherry-red hue above the 6 o’clock mark, adding a flash of subdued colour to the largely two-tone scheme.
As a result, while predecessors were doused in a pure maritime footing and featured specs that were aimed for specialised dives, the Pelagos 39, although water resistant up to 200m, is more compact, flexible and adaptable, largely due to its ridding of any niche features and stripping down the styling, making it equally suitable for the cities and streets as it is for the coast and shores.
Diving even deeper into the piece, it houses one of Tudor’s recent movements, the Manufacture Calibre MT5400, which ensures a time difference of between -2 and +4 seconds a day – and there is also a 70-hour power reserve, which is enough to last for a weekend without wear.
When, however, it comes to wrapping the piece back on to your wrist, the Pelagos 39 has been created with a satin-brushed titanium bracelet made with the in-house “T-fit” clasp that allows for quick and easy adjustments between five length settings – when needing to slip it over a wetsuit, there’s also an appropriate 25mm bracelet extension function. An additional strap, formed of black rubber with a titanium pin buckle, rounds out the offering.
By emphasising a clean, subdued design and retaining just enough technical prowess to cover many divers’ needs, the result is a piece of pitch-perfect wristwear ready for both the two-piece suit and the wetsuit.
Want more finely tuned watches? Check out the Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4…
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