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Available in the Shop: Tudor’s Top Dive Watches from Watchfinder
You may now insert the appropriate Italian expletives as you imagine the six-foot-two Il Commendatore shaking his manicured fist with wrath. And so, it was that Ferrari finally authorised the production of a mid-engine, six-cylinder car — the Dino 206 GT — that was the most affordable model he’d ever made. His intention, clearly, was to resoundingly trounce the German upstarts and send them whimpering like cowering sausage dogs back to their homeland.
One can imagine Wilsdorf arriving at this logical solution: Why not use Rolex cases, crowns and bracelets and combine them with the best outsourced movements in the Swiss watch industry? Since these movements were his own vision, and distinct from the Rolex movements, Wilsdorf could not call these watches Rolexes. So, he decided instead to create a new brand named ‘Tudor’.
Indeed, the motivation behind Wilsdorf’s creation of Tudor bears remarkable parallels to Ferrari’s motivation to create Dino. Both companies were seeking to increase their industrial capacity significantly. With Rolex, Wilsdorf was limited by his movement-production capacity. With Ferrari, Enzo was limited by the cost of his cars. The solution which both men arrived at was essentially the same.
For Wilsdorf, he would use his patented Rolex Oyster case and screw-down crown and matchmake this with outsourced movements. Ferrari, meanwhile, decided to make lower-cost, smaller-engine cars to compete with Porsche in their own category. Interestingly, these engines would not be made at Ferrari, but at the Fiat plant. In order to race in the newly created 1.6-litre Formula 2 category, the motor had to be produced in 500 road-going examples, and the only way to achieve this was to also have the motor power a Fiat model, also named ‘Dino’, confusingly enough.
Somewhere along the way, both the resulting Dino cars, the 206 GT, 246 GT and 246 GTS, as well as the Submariner diving watches created by Tudor, would become design icons with reputations for legendary performance that far transcended their humble beginnings. They would both ascend beyond their initial status, renowned for being accessibly priced, which they still are, and achieve reputations as genre definers. Moreover, collectors all around the world would seek them out and their values would correspondingly skyrocket over the years.
To this day, Tudor has remained a brand for watches featuring all of Rolex’s iconic waterproof technology, in combination with some of the best-made, dependable movements in the industry. Over the years, because of their lower price, Tudor Submariners have become some of the most frequently adopted timepieces by armed forces around the world — in particular by France’s Marine Nationale — and there is documented evidence showing that the Argentine police have regularly issued Tudor Subs to their personnel.
One great advantage of their lower price point is this: While Rolex remained somewhat conservative in styling, and has been slow to evolve, the more youth-oriented Tudor has always been home to tremendous design innovation. From the famous ‘Home Plate’ chronographs to the iconic ‘Snowflake’ Submariners, Tudor has never been afraid to push watch designs forward, and in so doing has achieved some of the most memorable timepieces in history.
History of Tudor Submariners
From 1954 to 1978, Tudor created some of the world’s most collectible diving watches. The first Tudor Submariner was the ref. 7922, which in terms of case and dial iconography was very similar to the Rolex ref. 6538 of that era. And, like the ref. 6538, it boasted a herculean 8mm crown. These watches exist with both 100-metre as well as 200-metre depth ratings. In the late ’50s, the ref. 7922 was also released in a version with a smaller 6mm crown, similar to that found on Rolex’s ref. 5508 Submariner. The caliber 390 automatic movement used for the ref. 7922 was manufactured for Tudor by a company named Fabrique d’Ébauches de Fleurier.
The second famous Tudor, the ref. 7928 Submariner, emerged around 1960 and was produced until 1968. It was distinguished by crown guards similar to those found on the Rolex ref. 5512/5513 watches. Early models boasted both square and pointed crown guards, as well as gilt dials, and are breathtakingly beautiful. The earliest of the ref. 7928 pieces feature a unique combination of gilt chapter ring, gilt writing and square crown guards — they’re among the most collectible Tudor Submariners of all time.
This was resolved in 1975 with the introduction of the Tudor ref. 9401 and ref. 9411 models, which looked very similar to the previous incarnation of the Snowflake Submariner, only now with much more stable dials. Amongst the most collectible of these were the ref. 9401 Marine Nationale watches issued to the French navy, which are distinguished by quartermaster markings on their casebacks. Just to keep things interesting, all varieties of the Snowflake Submariners were available with either blue or black dials.
This week, we have added three fascinating models from the Tudor’s Submariner collection to our shop. One of them is the Tudor 79190, which was the very last version of the Submariner from the brand and was introduced in 1995. The black dial features painted hour markers, which is a nice touch as later models had applied white gold markers, which gives this watch all the cool vintage looks but in a modern package. This Sub has a triplock screw down crown and rotating bezel. The watch is fitted with a steel Oyster bracelet with flip-lock clasp. The present example in our shop is from 1997 and it comes with its original box.
We also have the Tudor 79090 on offer. First introduced in 1989, the 79090 is a classic Submariner Date. In fact, by the time this watch was introduced there was no-date Sub in the Tudor catalogue. This Sub is accompanied by its original papers, which is a lovely touch. The watch is fitted with a steel Oyster bracelet with flip-lock clasp.
The third Tudor Submariner at our shop is the 94401 from 1988.This is an example of the Mini-Sub in two-tone steel and yellow gold with champagne dial; a dressy riff on the classic sports watch. This watch is pure late-80s style with applied hour markers and lollipop hour hand. All three Submariners come with Watchfinder’s two-year warranty.
The Tudor Pelagos
Despite its glorious past, until very recently, the positioning and identity of Tudor watches have been somewhat tenuous. It was as if its parent company were trying to decide exactly what to do with it. In general, what resulted was the creation of appealing, accessibly priced watches, but which largely lacked a defined personality. More significantly, the brand had not tapped into its own glorious, iconic past.
Then suddenly, in 2010, things started to change. In a move that clearly demonstrated that the higher powers at Tudor were listening to collectors’ desires, the brand did something remarkable. It released the Heritage Chronograph — a timepiece that was an incredibly faithful homage to the Tudor ‘Home Plate’ Oysterdate chronograph ref. 7031/0 introduced in 1970. The resulting media frenzy and collector response were nothing less than incendiary.
As part of our dive watch offerings, we have also added the Tudor Pelagos LHD to our shop this week. The Pelagos is Tudor’s all-in tool watch and is capable of operating at up (or down!) to 500 meters. Housed in a 42mm titanium case with titanium bracelet, the case features a helium escape valve that makes it perfect for use by saturation divers who need to breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen when working at depth. This LHD version, which stands for Left Hand Drive, has the crown on the left side of the case and each watch is uniquely numbered on the case back. This caused a lot of excitement when it was launched, as it was the first commercially available watch from the Wilsdorf family to be uniquely numbered!