Tudor's New Black Bay is Really, Really Ridiculously Good Looking

Tudor Watches, Rolex's slightly more affordable sibling, started to become available in the U.S. again in 2013 after a nine year hiatus. The Heritage Black Bay, a red-dialed pastiche afterclassic Tudor and Rolex Subs, led the charge and reignited interest, bringing Tudor out of its sibling's enormous shadow. Now, at Baselworld 2014, Tudor has presented the current Black Bay with a brother in midnight blue, providing a cooler counterpart to the warm burgundy and chocolate dial.

With luminescent snowflake hands, domed crystal, and no guards around its massive screw-down crown, this new Tudor has some vintage touches. However, the cool silver of its dial feels like a departure from the rosy vintage feel of its burgundy brother, giving it a whole different vibe that reminds us that this object was originally intended to be a high-precision tool.

The midnight blue bezel color harks back to the Tudor milsubs that supplied the French Marines, but unlike those older models, the Black Bay opts for a matte black dial. Seeing the red and blue Black Bay subs next to each other really reminds us how important color is. On the one hand, these watches are incredibly similar, yet they almost feel like opposites.


Ethan Wolff-Mann is the Gear editor of Supercompressor. He watches watches. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.