Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue
( Ref . 79030B )
Movement : Automatic manufacture Caliber MT5402 with bidirectional rotor system , Swiss chronometer officially certified by COSC , 70-hour power reserve , variable inertia balance , microadjustment by screw , non-magnetic silicon balance spring ; 28,800 bph ( 4 Hz ) frequency .
Case : 39mm steel with polished and satin finish , unidirectional rotatable bezel in 316L steel with 60-minute graduated disc in matte blue anodized aluminum and silver gilded markings and numerals , steel screw-down winding crown with the Tudor rose in relief , with circular satin-brushed 316L steel winding crown tube , domed sapphire crystal , water resistant to 200 meters
Dial : Navy Blue , domed
Bracelet : Riveted 316L steel with polished and satin-brushed finish , or blue “ soft touch ” with folding clasp and safety catch , or blue fabric strap with silver band and buckle
The New Blue Black Bay
Tudor expands its wildly successful Black Bay Fifty-Eight collection with a new model sporting a navy blue dial and a matte blue bezel .
BY MICHAEL THOMPSON
THE ORIGINAL RETRO-STYLED 39MM BLACK BAY FIFTY-EIGHT QUICKLY BECAME a Tudor best seller after it debuted in 2018 . The design traces its lineage back to Tudor dive models from the early 1950s , with most of its features linked to the Tudor reference 7924 from 1958 , known as the Big Crown edition .
For its latest iteration , you ’ ll find none of the gilded touches to the markers , bezel and the hands we saw on the Black Bay Fifty-Eight from two years ago . For 2020 Tudor replaces those accents with sportier steel on the dial and silver-colored markers and numerals on the bezel , perfectly matching the case and bracelet .
MODERN MOVEMENT As with the 2018 black-dialed edition , the new Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue inhabits its retro style while steeped in modern technology , most notably underneath its dial . There you ’ ll find an in-house Tudor Caliber MT5402 , an automatic caliber with a non-magnetic silicon balance spring and an impressive seventy-hour power reserve .
Tudor notes that its caliber , tailor-made by Tudor for the 2018 Black Bay Fifty-Eight , performs with greater precision than its official COSC chronometer certification requires . Where COSC allows for an average variation in the daily running rate of a watch movement of between -4 and + 6 seconds in relation to absolute time , Tudor says it applies a tolerance of between -2 and + 4 seconds ’ variation in its daily rate on the assembled watch .
While the front and even the sides of the new watch recall their origins in the 1950s and 1960s ( notably regarding the Snowflake hands , seen first in 1969 ), the closed caseback gives away the game with engraved references to the manufacture caliber within .
Unscrewing the back , a watchmaker ( or intrepid owner ) would see a distinctly modern finish on the MT5402 caliber , notably a one-piece tungsten rotor that Tudor has open-worked , satin-brushed and sand blasted . Tudor has also alternated sand-blasted , polished surfaces and laser decorations on the movement ’ s bridges and mainplate .
STRAPS & BRACELET Those familiar with Tudor will know that its modern identity , and its success , is in part due to its unerring facility with fabric NATO-style straps , which the brand has embraced wholeheartedly since at least 2010 .
Tudor continues that tradition with the new Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue , for which Tudor offers a handsome navy blue and silver-striped woven fabric strap made in France by Julien Faure , a 150-year old family company . Tudor also offers a riveted steel bracelet ( polished and satin finished ) with folding clasp and safety catch and a blue “ soft touch ” strap with folding buckle and safety clasp .
The remaining Tudor-curious collectors who were not sold on the 2018 Black Bay Fifty-Eight ’ s slightly luxe black and gold accented dial and bezel back in 2018 have their watch with this new Back Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue . It ’ s sportier , beautifully blue-hued and supplies the same Tudor highvalue mechanicals teamed with expert retro dress .
With the same pricing as the earlier model ($ 3,700 for the bracelet model and $ 3,375 for fabric strap ), the watch serves up no visible obstacles to any motivated fan .
WINTER 2021 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 67