This watch, made by Tudor, has been my first step into luxury timepieces. Tudor being the little brother of Rolex has long history of creating dive watches. Presenting their first dive watch in 1954, only a year after Rolex presented the Submariner, Tudor called their new diver the oyster prince submariner. Having a screw down case back and crown this watch, reference 7922, had a water resistance of 100 m, like the Rolex Sub also did. Sharing many parts with the Rolex, the largest difference being the movements of their watches. Rolex mostly used in-house movements or high-grade movements made specifically for them, while Tudor traditionally fitted off-shelf movements in their watches. The water resistance late increased to 200 m, and years later, the Tudors received what might be Tudor’s most distinguishing feature, their snowflake hands. Previously using baton style hands and Mercedes hands, like Rolex did, this new type of hands made the watches more distinguishable from each other, though Tudor still made Submariners with Mercedes hands. The Tudor Submariners were made in three different generations, the last ending production in 1999.

At Baselworld 2012, Tudor released a new watch, the same type as the old Submariners. This was not the Black Bay, it was the titanium 500 m diver, the Pelagos. With its higher water resistance rating, its helium escape valve and no-nonsense brushed case and ceramic bezel, it is a beast and a true tool. The Black Bay was introduced the year later, looks more like the early Submariners by Tudor. Both these watch models came with the ETA 2824 movement, the same movement as the last generations of the Tudor Submariners. Though, using the ETA movements was slightly problematic, when speculations have been that ETA, who are owned by the Swatch group, are not very keen on supplying movements to non-Swatch group manufacturers. If that would be true, Tudor would either need to find another supplier of movements or make their own movements. With these alternatives Tudor chose the latter of them and introduced the Pelagos in 2015 with an in-house movement. The in-house movement version of the Black Bay was introduced in 2016.

I got my Black Bay, ref 79230B, in March this year. Mine is the version with the blue Bezel, in-house movement and steel bracelet. The black and red versions have “gilt dials” meaning their markers and hands are in a golden colour. Further they have faux patinaed lume on the markers and hands. Those two characteristics makes it look more similar to the old Submariners, however I am not really that fond of those characteristics. Since I like the look of the blue one and it does not have the gild dial or the faux patina, it was the watch for me. There is however another version which would also fulfil my requirements and that is the “Black Bay Steel” which have a steel coloured bezel instead of the blue I have on my Black Bay. The other main difference between the blue version and the steel version is that the steel version has a date complication as well and the blue version do not.

Another thing I don’t really like about the watch is the size, the 41 mm case diameter is fine even for my tiny wrists, but the height. With its nearly 15 mm height it is just a massive chunk of steel on my wrist. Personally, wearing dress shirts quite often, having a tall watch is a slight annoyance and I prefer my watches to be less than 12 mm tall, making this is quite a big annoyance. Comparing the watch with a Rolex Submariner side by side the Tudor is very notably bigger. Though, it still has a bit of charm like the Submariner, since it is a bit to common and boring in my opinion, don’t have.

Another big difference which I don’t have an issue with that I know some will have an issue with is that it has an aluminium bezel. The current iteration of the Rolex Submariner, the Rolex Sea-Dweller and the Pelagos all have ceramic bezels. That means the bezels wolll not fade nor will they scratch. For some people this is important, for some it is not, especially when the bezel will not age while most other aspects will. For me though the bezel is important when they want to make the characteristics of the watch to be vintage or at least reminiscent of the older versions of the submariner.

Going to my biggest issue with the watch, the inside of the bezel, the chapter ring. It is just plain brushed steel. Once again, I am comparing the watch to its bigger brother, the Submariner, which have the name Rolex and the Rolex crown engraved on the chapter ring making it look much nicer. Comparing it to my Seiko SKX, that have minute markings on the chapter ring, it is also much more preferable than the plain look of the Black Bay. If I am honest it is ridiculous of me to find this a bit annoying, but the difference between “expensive” watches are the details.

I have said a few things I find less enjoyable about this watch but that does not mean that I don’t like it. In all honesty, I actually enjoy it. It is chronometer certified, meaning it keeps time within certain tolerances, the one I have lost a minute in a month and a half, keeping better time than my Seiko SKX and the Oris I have. I must also admit that the in-house movement, although it does not have a display case back is one of the reasons I like it as much as I do. The dial looks like it is of higher quality than the one on both my Oris and SKX.

After about four and a half month of ownership, I think it was definitely worth buying and I would recommend it to others. It is higher quality than the Oris and SKX, but then it should be. As an entry level luxury watch it can be the only watch you will ever need or it can be the start of a new hobby.