An amazing addition to the Tudor lineup, the brand is presenting a bronze version of its famous Black Bay Fifty-Eight model, featuring a bronze bracelet fitted with a new clasp with a rapid adjustment system for the first time. Bolstered by its experience using bronze, Tudor continues exploring this emblematic material with its characteristic aging, boldly opting for a total bronze look. Based on a rich bronze-brown tone, a new color palette adorns the dial and bezel of a divers' watch whose naval inspiration can be seen in every detail. A timepiece with an uncompromising design, available exclusively in around fifty Tudor boutiques throughout the world.
Its 39 mm satin-brushed bronze case evolves to match its user's habits. The shaded matte "brown-bronze" dial with applied hour markers and Arabic numerals at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock features the now traditional snowflake hands, one of the hallmarks of the Tudor divers' watches introduced in 1969.
The choice of a ‘living’ metal —in this case, a high-performance aluminum bronze alloy used particularly in naval engineering for submerged parts required to demonstrate a high level of resistance to corrosion such as propellers— ensures the development of a subtle and unique patina on the case of every watch to match its user's habits. In addition to a highly functional appearance, in line with the naval world to which it pays tribute, the Black Bay Bronze presents entirely satin-brushed finishes that guarantee the homogeneous development of this patina.
The Dial
The combination of a domed dial in matte brown-bronze with a concentric shade from the exterior towards the center and a bezel presenting the same gold accents found on the hands and hour markers complete the face of this model. The overall visual effect is of a rich, patinated object that might have battled the waves of the seven seas for years on its owner's wrist and which is made for them and their lifestyle.
The Tudor Bronze Alloy
Tudor Bronze is an alloy with properties that differ from those of stainless steel, and as such, the craftsmanship required to produce a watch case is as unique as it is spectacular. Once the aluminum bronze alloy has been produced, the bronze used by Tudor is made into bars, which are cut into slugs, small cylinders of material a few centimeters in length. The slugs are then heated to a high temperature before being stamped individually while hot using a friction screw press, applying a pressure of many tonnes. With this single operation, as soon as it emerges from the furnace, this cylinder of raw material instantly adopts the rough form of the watch middle case.
From this point, no fewer than forty additional steps are required to obtain a bronze case that is ready to be cased up. Successive machining processes create the final shape and craft the functional parts of the case, such as the threading or drilling, the finishes, or the steps required to give the surfaces their final appearance, produced by machine or hand. It is further complicated by the fact that bronze is a material whose appearance evolves rapidly according to its environment, so all these manufacturing operations, as well as the assembly and final tests of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze model, are carried out with meticulous care. All handling must be carried out using gloves and according to a specific workflow, particularly for waterproofness tests, between which, each watch is entirely dried to preserve its new, non-patinated appearance.
The Bronze Bracelet and Additional Strap
While Tudor has been exploring bronze in its collection for several years, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze model marks the first time the brand has produced a bracelet entirely from bronze. Its satin-brushed links adopting the style of TUDOR bracelets of the 1950s and '60s, with rivets, are coordinated with the case and will develop a patina at the same pace. A new bronze clasp, also satin-brushed, with a redesigned cover and the new Tudor T-Fit rapid adjustment system for the length, completes the total bronze look. Easy to use, requiring no tools, and offering five positions, this practical system allows wearers of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze to carry out a fine, instant adjustment on an adjustment window along the entire length of the 8 mm bracelet.
Additionally, Tudor delivers the watch with a free additional strap with its Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze model in the spirit of an aesthetic tribute to the brand's naval heritage. One of them, found on a period diving watch and conserved in the brand archives, is made of elastic recovered from a French rescue parachute. This ultra-functional relic is recognizable by its central yellow thread that the "bronze-brown" woven jacquard strap alludes to. The fabric strap is one of the hallmarks of Tudor, which, in 2010, became one of the first watchmaking brands to offer it with its products. Woven in France on 19th century Jacquard looms by the Julien Faure company in the St-Etienne region, its manufacturing quality and comfort on the wrist are unique. In 2020, Tudor and Julien Faure, a 150-year old family company, celebrated ten years of a partnership that existed before the Heritage Chrono —the first model to be equipped with a fabric strap created by the craftsman— was launched in 2010. A fine anniversary for an enduring collaboration built on outstanding expertise.
The Movement
The new Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze is powered by the manufacture Calibre MT5400, which displays hour, minute, and second functions. It has the finish typical of Tudor Manufacture Calibres: Its rotor in tungsten monobloc is open-worked and satin-brushed with sand-blasted details. Its bridges and main plate have alternate sand-blasted, polished surfaces and laser decorations. Its build has been designed to ensure robustness, longevity, reliability, and precision. Its variable inertia balance is maintained by a sturdy traversing bridge with a two-point fixation. Together with its non-magnetic silicon hairspring, the manufacture Calibre MT5400 is certified as a chronometer by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute —COSC—, with its performance going beyond the standards set by this independent institute. In fact, where COSC allows an average variation in the daily running of a watch of between -4 and +6 seconds in relation to absolute time in a single movement, Tudor insists on between -2 and +4 seconds' variation in its running when it is completely assembled. Another notable feature is that the power reserve of the manufacture Calibre MT5400 is ‘weekend-proof’; that is to say, about 70 hours, which enables the wearer to take the watch off on a Friday evening and put it back on again on Monday morning without having to reset it.
The watch is exclusively sold through Tudor Boutiques Worldwide.
Sticker Price $4,525 USD. For more info on Tudor click here.
