Tudor Black Bay 41mm Review
Buckle up as we do a detailed analysis of the new Tudor Black Bay.
Tudor Black Bay 41mm Review
It looks and feels like a proper dive watch. However, its water resistance rating of just 200m/660ft only makes it suitable for some light snorkeling, swimming, or showering (in cold water only). Most people that are diving professionally wouldn’t consider the Black Bay as a viable option there are many other watches that have the same dive watch look and feel but also offer the type of water resistance needed for the adventure.
Are Tudor Black Bay watches any good? Let’s look at the many reasons that this is an amazing watch. In case you weren’t aware, Tudor is owned by Rolex or the other way around actually so you better expect good quality. This is also most likely why you can find stylistic resemblances between the two brands. The sharing doesn’t end with the aesthetics. In fact, Tudor uses some great in-house movements and this Black Bay has an excellent one at that.
As for the larger-sized case, the point is that a larger-sized case was in high demand with the growing trend of larger watch designs for men and women. The new larger version is a huge improvement from the previous 36mm Tudor Black Bay which ran on an ETA 2824 automatic movement. While the ETA 2824 caliber was reliable, it was limited to operate only 38-hrs on a full wind.
This day, the Tudor Black Bay 41 is powered by Tudor’s self-winding caliber MT5612: a 26-jewel movement that uses some high-end components in it such as a silicon balance spring to fight magnetic interference and incorporates a variable inertia oscillator to keep the time more accurately.
This in-house movement is a COSC certified Chronometer and has an impressive power reserve of about 70 hours and oscillates at a rate of 28,800 VPH (vibrations per hour).
The case uses a combination of a brushed finishing on the lugs and top of the case and case back, and polished finishing on the side of the case and crown. The crown has an engraving of the Tudor rose and has a crown tube that uses the accent color of the design. The watch below shows it in the same crimson red as the bezel topped with a sapphire crystal. The unidirectional rotating bezel features a luminous dot at the start position of the aluminum bezel ring.
Is a Tudor Black Bay a good investment? In general, no watch should ever be looked at as some kind of investment that is designed to go up in value. They are consumer products and these typically decrease in value over time. Especially if you have worn it for the first time. The rare occasions where a watch's value appreciates is so few and far between that in most cases with very few exceptions, they simply not be expected to increase in value.
There are a variety of models in the Black Bay series with different color and material options. Some models have a stainless steel bracelet, some have two-tone bracelets, while others have a leather strap or fabric (NATO) straps. Overall, this collection has become quite popular, and so much so that it has given birth to a chronograph version as well.
The case and dials of the various watch models offer subtle but tasteful differences in color and material. There are models that use red bezels, black bezels, and some with blue bezels.
Considering the success of this series, Tudor will most likely introduce other colors in the future as they’ve done in the past. For now, almost every model has a black dial with few exceptions such as the two-tone bracelet that has a champagne dial.
The dial layout is very distinctive. It uses a combination of round and index hour markers which contain a luminous material for low light visibility. The hour marker at the 12 o'clock position is shaped like a downward elongated triangle. Around the perimeter of the dial, you will notice a printed minutes and seconds track.
This Tudor Black Bay uses polished hands. The signature snowflake-style hour hands hold lots of luminescent material making it very visible in the dark.
One last noticeable thing about this watch is the buckle used on the NATO straps. It has an exquisite brushed finish and a double grooved shaped clasp to match the top of the Tudor logo (see below). As with a great design, the devil is in the details. The price for watches in this collection starts at around $3,475 but are subject to change.
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