Watch Of The Month: Tudor Black Bay Bronze

Simple, traditional, sporty, the Tudor Heritage Black Bay collection of timepieces from the charmed Genevan watch maker has proven a winning formula for timepiece lovers all over the world. This year’s updates to the Heritage Black Bay collection include two thrilling pieces of news for collectors, including the fact that new Tudor Black Bay watches will include in-house made Tudor movements, as well as the release of the larger-sized, bronze case Tudor Black Bay Bronze reference 79250BM.

Compared to the steel-cased versions of the Heritage Black Bay that are 41mm, the Black Bay Bronze case is 43mm. This detail changes the wearing experience, making the Bronze model not only bolder, but also appealing to people with even larger wrists. Tudor retained the classically inspired case design produced at their famously meticulous manufacture location – which arguably produces the best watch case quality for the money.

Powering the new Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze is the in-house made caliber MT5601 movement with 70 hours of power reserve.

Bronze is a curious material for a timepiece. It is trendy for sure, and has an appeal similar to that of a comfortable, distressed t-shirt. In some ways bronze is an anti-luxury, luxury watch case material because its goldish tone is not celebrated for its polish and sheen, but rather its tendency to patina over time, aging gracefully like an old ship’s instrument. With that said, those who have experienced bronze watches before will appreciate that in Tudor’s detailed fashion, the brand opted for a particular type of aluminum-bronze alloy, as well as special finishing on the case, to ensure that the bronze ages evenly with a pleasant brown hue, and without the spotting which emerges on other bronze-cased timepieces.

Tudor has borrowed from its own history of military-style watches in designing the dial of the Black Bay Bronze, which Arabic number hour markers at the quarters, unlike the more conventional baton-and-circle hour markers on the other Black Bay watch dials. Fashionably matching the bronze case is a “root beer” colored dial and matching insert on the rotating diver’s style bezel. The case, retro-sporty by design, is water resistant to 200 meters.

Tudor offers two strap versions with the Black Bay Bronze that include a distressed leather strap as well as a fabric style reminiscent of “home-made” straps members of some European military forces fashioned from parachute webbing for their own Tudor watches in the mid-20th century.

Inside is a new in-house movement, in contrast to the Swiss ETA movements in previous generation Black Bay models. Powering the timepiece is the Tudor caliber MT5601, a thoroughly modern 4Hz automatic movement with 70 hours of power reserve and a silicon balance spring, features that promise more stable timekeeping in the long term. Each movement is COSC Chronometer certified, and is helps take an already desirable collection of timepieces to an exciting new level of value for all forms of watch collectors as it completes the Tudor brand experience both inside and outside the case.