Launched in 2018 as a new addition to the Tudor Black Bay family, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight harks back to the first Tudor diving watch waterproof to 200m (660ft), introduced in 1958 with the reference number 7924. Among other aesthetic nods to the historic watch, the modern Black Bay Fifty-Eight offers a 39mm case in keeping with the characteristic proportions of the 1950s, making it ideal for vintage enthusiasts and those with a penchant for slim and compact watches.
This year, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight carries on with the long Tudor tradition of blue sports watches with the release of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue. The colour scheme made its debut in 1969 on the dial and bezel of a Tudor diving watch and has since adorned other sports watches in the collection, immediately creating a lasting aesthetic hallmark now known as “Tudor Blue.” Adopted by the French navy for its Tudor diving watches during the 1970s, this livery became part of the collective imagination. The Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue follows in this tradition with its navy blue dial and bezel insert.
The iconic blue is also the dominant colour of the fabric strap offered with the new Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue. This fabric strap is another hallmark of Tudor, which, in 2010, became one of the very first watch 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. With the new Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue, Tudor marks its 10-year partnership with the 150-year-old artisan company that started with the launch of the Heritage Chrono.
Powered by the Manufacture Calibre MT5402, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue displays the hour, minute and second. The movement has the finish typical of Tudor Manufacture calibres, with its rotor in openwork tungsten monobloc, satin-brushed with sand-blasted details, and its bridges and main-plate decorated with sand-blasted, polished surfaces and laser motif.
The movement is designed to ensure robustness, longevity, reliability and precision, as is its variable inertia balance, which is maintained by a sturdy traversing bridge with a two-point fixation. Together with its non-magnetic silicon hairspring, the calibre is chronometer-certified 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 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 applies a tolerance of between -2 and +4 seconds’ variation in its daily rate on the watch fully assembled.
Another notable feature is that the power reserve 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 wind and reset it.
Like other models in the Black Bay range, the Black Bay Fifty-Eight “Navy Blue” adopts Tudor’s characteristic angular
hands known as “Snowflake” that appeared in the brand’s 1969 catalogue. The result of a subtle blend of traditional aesthetics and contemporary watchmaking, the Black Bay line is far from offering identical rereleases of classics. Resolutely anchored in the present, it brings together close to seven decades of Tudor diving watches. Whilst it is neo-vintage in style, its construction and its robustness, reliability, durability and precision as well as the quality of its finishing are above current industry standards.