Tudor is ushering in a new Bronze Age with this Black Bay 58 model, which is limited to boutiques and influenced by the Navy.
Tudor is one of the most popular brands in the Swiss watch industry. That’s because it offers an instantly recognizable design and high-quality craftsmanship at a much lower price than most luxury watch manufacturers. In the past ten years, it has also got rid of the shadow of its parent company, Rolex, because it is more willing to take risks in terms of materials, such as the Biwan 58 925 released earlier this year.
This allows us to see the latest release of Tudor, the Biwan 58 Bronze Boutique Edition-a brown tool watch with a unique dial, bezel and bracelet.
This is what makes this diving watch so popular, anyone who wants to invest in their first Tudor or bronze timepiece.
material world
The bronze case is interesting because as the material oxidizes, the bronze color will evolve with the wearer’s daily life. Because of this, Tudor even calls it “living” metal. This means that the fifty-eight Bronze boutique editions of Biwan are designed to be actively worn, and the Tudor team has carefully considered every aspect of the design to ensure that this watch will not end up in the box.
Black Bay is the iconic work of Tudor. This iteration retains the classic style, but uses a comfortable 39 mm bronze case. The material is a high-performance aluminum bronze alloy used in parts such as propellers in naval engineering to prevent underwater corrosion. This mixture, as well as its satin-brushed finish, helps to provide even patina development.
This case is not the only way for the Biwan 58 Bronze Premium Edition to stand out from the competition. Although Tudor’s exploration of bronzes in its collection can be traced back several years, this is the first time the brand has made bracelets entirely out of bronze.
Although the links imitate the style of Tudor bracelets in the 1950s and 1960s, the 2021 version features a novel bronze buckle, which is satin-brushed like the rest of the bracelet and case, the case has been redesigned, and the Tudor “T-fit” length quick adjustment system. This quick change system is easy to use and requires no tools, so the wearer can make fine, instant adjustments along the entire length of this 8 mm bracelet. In addition, it will produce patina at the same rate as the shell.
Before handing over the men watches cheap to the new owner, all treatments are done using gloves and according to a specific workflow, especially the waterproof test. Each watch is thoroughly dried to maintain its brand new, unpainted appearance. Therefore, once you wear it on your wrist, your signature is all you have.
make faces
This bronze model is also aesthetically interesting. Black Bay may be Tudor’s flagship model, but the brand is never afraid to play a role in the change of its main theme. In this case, the watch uses the brand’s trademark “snowflake” hands, coated with phosphorescent Super-LumiNova. But what really makes this iteration feel very different is the dome, shaded matte “brown bronze” dial, with applied hour markers and Arabic numerals at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock.
The domed dial and its concentric shadows are combined with the same golden decorations on the bezel, hands and hour markers to create a finish that changes with light. These subtle combinations of light and texture, historical references and modern interpretations make the fifty-eight Bronze boutique editions of Biwan a joy to wear.
In the introduction of the Fifty-Eight Bronze Edition of Biwan, the function is also the most important. This watch comes with a free fabric strap and is also a fashion tribute to the brand’s nautical heritage.
For decades, Tudor swiss made watches without bracelets for members of the French Navy, and then they equipped them with their own straps. One of the straps was found on an ancient diving watch and kept in the brand archives, made of elastic material recovered from French rescue parachutes. The Biwan Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition recognizes the central yellow line of this artifact on its “bronze brown” jacquard strap.
However, this version of the strap is more durable. In the 19th century, the Julien Faure company in Saint-Etienne, France, weaves jacquard looms in France. The comfort and quality of these belts are unique to Tudor.
In the house
One of the most important developments of Tudor was the introduction of an internal movement for its most important watch. An interesting fact: In 2015, North Flag was the first Tudor watch equipped with its own movement. Before that, they used ETA parts.
The self-made movement MT5400, which powers the Biwan 58 Bronze Boutique Edition, displays hours, minutes and seconds. Because it is worn daily, it is durable. It is waterproof to 200 meters (660 feet), is equipped with a silicon balance spring, and maintains a variable inertia balance through a solid cross bridge, and is fixed at two points to ensure robustness.
This year, Tudor launched the first Black Bay Ceramic movement certified by the independent Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS) as the Master Chronometer. Previously, the title was only awarded to rival Omega. The Manufacture Calibre MT5400 has also been certified by the Swiss Official Observatory Testing Society (COSC), but its performance exceeds the standards set by the independent agency.
COSC allows the average change of the watch in daily operation to be between -4 and +6 seconds. However, when fully assembled, the operating change of the MT5400 is between -2 and +4 seconds.
If you want to close the Black Bay Fifty-eight Bronze Premium Edition for a few days, another distinguishing feature of the Manufacture Calibre MT5400 is its 70-hour power reserve.
Internal mechanisms tend to push up prices, but cheap Tudor insists on its mission of making professional watches at reasonable prices by keeping prosperity to a minimum. The Manufacture Calibre MT5400 is equipped with a hollow, satin-brushed and sandblasted tungsten steel rotor. The plywood and the main board have alternating sandblasted and polished surfaces and laser decoration.