POLAR VORTEX

Can the Tudor Black Bay Pro be more than an homage?

- Zen Love

— Tudor newness this year included novel model families and substantive updates. But what was first to catch the eye? A new dial colour. Yes, the familiar Black Bay Pro GMT watch now features an opaline ‘Polar’ dial option in addition to the existing black one, a basic cosmetic iteration without any other change. End of story? Far from it.

Enthusiasm for this seemingly minor update goes to show that it’s the complete package that matters, but this new version isn’t lacking in context or talking points, either. This is no review of a dial. Living with the Black Bay Pro for a time was a chance to evaluate the model itself as well as to specifically consider this compelling variant.

Explorations

There's a world in which something like the Tudor Black Bay Pro stands on its own—in which it’s just an exceptionally handsome and well-built tool watch, without contextual references that cause watch nerds to debate themselves into knots. Hypothetically, at least.

Evaluating a watch purely on its own traits and merits is a nice idea. But, in this case, that would leave a Rolex-sized elephant in the room. Without the Rolex Explorer II, there would be no Tudor Black Bay Pro. Its corporate sibling, the almighty Rolex, is an essential part of Tudor’s appeal for many and is fundamental to understanding exactly what any Tudor product presents. So, first, a little background.

Every Tudor watch has a balancing act to perform. It inevitably has to leverage the brand’s legitimate connection to Rolex while remaining sufficiently distinct in terms of design and positioning. The brand generally pulls this off expertly.