Tudor’s ‘Navy Blue’ Black Bay Fifty-Eight
How Tudor improves on perfection
Navy stands for gravitas, respect, formality and substance. It does not shout or scream. It is the colour of uniform, of nobility and sobriety. It is better than blue and smarter than black. George Clooney looks good in navy but so does Captain Haddock. So, reader, do you. Ask a fashion designer how to sell a jumper to men and they will tell you: make it in navy.
It makes sense then, that one of the only ways to improve on perfection — and here let’s take the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight wristwatch as our example — is to do a version in navy. Rolex’s more progressive younger brother launched its Black Bay collection in 2012, the same time it started cleaning up at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève — “the Oscars of the watch world”, for anyone who finds the Academy Awards too edgy. It hasn’t looked back since: four out of five awards have been for its Black Bay.
Blessed with sharing DNA with Rolex’s Submariner, the Fifty-Eight is a call back to sports watches of the Fifties. It is characterised by its large winding “big crown”, angular “snowflake” hands and modest 39mm dimensions. And now, with a navy dial and bezel, the colour adopted by the French military in the Seventies and known as “Tudor blue”. Arguably the best watch of its kind for the money on the market, it comes on your choice of steel bracelet, “soft touch” leather strap or a handsome fabric option made using a 100-year-old fabric-weaving technique by a family business in Saint-Étienne, France. No need to tell you the colour. ○