Tudor’s history of producing diving watches can be traced back to the Fifties with the release of the reference 7922, one of the first watches to be created specifically for diving. It was immediately recognised as a tool with long-term potential and Tudor’s robust sports watches became the instrument of choice for the French navy’s combat swimmers.
The Black Bay Fifty-Eight builds on this history. The navy blue – marking the first all-blue Black Bay – is the same shade which has appeared in the brand’s designs since the Sixties. ‘The general features of this model reference the famous 7924 model, the first Tudor watch waterproof to 200m introduced in 1958 – hence the name,’ a brand spokesperson tells us. ‘This new model is a great example of the Tudor design philosophy, taking inspiration from various classical models and reinterpreting them as a modern timepiece rather than recreating the vintage watches identically.’
At 39mm, the proportions of the watch stay faithful to the slender measurements more common in the Fifties, when a watch was designed to slip unobtrusively under a shirt cuff, striking a balance between elegance and – crucially for a divers watch – legibility. Other design tweaks are more contemporary; alongside a steel bracelet and the fabric strap first introduced in 2010 comes a new ‘soft-touch’ strap, made from a synthetic flannel replica. §
