We’ve covered Tudor’s Black Bay line a few times in the past—the collection is always a safe bet for finding a handsome, value-oriented dive watch—and now the Black Bay family is getting even bigger. Earlier this month, the brand released the Tudor Black Bay Pro, a totally new watch that combines the Black Bay’s iconic snowflake hands and dial layout with a new GMT function and a streamlined satin-finished stainless steel case.
The Tudor Black Bay Pro is a “tool-watch designed for professional use,” according to Tudor, and while many other Black Bay timepieces are geared toward diving, this one is built for world travelers. It features a 39mm stainless steel case with both satin and polished finishes, and it includes a GMT complication, which allows the wearer to keep track of two time zones at once. The fixed bezel is marked with 24-hour indices, and the dial has an additional yellow “snowflake” hand to indicate the current time in a second time zone. The snowflake design is a stylistic hallmark of Black Bay watches and timepieces from Tudor’s past—the design first appeared on the brand’s divers in 1969.
The black dial wears the familiar mix of triangular, rectangular, and circular hour markers found on other Black Bay models, but on the Pro, they’re made of luminous ceramic for maximum legibility. There’s also a date window at 3 o’clock, and it’s coupled with the hands indicating local time. When you set the watch to local time and pass backward through midnight, the date jumps backward, too—a unique feature that’ll certainly come in handy for travelers.
Courtesy Image
The watch is available with three bracelet options. There’s a black jacquard fabric with a yellow stripe down the middle (like other Tudor fabric straps, it’s produced on vintage French machinery), a hybrid rubber and fabric strap also in black, and a sleek stainless steel bracelet with a satin finish. The array of strap options give this watch plenty of sartorial versatility, from utilitarian to dressy.
On the inside, the Tudor Black Bay Pro is powered by a self-winding Calibre MT5652 movement, which Tudor developed in-house specifically for this model. It features a robust 70-hour power reserve (it’ll keep ticking through the weekend if you take it off on Friday), and it’s COSC-certified for accuracy. And although it isn’t a diver, it’s water resistant to 200 meters, so swimming laps at the pool or an afternoon of snorkeling isn’t out of the question, either.