The stars have aligned at Baselworld this year with news of Tudor‘s latest Black Bay Chronograph Ref. 79350 coming in as a collaboration between fellow Swiss watchmaker, Breitling.
The news broke via Hodinkee who revealed that the new column-wheel chronograph caliber MT5813 housed inside the Black Bay Chronograph was developed with Breitling and based off the basic architecture of the its B01 chronograph movement. It may be a surprise to see such a partnership come to fruition in such an attractive piece but it’s also important to note that this was no overnight affair.
The Tudor/Breitling collaboration was set in motion a few years ago when Tudor showed an interest in creating a modern, robust, and reliable chronograph caliber that it could offer to customers at an affordable price point. This brought them to Breitling’s B01 movement which would eventually be modified with a Tudor oscillating weight alongside the watchmaker’s own finishing touches and silicon balance spring.
On the black watch face sits two chronograph counters with one being a 45-minute counter and the other a small seconds counter. A date window is found at the 6 o’clcok mark. The movement is housed within a 41mm steel case with a polished satin finish. Complementing the chronograph aesthetics beautifully is a fixed steel bezel with a black engraved tachymetric scale. A domed sapphire crystal sets this Tudor apart nicely from others in the 2017 collection.
On the practicality front the watch features 200m water resistance and a power reserve of 70 hours. The straps available include a rivet style steel bracelet, a brown leather strap or a denim style jacquard woven strap which is included in the box for either of the two.
The steel bracelet model will retail for CHF 4,800 whilst the leather strap model will retail for CHF 4,500. Expect to see the Tudor Black Bay Chronograph released mid-year.
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