The TUDOR Chronicles; Chapter 2 - A History of TUDOR watches

Ever wondered what makes TUDOR the world-renowned luxury watch brand it is today? A quick dive into its history with us here at Jura Watches will provide you with everything you need to know about TUDOR and its incredible reputation as a manufacturer of exquisite mechanical timepieces.

In 1926 something profound happened. The founder of Rolex decided to launch a brand that would offer all the same standards of watchmaking associated with the famed industry giant but at a more affordable price. Its name would be TUDOR. Initially named “The Tudor”, the company was registered as a trademark for Wilsdorf by a watch dealer named Veuve de Philippe Hüther’. The company was completely handed over to Wilsdorf ten years later and the rose of the Tudor dynasty began appearing on the company’s dials, inscribed within a shield. In 1946 Wilsdorf officially founded the company Montres Tudor SA. During the 1940s and 50s, TUDOR watches would come to be one of the most recognised luxury watch brand in the Swiss industry.

The watches appealed to an entirely new audience compared to that of Rolex. They were much more affordable and soon took on a unique identity of their own. Interestingly, the first models released by TUDOR were available to the Australian market only. They bore a simple TUDOR signature on the dial, featuring the extended “T” that spanned the length of the word above each of the letters. Some rarer models even featured the Rolex name in the hopes of leveraging the TUDOR brand further. Rectangular or barrel-shaped, the earliest TUDOR watches appealed to dress watch wearers with their elegantly bevelled sides and classic dials.

The arrival of the TUDOR Oyster

One of the pinnacle moments in TUDOR’s history was the release of the TUDOR Oyster, which launched in 1946. The TUDOR Oyster was the brand’s first waterproof watch, borrowing the Oyster case design from its sister brand – a patented design consisting of a winding crown, caseback and bezel screwed down against a middle case. Reflecting the ideals of watch collectors at this time, the original TUDOR Oyster watch measured a discreet 34mm. In 1954, the TUDOR Oyster Prince was born and just a couple of years later was used in the British expedition to Greenland, funded and supported by the Queen and Winston Churchill. It was the turning point for the brand in being recognised as a manufacturer of rugged and robust sports watches.

To further strengthen its reputation in developing hardy wristwatches for outdoor exploration, TUDOR released a campaign to promote its watches, highlighting some of the conditions its watches had been subjected to. These included being exposed to the vibrations of a pneumatic drill for 30 hours, worn by a coal miner during 252 hours of excavation by hand, worn for a month while riveting metal girders in building construction, and time spent on the wrist of a stonecutter and a motorbike racer.

Improvements in water resistance

In 1954, the French Navy became the TUDOR’s key research and development partner, giving feedback on what worked well for its watches and what areas required improvement. The Oyster Prince Submariner was launched as a result, promising a water resistance of 100 meters – a rating that was increased four years later to 20 meters. Today, the watch is still incredibly sought-after on the pre-owned market and serves as a symbol of the brand’s vast growth and improvement during this period of its story.  The French Navy began using TUDOR watches, ordering them in bulk without bracelets and instead wearing them on military-issued straps. During this period, two iconic features were added to the TUDOR watch that collectors have come to know and love today – the oversized crown and the Snowflake hands.

The NATO trend

In 1957 TUDOR released its first alarm watch named the TUDOR Advisor. To this day, it is the only model to offer this function, with further models being added to the line between the years 1957 and 1977.

As mentioned, during the 1970s, the French Navy were wearing their TUDOR watches on NATO straps and this soon became a trend that happened across the board during the early 2000s, where it not only served as a more practical alternative to leather and metal straps when diving, but also became a stylish way to enjoy a vintage-looking dive watch. TUDOR went with this trend, producing the Heritage Chrono on a NATO strap.

The TUDOR Black Bay and Pelagos

Over the next few years, TUDOR released some important models like the Glamour and the Clair de Rose following a brand relaunch. No year could be bigger for the brand, however, than 2012, when it released the Heritage Black Bay watch. The watch was a representation of an earlier TUDOR Submariner watch. Echoing a vintage TUDOR dive watch on the wrist, the model boasted a unidirectional rotating bezel, a 200-meter water-resistant steel case, a legible dial with lume-treated accents, and the brand’s instantly recognisable snowflake hands. Enthusiasts went crazy for the watch. In the same year, TUDOR released its professional dive watch. The Pelagos was a watch crafted from titanium for a lightweight finish on the wrist and offered an impressive 500-meter water resistance. It even won the 2015 sports watch prize at the prestigious Grand Prix D'Horlogerie de Geneve.

The TUDOR Ranger and North Flag Watch

A couple of years after the release of the Black Bay and Pelagos, TUDOR launched a field watch named the Ranger with a distinct vintage flair designed closely on the original 1963 model. It was shortly followed by the release of the North Flag in 2015. It marked the first TUDOR watch to be fitted with a Manufacture movement. Not long after this, Manufacture movements were brought in across all TUDOR sports watch designs, including the Black Bay.

TUDOR Movements

As well as a growing catalogue, TUDOR has demonstrated great evolution in the field of movement manufacture. Initially, TUDOR watches were equipped with off-the-shelf movements, whilst its bracelets and cases were Rolex. Showing that the brand was strong enough to stand on its own two feet, however, TUDOR began equipping its models with independently developed movements. It is, for many enthusiasts, an important aspect of a TUDOR watch. Not just an assembler, TUDOR is a classified watchmaker, launching its first independently developed movements for the Pelagos and North Flag watches. In 2017 TUDOR entered an agreement with Breitling. The brand would supply the MT5612 for Breitling’s Superocean Heritage and in return, Breitling would produce the Calibre MT5813 for the TUDOR Heritage Chronograph. It demonstrates that whilst TUDOR is more than capable of developing movements worthy of featuring in some of the world’s most respected watches, it shows a humble attitude towards seeking the expertise of the world’s master in chronograph movements for some of its more complex models.

As TUDOR continues to evolve, it is also continually growing its most popular lines. Some of the brand’s most recent additions include an opaline version of the Black Bay GMT watch, as well as an entirely new Black Bay 54 series, which recalls some of the brand’s earliest dive watches. In addition to this, the Royal watch line continues to grow with the most recent salmon pink and chocolate dials to enjoy.

You can now view our extensive range of TUDOR watches here online at Jura Watches or arrange to try a TUDOR watch on in one of our local boutique near to you. For more information, call and speak to a member of our Jura Watches sales team today on 01335 453453.