Given that its purpose has shifted from its behind-enemy-lines usage by the world’s marine elite to facilitating the mid-century love for scuba sports, to its throw-on-and-forget appeal favoured by today’s city folk, you’re more likely to see a diving watch sported at the bar counter or in the hotel lobby than anywhere near the lovely waters of Byron Bay, the Great Barrier Reef or Ko Tao.
Though the military spirit once inherent to wearing the diving watch has, on the whole, been jettisoned, the timepiece’s virtues are all still there: the dial’s deep-water legibility – large hands, lumed markers – the robust construction, the intricate complexities and the novelties underpinning it all. Even if they may be superfluous for contemporary needs, such details are a celebration of craft for craft’s sake, one could say.
Of late, the horological current has brought us to the Tudor Pelagos FXD, a modern paean to the label’s historic diving watches made for the US Navy – an association that stretches back to the 1950s. Helping define this creation is a 42mm satin-brushed titanium case with fixed strap bars, which, for the purpose of hardiness, have been machined directly into the body. The matte dial is dressed with applied hour markers and angular ‘snowflake’ hands in grade X1 Swiss Super-LumiNova material. Other details take their cues from prior generations, such as the pointed crown-guards that were common on early Tudor Submariners.
For the globetrotter who’s away for large stretches of the year, the watch is ideal in that it’s weekend-proof, with a power reserve of around 70 hours. Rounding things off is the fact it’s constructed to survive 200m underwater – perfect for those who actually might exercise a bit of the daredevil within.
This feature was taken from Gentleman’s Journal’s Winter 2023 issue. Read more about it here.
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