Tudor Black Bay Ceramic Blue watch is built tough — for F1 drivers

This year marks a decade since Britain’s Tudor revival – not in the sense that we all went back to wearing neck ruffs, beheading our wives and dancing to Greensleeves, but in the return of the Tudor watch brand to availability in the UK (and in several other markets) after an absence of more than 11 years.

For those who don’t know their Tudor history, the maker’s heritage can be traced back to 1926 when Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf hit on the idea of launching a dial name offering watches with a similar standard of dependability to Rolex but at a more affordable price.

But it wasn’t until the 1950s that Tudor began to gain traction through its waterproof Oyster and Oyster Prince models, which proved to be every bit as tough as the Rolex pieces from which they were derived – notably when used as official equipment for gruelling missions such as the 1952-54 British North Greenland Expedition.

Indeed, period advertising focused on the strength of Tudor products, showing them being used by suitable ‘blue collar’ types such as motorcyclists, riveters and roadmenders.

“If your aspirations are higher than your bank balance,” ran the text, “go to your nearest Rolex jeweller. Ask to see the beautiful new Tudor Oyster Prince, in stainless steel with matching expanding bracelet.”

By the 1960s the robustness of Tudor watches led to the introduction of the shield symbol, with chronograph models designed to appeal to sporting drivers being launched at the start of the 1970s.

The Tudor name had, however, been virtually forgotten in the west by the 1990s, and gradually ceased to exist in several key markets – even pulling out of the US in 1995. A decade later, 98% of the brand’s business was done in China where it has had a presence since the 1960s.

Following the 2014 relaunch, Tudor watches are now available in around 150 outlets in the UK alone and the brand has developed a cult following for both its current and vintage pieces, with the hero models in its modern line-up being from the Black Bay range – one of the latest additions to which is the Black Bay Ceramic ‘Blue’.

The watch was originally launched to mark the announcement of Tudor’s sponsorship of the Visa Cash App RB F1 team, hence the use of the blue livery on the dial. Now, versions of the watches worn by Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda are available for all to buy and, in typical Tudor style, they are built decidedly tough.

A virtually scratch-proof, 41mm black ceramic case contains a self-winding movement built by Kenissi (a manufacturing facility largely owned by the brand) which is both certified by COSC (the Swiss chronometer testing institute) and METAS (Federal Institute of Metrology).

The latter attests to both the cased mechanism’s accuracy and the fact that it’s capable of resisting magnetic forces up to 15,000 Gauss, is waterproof to 200m and has an autonomous power reserve of at least 70 hours.

Tudor Black Bay Ceramic ‘Blue’, £4420. tudorwatch.com