It’s great to be in the know isn’t it? To be ahead of the game and privy to what’s hot and what’s not. I’ve always felt that way about the Tudor brand to be honest.
I’m fully aware that a lot of people know the brand, of course they do, but I’ve always suspected that for many people Tudor is perceived as nothing more than a poor man’s Rolex. In other words they simply don’t know quite how good these watches are. This became apparent to me the first time I ever put a Tudor Ranger on my wrist. It would be futile to ignore the heritage of the Rolex Explorer in this watch, but oh my goodness, what a watch. The quality and subtle, unique design features of this incredible timepiece are testament to attention to detail and build quality invested in this superb piece. This 1966 model of the Ranger is, in my opinion, one of the finest example of a sports watch from the golden age of watchmaking. It still has that contemporary appeal you find in a great many classic watch designs (timeless in other words) and the quality of build means it’s as wearable today as it was when first manufactured 54 years ago.
This love affair with Tudor only grew stronger once I became acquainted with the Pelagos, Black Bay, the Prince, and the whole heritage range. Beautiful watches in their own right that one could appreciate wholly for the quality of the piece rather than just the name on the face. Interestingly I’ve noticed a significant rise in the value of pre owned Tudors and some of the new releases are exhibiting that rare quality found in Tudor’s sister brand of new pieces increasing in value almost at the moment of unboxing. It points to an incredibly bright future for a watch brand that was originally launched as a more avant garde version of Rolex. Today, with it’s own in house movements which are the match of any, Tudor simply can’t help itself in becoming a stand alone brand of supreme quality and reputation. Indeed its arguable the launch of the Black Bay GMT a couple of years back stole the thunder from Rolex’s own GMT launch. (It might arguably be a better watch in terms of pound for pound quality too). But in any event the brand is undergoing a serious renaissance
Incidentally this makes Tudor an absolute must when it comes to a watch collection. In terms of quality, value and long term investment, this really could be the second Age Of the Tudors!