Umfragen » Tudor Black Bay GMT

All it takes is a new dial to make the Black Bay GMT work on its own After years of being in the shadow of its big brother, the Rolex GMT-Master, the Tudor is finally stepping into the spotlight.

Tudor Black Bay GMT has been laughing at me for years.

I've been waiting for a call from the Rolex Pepsi - the modern iteration of the Referee. When I started picking up watches in 1675, I fell in love - for years. I remember walking into the RRL store in SoHo and seeing that watch in a case. I tried it on and at that moment felt like I was wearing the most valuable watch in the world. Since then, that's all I want.

Shortly after I bought my Black Bay 58 and got my name inscribed for a Rolex Pepsi - hopeful I knew - the wait started dragging on and the Black Bay GMT was calling my name.

It's there, ready for me. "There's no waiting," it says, "you can have the iconic Pepsi bezel and Flyer GMT you've always wanted." I'm all for making watches affordable for someone like me who can barely afford Rolex prices, and I think Tudor It's been a while since enough has been done to stand on its own merits, but Black Bay GMT has always left me torn between joining and feeling left out.

Granted, it doesn't have a ceramic bezel - oops, maybe it's better - but for someone who's long dreamed of a Rolex, I fear looking at it on my wrist I'll see a Black Bay GMT reminder I want but don't" Qualification" owns something. It's aesthetically very similar to what I want, from its little brother brand to the boots, but I can't make it.

That changed today. Yes, it's just a new dial, but in my opinion, you can't look at it now and think that the Tudor Black Bay GMT is finally not its own watch.

It's also what the Tudors do best: paying homage to history and fans. As Tony mentioned in his introduction, this new "creamy" dial is a callback to the fabulous (and dubiously authentic) "albino" Rolex GMT-Master Reference 6542. The debate about their originality continues - even John Goldberg called it a "difficulty" when I asked him today - but I've heard that there are records of these white dial GMTs in Rolex's archives . The Tudors may have fanned the debate again, but perhaps the issue of historical accuracy doesn't matter in the end.

There is no doubt that at least one core white dial GMT version (not counting the meteorite dial in the Rolex collection) from one of Hans Wilsdorf's predecessor companies is authentic. And - as much as I hate to use this cliché - it's better in metal than in pictures.

Well, maybe not in the normal way for the better. But it's really different.

The morning of the announcement, the mood in Hodinkee's "war room" was one of surprising dials, but a little bland in the pictures. In a way, this isn't entirely wrong. It’s a flat white dial, and most of the contrast comes from the text, but it’s somehow a unique interpretation of the white dial’s design language. In fact, when I think of my favorite white-dial watches, they all gravitate toward a white theme (like many of Grand Seiko's offerings) or a contrasting panda dial. Here, in the Tudor and Rolex collections, if not in every watch in the industry, you'll have something that stands out - albeit anachronistically. Of course, it’s not the polar Rolex Explorer that everyone overconfidently sees (Rolex has given us something wilder). but it'

I'm not going to take my word for it when it comes to the technical specifications of the watch. In the context of Black Bay GMT, this is not surprising. You get the same 41mm case (not the 39mm one would hope for), the same manufacture caliber MT5652 COSC certified movement. For some, this may be a red flag. A common problem whenever Black Bay GMT is mentioned is that the date wheel is not working properly. I don't have one of my own, so I don't know how common these problems might be, so I sympathize with the fact that it sounds like a lot of people have this problem. But I also believe that Tudor didn't launch the new Black Bay GMT more than being confident that their movement is working as intended.

So yes, my thesis is that one dial makes all the difference. I hate this. To be honest, the redialing of an existing model makes it hard for me to write about it excitedly. Perhaps this is because the watch is self-referential. Maybe because it's a nerdy nod to history. But maybe, this is what you've been looking for.

I can say with certainty that at least the Tudor Black Bay GMT is now more visible than ever, even when standing alongside its own siblings. That's exactly what it needs.