FUNKE OSAE-BROWN, Baselworld, Switzerland
Tudor New Legendary Black Bay P01 Is Wow at the 2019 edition of Baselworld. In addition to Rolex and TAG Heuer who have wowed the audience with their latest collections at the Baselworld, Tudor too has done the unbelievable.
After its popular Black Bay GMT released in 2018, which won a T3 Award), there was a lot of pressure on Tudor to do something rare again this year.
With the Black Bay P01, a watch based on a legendary prototype developed in the late 1960s and proposed to the US Navy, Tudor has reinforce its stances to revolutionise the watch industry.
Going a bit back to history, in 1967, Tudor started the development of a technical model to replace the Oyster Prince Submariner 7928 reference, which was standard-issue for the US Navy at that time.
This new watch needed to meet a set of specifications decreed by the American government and incorporated the results of the latest research into functionality and ergonomics carried out by the brand’s engineers.
A development phase was launched which ended in the production of prototypes, as well as a patent for a hitherto unseen function. This ambitious project, with the code name “Commando”, never came to fruition as the regular Tudor divers’ watch, reference 7016, was eventually adopted by the US Navy.
This year, the Tudor Black Bay P01(which stands for Prototype 1) is inspired by a prototype developed as part of this study and kept in the brand’s archives.
The Black Bay P01 is waterproof to 200 metres and features hours, minutes, seconds and date functions.
It is fitted with a domed matt-black dial with painted luminescent hour markers. Respecting the utilitarian aesthetic of the prototype that inspired it, the case is entirely satin-brushed for a matt finish.
Inside the P01 is Tudor’s Manufacture Calibre MT5612, which is certified as a chronometer by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) and has a 70-hour power reserve.
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