Three Musketeers Balance The Force: Hands-on With The New Tudor Black Bay Collection For 2021
Editor’s note: Like you, we are also excited for the releases from the Watches & Wonders 2021 and today we go hands-on review with the new Tudor Black Bay collection for 2021 including the Ceramic and Fifty Eight 18K versions. For our other detailed hands-on reviews, please head to our dedicated reviews section here. Today’s watches have been photographed with the grateful assistance of J Farren-Price Sydney and Tudor Australia. Please note that none of our posts are sponsored so if you like our work, you can support us by buying us a coffee.
The Context
I never thought I would be saying this, but in an unofficial yet perfect crossover, Darth Vader befriends Yoda in Tudor’s alternate universe.
I would like to make one thing clear off the bat. When looking at a catalogue supercharged by the new Tudor Black Bay collection for 2021, one thing is evidently clear: the brand has ensured to come up with releases that rather than (lightsaber) fight each other, manage to seamlessly blend in a balanced — dark side and light co-exist — collection, brilliantly making space for all the new divers — 925, 18K and Ceramic — to have a place within the same family.
So while they are technically still all ‘dive’ watches, aesthetically they couldn’t be more different.
Compared to the gilt and navy blue BB58, these are more mainstream watches that blur the lines between a true diver and a daily driver. It’s like they are all poles apart, yet maintain the coherent Tudor DNA that seems to have stemmed from the one brain of a certain Mr Ander Ugarte (Head of Design at Tudor). Even if you look at the new 2021 chronographs and the new BB58 updates, there is a sense of uniformity in design architecture.
Snapshot Of How They All Compare
The new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic ‘Darth Vader’
- Diameter – 41mm
- Weight – 107g
- Lug-to-lug – 51.2mm
- Thickness – 15.6mm
- Lug inter-horn – 20mm
Tudor Black Bay 41mm steel models
- Diameter – 41mm
- Weight – 114g
- Lug-to-lug – 49.6mm
- Thickness – 15.6mm
- Lug inter-horn – 20mm
The new Tudor BB58 18k ‘Yoda’
- Diameter – 39mm (and 42.4mm diameter with crown)
- Weight – 100g (this for a gold watch is very impressive)
- Lug-to-lug – 48.2mm
- Thickness – 14mm with NATO
- Lug inter-horn – 20mm
The new Tudor BB58 925
- Diameter – 39mm
- Weight – 91g
- Lug-to-lug – 47.2mm
- Thickness – 13.2mm
- Lug inter-horn – 20mm
Tudor BB58 Navy Blue
- Diameter – 39mm
- Weight – 74g (with personal strap)
- Lug-to-lug – 47.2mm
- Thickness – 12.5mm
- Lug inter-horn – 20mm
The Tudor Black Bay Bronze
- Diameter – 43mm
- Weight – 114g
- Lug-to-lug – 53.0mm
- Thickness – 14.5mm
- Lug intern-horn – 23mm
And just in case you were wonderin’ how the BB58 Gilt looks like
The New Tudor Black Bay Ceramic ‘Darth Vader’
The latest drop from the brand is stealth at its best (and without compromising on the time-telling legibility). But more than that, it is a great value offering considering the ceramic material and decently decorated case-back.
The Longines HydroConquest ref. L3.784.4.56.9 in ceramic retails for a slightly lower $5’600 AUD, features a larger 43mm diameter, and also has a similar handset design and power reserve. It, however, doesn’t boast of either COSC or METAS certifications.
Now for less than 1K — ref. M79210CNU-0001 retailing for 6’440 AUD and comes with an additional strap — with the new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic ‘Darth Vader’, one gets a more iconic aesthetic, a slimmer wrist-friendly 41mm diameter, a strap change friendly 20mm lug interhorn spacing — as compared to Longines HydroConquest’s 21mm — and most importantly from a daily wear perspective, resistance to magnetic fields of 15,000 gauss.
Omega of course is the king of METAS certified watches and has been dabbling in ceramic for way longer than Rolex and Tudor, but the price difference between the two makes the Tudor Black Bay Ceramic an irresistible proposition.
The Omega Diver 300M 43.5mm Ceramic ref. 210.92.44.20.01.001 retails for $12’375, almost double the price.
Both Longines and the Omega offerings are definitely solid in their own rights, but for someone on a budget wanting a smaller diameter watch with black ceramic aesthetics — or non-steel body — and brand name familiarity will definitely find himself hard-pressed to look beyond the new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic (or the new Tudor Black Bay collection for 2021 in general).
The black and white aesthetics are very moody on the Tudor, providing exceptional legibility yet a ‘smokey’ sunburst effect. Ironically, while the time-telling legibility is great, the time-elapsed readability of the bezel is not. Under certain lighting, the markings on the bezel mostly disappear. But like I said, this is more of a daily wear watch than a professional diver.
There is one positive side-effect of this: the lume shot is crystal clear and simply stunning, providing tons of readability in the darkness.
The infill colouring of the markings on the bezel are the same colour as that of the text on the dial — Tudor logo, minute track and 2 rather than 3 lines of text at 6’o clock — proving to be subtle and in a faded grey colour.
Despite the bezel markings fading under certain lighting, the bezel happens to be my favourite aesthetic of the timepiece; it’s very fine and radiating inwardly brushing impresses me, and this complements well with the very subtle graining of the sun-ray effect on the dial.
The watch also sits well visually on my wrist, the adage ‘black is slimming’ working in its favour. Usually, 41mm for a diver is big on my nearly 16cm wrist, but the new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic ‘Darth Vader’ sits well, and visually appears to be the same dimensions as my BB58 Navy Blue.
Another feature I am taken by is the case-back treatment. When Tudor first announced display case-backs for the BB Fifty Eight range earlier this year, as novel as they are, the movement isn’t exactly decorated to haute horlogerie standards. Not only this, but the movement on the 18k version is too plain for the price, and also the movement display apertures are a bit small.
The new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic rectifies this, and quite frankly, its case-back is somewhat of a revelation. The complementary blacked-out aesthetics are welcome, the aperture size is bigger, and the black tungsten monobloc rotor is decently decorated as well. The mix of sand-blasted, satin-brushed and polished surfaces is quite appealing.
In regards to the specifications, they are the same as that of the earlier steel variations such as the existing gilt dialled and red bezel Black Bay ref. M79230R-0011 (barring the METAS certification and blacked-out treatment).
The reference ref. M79210CNU-0001 features a COSC and METAS certified manufacture movement, the calibre MT5602-1U. This 31.8mm diameter and 6.5mm thick movement features a variable inertia balance, a non-magnetic silicon balance spring, beats at the same frequency of 4Hz (28’800 A/h), comprises of 25 jewels, and offers an impressive 70-hour power reserve.
New calibre MT5602-1U 
Existing calibre MT5602
The New Tudor Black Bay Fifty Eight 18K ‘Yoda’
By the inclusion of a vibrant green — as compared to the Harrods’ BB — with a gold body and then the adding display case-back to the mix, Tudor has decidedly chosen to be different. Sure it can be polarising, but that is exactly the point.
The green is more olive married to khaki in person, and while the Tudor ‘Darth Vader’ is winter, the Tudor ‘Yoda’ is summer.
In regards to the case body, the 18K version is very similar to the Black Bay Bronze (when new without patina). The gold is very subdued, not blingy and is more classy than what one would conjure up an image about a gold diver.
L – Bronze, R – 18K 
L – Bronze, R – 18K
Personally, I like the very noticeable graininess of the dial texture. The use of gold accents on the dial further enhances the elegant feel, making the new Tudor Black Bay Fifty Eight 18K a must-have for anyone wanting a subtle gold diver.
In regards to the specifications, they read the same as the BB 925.
The reference 79018V retails for 22’880 AUD and features a COSC-certified manufacture movement, the calibre MT5400. This larger 30.3mm diameter and 5mm thick movement — as compared to the 26mm diameter and 4.99mm thick calibre MT5402 of the BB58 Navy — features a variable inertia balance, a non-magnetic silicon balance spring, and the same materials and decoration on the rotor. It beats at the same frequency of 4Hz (28’800 A/h), comprises the same 27 jewels, and offers the same impressive 70-hour power reserve.
The watch like the rest of the new Tudor Black Bay collection for 2021 is obviously 200m water-resistant and comes with a five-year transferable guarantee with no registration or periodic maintenance checks required.
Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno
Over the last decade or so Tudor has slowly become a force to reckon with. The price segment it is currently ruling has suddenly expanded its footprint, with the brand now offering options from only 4’580 AUD all the way up to 22’880 AUD.
We went hands-on with the new Tudor Black Bay Fifty Eight 925 earlier, and today we are looking at the new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic and Fifty Eight 18K. We also recently went hands-on with the BB58 Navy Blue and BB Bronze here and here.
The new 2021 three musketeers are strikingly different from the previous releases, and it is here that Tudor’s 2021 releases score the most: the ability to present something very unique — 925 is the first all silver diver, 18K the first all gold and Ceramic the perfect non-steel 41mm diver buddy for the Bronze — with a reminiscent kind of charm.
‘Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno’ is a Latin phrase meaning ‘One for all, all for one’. Its French version was made famous by ‘The Three Musketeers’ novel. As a side note, it is also Switzerland’s unofficial motto. Call it coincidence or sheer accidental magic, but Tudor being a Swiss brand just adds more flavour.
The phrase in the book means that even though all three Musketeers have their own individuality, when it comes to being loyal to each other, they work as a team.
In the same vein, the new 2021 Black Bay family releases — 925, 18K, Ceramic, and chronographs — may all be very different in aesthetics, but present a unified front when it comes to appreciating the expanded Tudor Black Bay universe.
Simply put, the Three Musketeers balance the force.
This diversity within a unified collection is definitely praiseworthy, and it is thanks to this, the Tudor’s 2020 and 2021 offerings lead the market.
Individually, the BB58 925 offers the hypnotising contrast of white indices against the cold taupe; the new Fifty-Eight 18K is an understated premium offering, and the new Tudor Black Bay Ceramic is in the reviewer’s opinion one of the best luxury value for money divers today.
That’s All Folks!
I guess it’s only right to wrap this review up with a quote from Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers: “The merit of all things lies in their difficulty”.
The new Tudor Black Bay collection for 2021 charms as a complete package, the merit of which lies in making the rather difficult task of purpose-built dive watches from off-beaten materials like silver, gold (and ceramic) appealing and mainstream.
To find out more about the new Tudor Black Bay collection for 2021 and other Tudor watches, please head to their website here or visit their authorised retailer J Farren-Price Sydney at 80 Castlereagh St, Sydney (02 9231 3299). All images unless otherwise specified are ©Watch Ya Gonna Do About It. Make sure to check out our reviews of other Watches & Wonders 2021 releases here.
