A U.S. Navy Prototype Resurfaces: The Tudor Black Bay P01
Back in 1967, while it was a supplier of watches to the U.S. Navy, Tudor developed a prototype for a new, tactical divers’s watch, meeting a set of specifications set by the U.S. government, to replace the standard-issue Oyster Prince Submariner Ref. 7928. This prototype, code-named “Commando” never saw the light of day, as the Navy instead adopted the Tudor dive watch Ref. 7016 that superseded the discontinued Prince. After languishing in anonymity in Tudor’s archives for decades, the prototype’s design has inspired the new Black Bay P01 ? Tudor’s most-discussed new model at Baselworld 2019.
The Black Bay P01 (the initial stands for “Prototype 1”) channels many of the unusual aspects of the original “Commando,” which was envisioned as a cross between a diving watch and a sailing watch, notably the screw-down crown’s positioning at 4 o’clock on the 42-mm satin-brushed, matte-finish steel case and the hinged end-link with rotating bezel locking system ? the subject of a patent back in 1968. The modern watch borrows freely from the original design ? which was actually for a removable bezel that the owner could remove to clean the watch ? incorporating a stopping system for the bidirectional dive-scale bezel into a mobile link at 12 o’clock.
The watch, while definitely distinctive in its martial appearance, is still recognizably a Black Bay. The domed matte black dial features the “Snowflake&...
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