Bronze cases have become one of those niche but quietly growing trends in the watch world, especially in the sporty arena of divers? watches. The material is, of course, eminently suitable for timepieces that are engineered to spend much of their life submerged underwater; bronze alloys historically have been used in shipbuilding and the manufacture of diving equipment and thus have proven their maritime mettle.
Outside of its seafaring history, though, bronze has another appeal to the watch aficionado community, many of whose members are constantly on the lookout for a timepiece that stands out as uniquely their own. This metal’s ability to develop a distinctive, aged-vintage-look patina over the course of its wearing life gives each bronze-cased watch a unique relationship to its owner. All metals age, of course, but bronze ? like the proprietary aluminum-bronze alloy used in the case of the Tudor Black Bay that I review here ? is essentially made to change color. A week or so with the watch didn’t exactly give me the chance to impart much patina on it, but I eagerly accepted the chance spend some time with it nonetheless.
Design elements of the Tudor Black Bay Bronze hearken back to models from the 1950s through the 1970s.
The immediate appeal of the Tudor Black Bay Bronze ? as with pretty much all Black Bays, and most other popular models in the modern Tudor collection ? is its ability to so deftly straddle the line between retro and contempo...