Rome wasn?t built in a day ? and neither was Rolex, Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre and other watch manufacturers praised for their vertical integration and lauded for their array of in-house calibers. While we all applaud the handful of brands that bring new and increasingly complicated calibers to market virtually every year, we also should take note of other brands, many of them smaller, independently owned, or known throughout their history more for outsourcing their movements, that are taking a more incremental approach. In this series of articles, we look at five brands ? three Swiss, two German ? that are taking it slow and steady. This week, we explore the development of manufacture movements at Rolex-owned Tudor Watch Co.
Tudor’s first in-house movement, Caliber MT5621 (above), made its debut in the Tudor North Flag models (below).
For much of its existence, Tudor had been regarded by most timepiece aficionados as the little brother of watch-industry giant Rolex, and its watches had mostly reflected that in both their derivative designs and their use of outsourced movements. Since its much-ballyhooed return to the United States market in 2013 after an absence of nearly 10 years, however, Tudor has established a look and identity that is more distinctly its own. And when the subsidiary company made the inevitable decision to seek out more vertical integration in its movement-making, it did not do what many would have expected ?i.e., turn to Rolex, rather tha...