Few brands generate as much buzz as does Tudor these days with new releases from its vintage-inspired dive watch collections ? as witness the excitement over this year’s launches of the Black Bay Chronograph and Black Bay Ceramic. The latest, hailing from the Rolex-owned watchmaker?s Pelagos family, is an unusual, military-grade watch purpose-built for the French Navy, aka the Marine Nationale. Here’s what you need to know about the Tudor Pelagos FXD.

The watch’s “FXD” moniker is derived from the extra robust (?FiXeD?) strap bars of its case, which are a feature developed in direct collaboration with the Marine Nationale to suit its members’ needs. This element notably distinguishes the watch not only from other Tudor dive watches, but also from essentially every other watch currently on the market, as it secures the watch only to single-pass straps such as NATOs. In addition to the unique lugs, the French Navy advised on other technical details as well, including the use of the ever-ready Pelagos base design and blue colorway, the extra-large bezel with bright lume, and the unusual (for a dive watch) bidirectional functionality of said bezel, designed to assist in the military branch?s specialized work.
The familiar Pelagos case measures 42 mm in diameter by 12.7 mm thick, here in titanium with satin-brushed finishing, its style influenced by historical Tudor dive watches such as the Submariner, which was originally prefe...