This article was originally published in the July/August 2022 Issue of the WatchTime print magazine. Photos by Marcus Krüger.

Tudor has revived its tradition as a supplier to French Navy combat swimmers with a tool watch that incorporates historical design elements while meeting the elite unit?s modern specifications for a navigation instrument.

Since 1960, Tudor has been supplying watches to the combat swimmers of the French Navy, the Marine Nationale. The first models were similar in style to the Rolex Submariner, but since 1974, Tudor?s own design has been used, with the iconic ?snowflake? hands and rectangular markers. Shortly thereafter, Tudor changed the black dial to a much more UV-resistant blue color. While the civilian versions usually came with a steel bracelet, the French marines? watches were supplied without a strap or a bracelet; the military forces provided a textile strap. The caseback was engraved with ?M.N.? for Marine Nationale and the year the watch was made. These watches were supplied to the Navy until the 1980s ? to the Commando Hubert, their elite combat swimmer unit, to be exact.
The new Tudor Pelagos FXD, our test watch, not only has returned to historical design elements like the blue hue and traditional dial layout, it also has renewed its collaboration with the Marine Nationale combat swimmers. In fact, its design and features were created according to the professional requirements of the elite French ?Nageurs de combat? units.

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