Vintage Tudor: a watch brand now emerging from the shadows

Many readers will know that I used to collect vintage watches. Some of my favourites were those made by Tudor. Until recently, Tudor were seen by some as a sort of poor man's Rolex, but this was an unfair and inaccurate description. Below I show three watches that were once part of my collection but have, very sadly, since been sold.

L-R: 'Snowflake' Submariner, 'Big Block' chronograph and French Navy issued MN Submariner - Image (c) Grey Fox

At the time these were made (the seventies), Tudor watches such as these were cased in Rolex cases and the crowns (winders) and case backs were embossed with the Rolex name and logo. Rolex was proud of its sister brand. The main difference in quality (and therefore price) was the movement. While Rolex manufactured their own movements for their watches, Tudor used off-the-peg Swiss movements from ETA, adapting them for their products. 

This difference didn't adversely affect their durability and accuracy, as I found when wearing these vintage pieces. The watches above were made to the highest quality and, while they were sold at lower prices than Rolex equivalents, the Tudors were well-made watches in their own right.

Much-missed: a Tudor Submariner 9411 with snowflake hands from 1977

Towards the of the last century, Tudor went off track and made some frankly unattractive watches. However, in the last few years they've re-found their roots. The use of its traditional 'snowflake' hands (with a squared end to the hour hand; see the vintage watch top left and the modern ones below), a design never used by Rolex, shows that the modern Tudor has rediscovered the design values of earlier watches. On the whole, modern Tudor watches are good-looking and well-proportioned.

Tudor have now created their own in-house movement, sealing, for me, their position as an independent watchmaker with a proven heritage. Below I show some of my favourites from their present collection from which you will see the heritage influences. They are also accepting the trend towards the slightly smaller watch. The 36mm Tudor Heritage Black Bay 36 (bottom row centre below) is an attractive watch, although I'd like to have seen the snowflake hour hand scaled down a bit to fit the smaller dial.

For more information on these watches, see Tudor's informative website. Prices are very competitive with other luxury watch brands.

Modern Tudor watches

This post is unsponsored and was written independently of Tudor with whom I have had no contact about this piece. All views are my own. The content and images (except in the final image immediately above) are copyright David Evans/Grey Fox. I welcome commissions and paid collaborations to help me run this blog.