Tudor Black Bay watches

The Tudor Black Bay is the brand's heritage dive watch, launched in 2012 as the 41 mm reference 79220R with a burgundy bezel. It borrows from Tudor's first Submariners, the 7922 of 1954 and the 7924 of 1958, and the 79220 reference number is a tribute to the 7922. The squared-off hour hand is Tudor's snowflake, which first appeared on the Submariner 7016 in 1969.

The first Black Bays ran on the ETA 2824. In 2016 the 79230 generation moved to Tudor's own calibre MT5602, a chronometer-certified automatic with a silicon hairspring and a 70-hour power reserve. So the black 79230N, blue 79230B and burgundy 79230R are the manufacture successors of the ETA-powered 79220N, 79220B and 79220R. The Black Bay Ceramic (79210CNU) of 2021 went a step further: a monobloc ceramic case and METAS Master Chronometer certification.

From there the family spread out. The Fifty-Eight of 2018 brings the case down to 39 mm and 11.9 mm thick around the smaller MT5402, and also comes in 925 silver (79010SG), 18k yellow gold (79018V) and boutique-only bronze (79012M). The Bronze 79250 goes the other way, at 43 mm. The GMT (79830RB) adds a red-and-blue Pepsi 24-hour bezel and calibre MT5652; the Pro (79470) puts the same calibre in a 39 mm case with a fixed 24-hour bezel. The Chronograph swaps the dive bezel for a tachymeter and comes with panda and inverted-panda dials, and the S&G versions mix steel with yellow gold. The P01 (70150) is the outlier, based on a 1960s prototype for the US Navy, with a 12-hour bezel.

Not every Black Bay is a diver. The Black Bay 32, 36 and 41 and the S&G Black Bay 31 and 39 have no dive bezel and come in steel or steel and yellow gold, some S&G versions with diamond-set bezels. Tudor has also made one-off pieces for Only Watch, such as the 7923/001 of 2015.