but it’s the simple gesture of moving the winding crown which has traditional always been positioned on the right of the case to the left that makes a special watch just that little bit more special. What do you think? Do you subscribe to this opinion or is this just another way of selling more of the same watches.
TUDOR is now offering the PELAGOS in a left-handed version, called the Pelagos LHD or Left Hand Drive. I like that, straight to the point, a pretty cool name. So, with its winding stem now on the left of the case, it can be worn on the right wrist, or indeed on the left. Historically, Tudor had already produced divers of this type at the specific request of diving professionals, such as the French Navy.
Dive watches that are intended to be worn especially on the right wrist, require specific ergonomic design. We’ve seen particularly Italian brands like Panerai releasing ‘destro’ (left-handed) versions of their dive watches for collectors. We do like them, and I think this is what makes Tudor (in my opinion) one of the savviest big brands that there are – they know what we like.
Okay, so it isn’t only the special crown position that has been given to the new Pelagos LHD, but its dial has also been reworked with beige luminescent markings and the name PELAGOS now in red at 6 o’clock. The date disc is also in beige and comes in a new design, with its numbers displayed in alternate colors: the even days are displayed in red while the odd days are in black.
This design detail has been nicknamed roulette-style by collectors. Something that is especially characteristic of earlier TUDOR dive watches are their snowflake hands that first appeared on Ref. 7021 from 1969 - all Pelagos models are equipped with these. Following the historic theme is the unidirectional rotatable divers bezel in ceramic, this now has beige luminescent markings to match those of the dial.
Titanium has been used for the case and bracelet of the TUDOR Pelagos. Light and only 60% of the weight of Stainless steel for the same volume, it is also very resistant to the corrosion caused by seawater.
The water-resistance of the Pelagos model is guaranteed up to 500 meters and has been systematically tested to 125% of its capacity, that is, to 625 meters. This has been coupled with an automatic Helium Escape Valve – I anin’t gonna bang on about it, it’s only useful to SAT divers but to the rest of mere mortals it’s just a nice feature.
Powering the Pelagos LHD is an MT5612-LHD TUDOR manufactured movement developed specifically for It displays hours, minutes and seconds functions. TUDOR announced its first mechanical movement to have been developed, manufactured and assembled in-house in 2015.
Specifications of the MT5612-LHD include: a 70-hour power reserve and a frequency of 28,800 beats/ hour or 4 Hz, regulated by a variable inertia oscillator with a silicon balance spring and held in place by a traversing bridge.
It is also certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) in positions in which it is worn with the winding stem on the left. You can’t see it and you probably never will, but the MT5612-LHD has matt sand-blasted finished, machine-tooled with a sunray finish.
Finally, the Pelagos LHD boasts a Titanium bracelet with a steel folding clasp equipped with a sprung self-adjustment mechanism developed and patented by TUDOR.
This clever system enables the automatic adjustment of the bracelet when diving, by contracting when the divers wetsuit is subjected to compression at depth, thus reducing thickness, and conversely, by expanding when the pressure lessens as the diver comes back up again. An additional black rubber divers strap with a diver extension link so that the watch can be worn with all both wet and dry suits is also included.
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