TUDOR Black Bay CERAMIC

This is the new Black Bay Ceramic and it’s all the Black Bay you’ll ever need – or is it?

As if in response to this year’s early Black Bay offerings, the Black Bay 18K and its sibling the Black Bay 925; 

both of which possessed all the aesthetic charm you could ever hope to find in a new Black Bay but alas (owing to their precious metals construction) none of the practicality expected of a diver’s watch, even from a heritage model.

Tudor has now launched the new Black Bay Ceramic model; a watch that clearly illustrates not only how versatile the Black Bay platform is but just how modern a Black Bay can be bringing into the 2020s. For starters that watch gets a lovely matt black monobloc ceramic case with a utilitarian sand-blasted finish and mirror-polished beveled edges for a nice bit of contrast Btw the inlay of its rotatable diver’s bezel is naturally also made from black ceramic but with a sunray satin finish and an engraved dive-time scale in matching tones which are said to respond subtly to changes in light –woo! Meanwhile its dial has a trendy black on black style, meaning that the only contrast comes from its applied hour markers which are with an off-white luminescent material. The BB’s new ceramic case houses an equally impressive engine, Tudor’s in-house movement, the Manufacture Calibre MT5602-1U which boasts a Master Chronometer certification from METAS. Features of the MT5602-1U include: an Si (silicon) hairspring and a 70-hours of power reserve. The movement has be executed entirely in black, Its rotor in black tungsten monobloc is openwork and satin-brushed with sand-blasted details, and its bridges and mainplate have alternating sand-blasted and polished surfaces as well as laser-etched decorations.

Tests and prerequisites that lead to the Master Chronometer certification include: being Swiss Made, certification by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), precision at 2x temperatures, in 6x positions and at 2x different levels of power-reserve: 

100% and 33%, smooth functioning when exposed to magnetic-fields of 15,000 gauss and precision following exposure, water-resistance to 200m in accordance with ISO standard 22810:2010 and a power-reserve of 70-hrs.

Finally the new BB Ceramic is presented on a hybrid leather and rubber strap, black of course and with a Snowflake motif on the inside and folding clasp. It is also supplied with a complimentary black textile strap with a cream pinstripe. MSRP is the United States is 4,725USD.

Tudor Black Bay Ceramic at a glance: 

- 41 mm diameter case in matt black ceramic 

- Domed dial, matt black, with applied hour markers 

- Snowflake hands, one of the hallmarks of the TUDOR diving watches introduced in 1969, with grade A Swiss Super-LumiNova® luminescent material 

- Manufacture Calibre MT5602-1U, certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), with a silicon hairspring and a 70-hour power reserve 

- Master Chronometer certification 

- Five-year transferable guarantee with no registration or periodic maintenance checks required

Thoughts? This or Omega’s Seamaster Diver 300M BLACK BLACK? 

If you remember Omega didn’t quite finish the job with the SM Diver 300M Black Black whereas (credit where credit is due) Tudor has nailed the execution of their high-tech stealth diver with the inclusion of an entirely black movement. 

But what do you think?