With the new Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition, the brand helps us answer a few important questions. Most significantly, for a site like this one, what qualifies as news, timepiece wise. The watch is the first Tudor with a bronze case and bronze bracelet, which itself is relatively rare in watchmaking (we can only think of one example, but more on that later). It is also the first boutique edition from the brand, although there is also the Tudor Bucherer edition, but that is a retail partner piece rather than a boutique exclusive. Casual observers might confuse the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition with the other Black Bay Bronze models, but this 2021 wristwatch is the first Black Bay Fifty-Eight model to be issued in bronze. The principal difference between the Black Bay and the Black Bay Fifty-Eight is the case diameter, with the former in 43mm and the latter in 39mm. 

This is all well and good, and it is of course factual, but does anything here make the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition newsworthy? Coming on the heels of the Black Bay Ceramic, the new Boutique Edition has a tough act to follow. Rather like The Beatles taking the stage after Roy Orbison. The Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition is certainly noteworthy, and is no doubt already winning fans at boutiques — there are three such stores in Singapore. Like all other Black Bay Fifty-Eight models, the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition shares certain characteristics, including the snowflake hands and the case thickness of 11.9mm. The water-resistance is 200 metres so nothing unusual there. The movement here is the automatic MT5400, which is also a shared common feature. Even the bronze material itself is not new, being the same sort of bronze used in the aforementioned Black Bay variant.

It goes without saying that if you want a dive watch in full bronze, this is one of the only places to find it (to our knowledge, the Oris Sixty-Five is the only other collection to feature full bronze dive watches), which is impressive scarcity value at S$6,420. It should be noted that the steel version of the same watch, also with bracelet is priced at S$5,080, thus continuing the trend of bronze watches being a little more pricey. Surprisingly, Tudor tells us that the bronze and steel versions weigh the same, unofficially coming in at 145 grammes. We tested it ourselves and came up with the same number, roughly, and both versions wear the same. On that note, the Boutique Edition does mean that Tudor now has the world’s only contemporary range of sports watches with versions in gold, silver, bronze and steel. While interesting, this does not make the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition particularly newsworthy.

The popularity of the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition is what really makes this story. Many will no doubt mistake this for the first wristwatch with a bronze bracelet, which is perfectly understandable because we thought so too. In the years to come, this will become part of the legend of this model. To be clear, Tudor has not made the first wristwatch with a bronze bracelet. The idea that it might have done just goes to show how effortlessly the Black Bay Fifty-Eight can draw the spotlight to itself, and that might go some to explaining why this watch is so interesting. Money cannot buy this sort of magnetic charm — well it can buy you the watch of course. 

For more information regarding the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze Boutique Edition, please visit Tudor’s website.

All images courtesy of Tudor