Proof in the flesh that the modern Tudor can easily fulfil your dress watch needs

Tudor’s been having an excellent three years since its resurgence and rebranding as THE go-to watch brand for vintage-themed sports watches. The success of the Black Bay collection can easily be attributed to several key factors: affordable pricing, in-house calibres but most importantly, great design.

However, a brand like Tudor understands that in a day and age where holding consumers’ attention is getting harder and harder, shoehorning one’s self as a brand that only does sports watches is a step in the wrong direction. It’s not as though Tudor has not revealed dress watches before, of course.

The early ’50s saw Tudor’s Oyster Prince line hit stores

In its formative days as the “younger (and more affordable) sibling to Rolex”, Tudor’s hero product was the Oyster Prince, a dressier watch that stood out amongst the tool watches from the brand’s stable. While its design codes were highly influenced by Rolex, the Tudor Oyster Prince developed its own devoted following.

The dressier side of modern-day Tudor has always been contained to certain lines that don’t get the same attention these days such as the Style, 1926, Classic or Glamour collections. While it may have been quiet for some time, Tudor’s making it known that the celebrated watch brand isn’t just a one-trick pony and introducing a new watch to the Glamour line.

David Beckham as an ambassador is the perfect example of balancing dressy and sporty, proving true synergy with Tudor

Unveiled at the tail end of last year, the new Tudor Glamour Double Date brings a much-revitalised touch to the Glamour collection and the first of the name to have a manufacture calibre developed for it. While the timepiece isn’t necessarily the most complicated, it encompasses everything Tudor has done with its timepieces so far – provides value for money with affordable pricing and design that collectors would approve of.

Tudor’s insistence at unveiling fully in-house calibres for new collections is a strategy that has been netting the brand more fans. For the buyers that still insist on in-house, Tudor is proving that it need not be at astronomical prices.

As for the watch itself, it’s a 42mm wide piece that should easily fit into most daily beater categories, with a larger-sized date at 12 o’clock. The bigger date display is of significance, given how few brands have used them. The growing trend of smaller calibres leading to tiny date windows halfway up a watch’s face is not something collectors agree with.

As with the trend, Tudor has released the watch in several different variants and consumers can pick and choose precisely which case materials (stainless steel or stainless steel and yellow gold) or straps (leather straps or metal bracelets) they would like their combination in. On top of that, there are four variants of dials (opaline, silver, champagne, black with diamond hour markers, black without diamond hour markers), totalling an impressive 22 possible matches.

Movement: Self-winding Tudor manufacture calibre MT5641, 70-hour power reserve, COSC-certified
Case: 42mm stainless steel/stainless steel and yellow gold
Strap: Leather strap or a matching bracelet
Price: Starting from CHF 3,050 (approx. S$4,200)