Tudor Goes Diving with the French Navy: Introducing the Pelagos FXD
Few brands generate as much buzz as does Tudor these days with new releases from its vintage-inspired dive watch collections — as witness the excitement over this year's launches of the Black Bay Chronograph and Black Bay Ceramic. The latest, hailing from the Rolex-owned watchmaker’s Pelagos family, is an unusual, military-grade watch purpose-built for the French Navy, aka the Marine Nationale. Here's what you need to know about the Tudor Pelagos FXD.
The watch's "FXD" moniker is derived from the extra robust (“FiXeD”) strap bars of its case, which are a feature developed in direct collaboration with the Marine Nationale to suit its members' needs. This element notably distinguishes the watch not only from other Tudor dive watches, but also from essentially every other watch currently on the market, as it secures the watch only to single-pass straps such as NATOs. In addition to the unique lugs, the French Navy advised on other technical details as well, including the use of the ever-ready Pelagos base design and blue colorway, the extra-large bezel with bright lume, and the unusual (for a dive watch) bidirectional functionality of said bezel, designed to assist in the military branch’s specialized work.
The familiar Pelagos case measures 42 mm in diameter by 12.7 mm thick, here in titanium with satin-brushed finishing, its style influenced by historical Tudor dive watches such as the Submariner, which was originally preferred by the French Navy during a period spanning the 1950s to the 1980s. Underneath the sapphire crystal is a highly legible dial whose high-contrast, lume-filled inidices appear slightly larger than those of the standard Pelagos dial; they maintain a similar style, however, complete with the “snowflake” handset at the center to display the time.
Inside the case is Tudor’s manufacture Caliber MT5602, a chronometer-certified movement increasingly used by the brand, most recently in the Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze unveiled this past June. Importantly, the automatic movement carries a 70-hour power reserve, making for a solid and reliably powered timekeeper as well as one with demonstrated accuracy. It is protected behind a solid caseback with a commemorative engraving in tribute to the Marine Nationale, which helps to ensure the case a water resistance of 200 meters.
The Tudor Pelagos FXD, which comes standard on a navy blue fabric NATO strap, is available now, on a non-limited basis, at authorized dealers, priced at $3,900 — which is notably less than the $4,575 price tag for the standard Pelagos.
To learn more, you can visit Tudor’s dedicated landing page for the launch, here.
