Tudor All Steel
Meinard Hartmann
Unlike the Black Bay Chronograph, the steel and gold variant comes on a leather strap that brings back an anachronistic accessory, the bund strap. It's removable, but wearing it on the Bund doesn't feel as natural as the bracelet. Ideologically and visually it just doesn't land. The presence of gold center links on a really well engineered bracelet is what makes the watch. If you're going to go two-tone, then do it all the way. That being said, the fabric strap supplied with the watch feels great if you do need a break from the bracelet.
The MT5813 is certainly a robust movement, with free-sprung adjustable mass balance and silicon balance spring being added by Tudor to a Breitling B-01 to create an in-house caliber. The pusher engages nicely, and the red-tipped seconds hand makes it easy to observe the smooth sweep. The MT5813 utilizes a vertical clutch, meaning the seconds hand doesn't "jump" when the pusher is engaged. I found the 45-minute register interesting in that the hand covers more ground so it's easier to observe change than a standard 60-minute counter, but because humanity has structured life in such a way that typical events like shows, classes, etc., are structured in terms of hours and not 45 minute blocks, a 60-minute register seems more practical.
It's generally accepted that trends are recycled. If it's not in now, just wait a few years, or decades, and it will be cool again. What I like about the new Black Bay Chronograph Steel & Gold is that it seems to have been developed acutely with a diverse 2019 audience in mind, and because of its restrained aesthetics, it might even open up a few people to the two-tone world who were previously stuck with an antiquated view on two-tone sports watches, like me.
I know it's virtually sacrilegious, but I do not aspire to a Rolex. There, I've said it. Although I have nothing against the brand, I've just never felt any compelling need to own one. So when Tudor announced its vaunted return to the US with the ETA-powered Black Bay, I remember thinking it was a nice-looking watch with an unexciting movement and an unwarranted price tag. Weren't there numerous micro-brands with the same build quality and movement available for less than one-third what the Tudor cost?
Later, when Tudor announced the North Flag and their new in-house movement beating within it, I was intrigued, but the peculiar case and lug design put me off from trying one. So I didn't really even notice when that movement migrated to the Black Bay. Until, that is, a trusted friend bought one and couldn't find enough good things to say about it.
The look of the steel-bezeled variety was attractive enough in pictures, but it took seeing one in person to truly appreciate this watch. Walking into the dealer, I still didn't expect to appreciate its price:quality value ratio, but its combination of retro diver design, utilitarian styling, toned-down dial text, boxy sapphire crystal, and offset crown all conspired to overturn my preconceived notions of Rolexiness and I was immediately drawn to the watch. Once the Heritage Black Bay Steel was on my wrist, I had to admit that it "had me at hello." Moreover, after wearing it straight for a couple of weeks, I am ready to nominate this watch for membership in the One Watch Club. At last, a Submariner for me: the Tudor reference 79730.
So the Heritage Black Bay Steel scores a near-perfect 7 out of 8 on the Rover Haven One Watch test. But what about all those little unquantifiable things that make the difference between liking a watch and loving a watch? One important characteristic which does not appear on the RHOW criteria is timekeeping. The Tudor is powered by its amazing manufacture caliber MT5612, and if you are a timekeeping nut, the Tudor Heritage Black Bay is sure to please.
I'm not really all that hung up on timekeeping, but I do appreciate when a movement does it so well. My own personal annoyance doesn't set in until variation is greater than +/- 10 seconds per day, and even then if a watch is consistent I'm ok with it. It's when a watch becomes unstable, losing time today, gaining a whole minute tomorrow, that I will pull the plug and send it in for service.
To test timekeeping over this four-and-a-half day review, I hacked the watch with my Junghans Atomic clock on the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving, and then wore it 24/7 for the holiday weekend without care or worry. I then checked it against the Junghans again on Sunday morning, exactly four days later.
Aesthetically, the Heritage Black Bay Steel is a treat. Compared to some other Tudor watches, the dial text has been tamed to a very reasonable three lines of text above 6 o'clock, and one of those is in red, which makes it less immediately noticeable. Up at 12 o'clock, the shield logo has been employed, and is small and discreet. I don't mind the Tudor rose logo, but the shield just seems so right on this dial. The rose decorates the crown, and to really good effect too.
The beautifully enameled Tudor rose adorns the crown. Note also the very gentle jimping on the bezel edge. If you really dove with this watch, you'd probably want something more aggressive, but the bezel's action is superb.
On the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, my teenager and I took a little road trip to the small village of Cannonsburg, Michigan, and had lunch at the Honey Creek Inn. It was an unseasonably beautiful day in Michigan, and the sun was showing itself for the first time in days. We took his Focus ST and enjoyed the drive on the hilly, curvy roads. Of course the Black Bay was my companion for the trip, and it struck me as we were zipping along that the Tudor and the Ford have a lot in common. Both are highly spec'ed, reasonably priced, made to appeal to purists (but not snobs), and perform brilliantly.
And later that evening as we relaxed around the fire, I was comparing this watch to another Rover Haven favorite, the Hamilton Scuba. The Hamilton has to be the best One Watch value out there, at least as far as Swiss Made watches go, and its 80-hr power reserve bests the Tudor's 70-hr rating.
Regarding strapability, it's very obvious that the designers of the Tudor Heritage Black Bay had straps in mind. The lugs are long and graceful, and the spring bars are located low and outboard of the case. Like the Hamilton Scuba, the spring bars are located only slightly above the plane of the caseback, which translates to a very NATO-strap-friendly wearing experience. It's difficult to overstate the importance of this subtle design feature. Another watch I otherwise love, the caliber 2500 Planet Ocean, is quite poor in this regard. Its distended belly forces any one-piece pass-thru strap to travel too far up and down as it passes through and under the watch, cradling its pregnant caseback. The result is an uncomfortable fit and a rather silly look; but not so the Tudor.
Thanksgiving Day arrives, and there are a few chores to be attended to. The first is moving some firewood from the back forty to the front porch. Hey, since my teenager owes me some labor, I'll put the Tudor to good use and make sure I get every minute of what is due...
After the wood has been carted and stacked, we head back in to make our contribution to the extended family feast, the apple pie. Once again, the timing bezel's utility shows why it's on the list of One Watch must-have criteria.
And later, the weekend finds us doing some late fall yard cleanup. I switched the Tudor over to an Arts & Crafts strap, and I have to admit the comfort and ease of this setup is brilliant. These pictures really make it clear how strap-friendly the case is, with plenty of clearance between the strap bar and the apex of the case. Of course, if you're just not a fan of dive watches on leather straps, then this won't matter to you.
And so the long holiday weekend winds down, and tomorrow it's back to work and school. Just one more thing to take care of, and that's the results of our timekeeping test. Over the course of four days, the Tudor lost 10 seconds, for an average rate of right around -2.5 seconds per day. If I cared more, I could probably experiment with positioning it at night to catch this back up while I slept. But given the watch's overall charm, I find this quite acceptable.
On a more product-oriented note, the Black Bay Steel is again a demonstration of savoir-faire by Tudor, with a watch that is impeccably executed and perfectly positioned in terms of pricing. Starting at EUR 3,260 on leather (EUR 3,560 on steel bracelet), it again offers one of the best quality/price ratios on the market. More details on www.tudorwatch.com.
I have the Tudor Black BB, the Bronze BB, and the Steel BB. And the most revealing attractive part of the Steel BB is the bezel. That is what makes the watch special and makes it stand out against all the other BB. It will become the classic. It looks great on the wrist, and is never confused with a Rolex!
More than two dozen suppliers sued Michigan Steel during Dixon's tenure. The non-union company also generated several safety violation citations, worker injuries and emissions complaints from neighbors.
The Republican gubernatorial hopeful left Michigan Steel in 2009, exiting the company amid the Great Recession to start a family. That was three years before Michigan Steel collapsed amid tax liens, unpaid property taxes, layoffs and bounced checks to employees.
The global steel industry was growing when Dixon's father took over the Muskegon foundry in 2002, but Michigan Steel was not the only domestic foundry that struggled to stay in business over the next two decades.
Global competition was the "biggest factor" in Michigan Steel's demise, Monroe told Bridge. "They probably were just a casualty of the business environment with management that was not creative enough to survive."
The company, which sat on 1,700 feet of Muskegon Lake frontage in a heavily industrial area of the city, was sued by vendors more than two dozen times over unpaid bills from 2003 to 2009, the year Dixon left the company, including 10 lawsuits prior to 2007, according to court records.
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