Over the past few years, the TUDOR Heritage Black Bay has developed into an important and attractive watch collection. It launched a vintage-looking stainless steel model with a red diving bezel in 2012, followed by a more reserved version with a blue rotating bezel in 2014, and the simplest black version to date a year later.
A variety of different straps and bracelets continue to add to the versatility. Each model comes with either a three-row stainless steel bracelet or an antiqued leather strap, and either option comes with a fabric strap. The boldest option is the 36mm 2016 Tudor model with the “Urban Camouflage” fabric strap.
Our tests on the electronic chronograph confirmed this precision. However, unlike the official tests, we also tested the sixth position, to the right of the crown, and found a small anomaly in the negative range. Although this position rarely appears in everyday use – only when the wrist is raised to read the time – it is essential for those who store their self-winding replica watches on a watch winder, as many such machines may leave the timepiece in a vertical position during rest periods lasting several hours.
Other quality features of the manufacturing movement include a power reserve of up to 70 hours and a variable inertia balance with four adjustment screws. The rate is no longer adjusted by varying the active length of the balance spring, as was the case when the Heritage Black Bay was powered by an ETA movement. Even though TUDOR used a different fine regulator in the ETA 2824, stable variable inertia could only be achieved by switching to its in-house movement.
Tudor omitted the date display for the Heritage Black Bay Dark, which we consider to be a positive change. This sporty design follows in the tradition of the 1954 Tudor Oyster Submariner, also without a date display, with a simple, unadorned dial featuring only eight round and three rectangular hour markers and a triangular hour marker at 12 o’clock. The striking hour and second hands, with their distinctive “snowflake” shape, date back to the second generation of the Submariner launched by TUDOR in 1969. Today the watch is as water-resistant to 200 meters as it was in 1958. This was an impressively high value among the diving pioneers of the time and is still sufficient for most recreational divers today.
In this way, the Heritage Black Bay Dark brings together the best of various classic models – and now, in its casual black attire, it is a very stylish sports fake watch. It’s the coolest way to dive – not to mention the best way to bring diving history to the beach bar.