In the past two years, replica watches have been particularly popular, and many brands have launched new products based on historical classic watches. However, Rolex seems to have been indifferent to this for a long time. In fact, Rolex is not short of historical masterpieces, but has handed over the task of reproducing classics to the brother brand Tudor. For example, the Biwan GMT “Coke Circle” and the Biwan series of professional models, many watch fans can’t help calling out when they first saw them: “It’s so similar to an antique Rolex watch.” In fact, Tudor has never claimed that these products were inspired by a historical watch. However, considering the subtle relationship between Tudor and Rolex, we can think that Rolex has more or less influenced them.
The Rolex GMT-Master came out in 1955. In the era when civil aviation became more and more popular and people traveled more and more frequently across time zones, it appeared to provide convenience for many business travelers. Ref.6542 is Rolex’s first generation GMT “Coke Circle” watch, from which we can see that later generations of best replica watches have inherited many of its familiar elements. The red and blue circle is one of the most classic designs of the watch. It uses red to represent the day (6:00 to 18:00), and blue to represent the night (18:00 to 6:00 the next day), which not only is clear and intuitive, but also enhances readability , The strong color contrast brings an unforgettable visual impact, which greatly improves the recognition of this watch.
The Tudor Black Bay GMT also uses a red and blue two-color anodized aluminum outer ring. The style and arrangement of the scale are very close to the “Coke ring” of Rolex’s first-generation GMT. It should be noted that the crown of Rolex’s first-generation GMT did not have a bridge protection design. It was not until the second-generation product Ref.1675 that the crown protection bridge was added. These features are also perfectly inherited by Tudor Black Bay GMT.
Nowadays, the outer ring of the watch uses more ceramic materials, but Tudor still chooses to make the GMT two-color ring with anodized aluminum, which means paying tribute to Rolex Ref.1675. We know that the anodized aluminum outer ring will leave certain “traces of time” on the surface with the passage of time and the increase in the number of wearing times. This unique effect will make the watch more retro. Objectively speaking, although the wear resistance of the aluminum bezel is not as good as that of the ceramic ring, the characteristics of impact resistance and non-fragmentation are also not possessed by the ceramic ring. The two materials have advantages and disadvantages of each other.
Although Tudor Black Bay GMT and Rolex antique GMT are “similar”, there are still certain differences between the two in terms of details. The first is the difference in the tooth pattern. Tudor chooses a finer tooth pattern, which has a more refined appearance, which is a bit similar to the “coin pattern”. However, Rolex adopts lines with larger intervals. This shape has also been inherited from the original Rolex GMT watch, and the current GMT II series watches still retain this design. For the choice of fonts, Rolex Ref.1675 chooses full and round Arabic numerals, while Biwan GMT uses slender and sharp fonts.
Tudor Black Bay GMT is deeply inspired by Rolex antiques, but still maintains full brand characteristics. The first is the sharp-edged “snowflake needle”, which is specially designed for Tudor watches, which is helpful for the wearer to quickly distinguish the hour and minute hands by virtue of the luminous shape, which is similar to Rolex’s “Mercedes-Benz needle”. Secondly, the movement of Tudor Black Bay GMT is the brand’s self-produced MT5652 movement.
In fact, Tudor watches in history are much closer to Rolex than they are today. The cases and accessories of many medieval Tudor watches can be interchanged with Rolex, and you can even find the Rolex logo on the bottom and crown of the watch. The biggest difference between the two brands lies in the movement: all Rolex Swiss Fake Watches are equipped with self-made movements, while Tudor has long used outsourced finished movements, and it was not until recent years that it took the step of self-developed movements.
The MT5652 movement is the first self-produced movement of the Tudor watch, which is used to replace the unified core solution based on ETA or Sellita that has been in service for many years. The silicon hairspring, the fine-tuning balance wheel without calculus weights, the 70-hour power reserve and the certification of the Observatory are the highlights of this movement. However, in the early version, there was a problem of “stuck calendar” in the MT5652 movement. At present, Rolex has repaired the latest batch, so you can buy it with confidence.
If the outer ring of the Black Bay GMT is only “similar” to the Rolex Ref.6542,
then the outer ring of the Black Bay Professional is “exactly the same” as the Rolex antique “Explorer II” Ref. 1655. The tribute product of Tudor Biwan Professional is the first generation of “Explorer II” Ref.1655 released by Rolex in 1971. From the appearance point of view,
the two have the same diameter of 39 mm; their outer rings are concave lettering and filled in black,
and are divided into 12 equal parts by the scale interval. Since the stainless steel 24 o’clock outer ring does not have the function of rotation,
the “dog tooth ring” on the edge is cancelled. In terms of font selection, Biwan Professional also follows the slender and sharp font of Biwan GMT.
Tudor Black Bay Professional has the same dual time zone function as the previously unveiled “Coke Circle”,
and has an independent second time zone hour hand. The difference is that the Biwan professional type has a non-rotatable outer ring,
but the “Coke ring” can achieve two-way rotation. Therefore, the Black Bay professional model can only read two time zones,
while the GMT “Coke Circle” can read the information of three time zones by rotating the outer ring and the second time zone hour hand. From this point of view, the function of Black Bay GMT is even better.
The new product inherits many design details from Rolex Ref.1655. For example, the bezel is brushed, and the pointer is orange when the two places are used. However, the crown guard bridge and Rolex’s unique magnifying glass calendar window are still not added,
which is consistent with other products in the same series.
In terms of movement, it also uses the MT5652 self-made movement. Today, Tudor MT’s self-produced movements have formed three categories:
MT56, MT54, and MT52, which correspond to different diameters of “large, medium, and small” respectively. Although these movements have differences in complex functions and power storage (MT52 is a 50-hour dynamic storage ),
but all have passed the Swiss COSC Observatory certification, which is also a hard indicator of the Tudor MT movement.
Leaving aside Tudor’s exclusive “Snowflake Needle”,
the Black Bay Professional has highly restored the style of Rolex’s first-generation “Explorer II” in terms of diameter,
outer ring, and dial, bringing back the classic work that has been away for half a century. It is undoubtedly good news for watch fans who like this style.
After talking about the highlights of this new product, let’s talk about its areas that need to be improved. As a dual-time watch, the thickness of the entire watch is 14.6 mm, which is also controversial. Compared with similar products horizontally, Tudor replica Black Bay Professional is indeed hard to describe as thin and light.
The two watches of the Tudor Black Bay series have a seemingly classic appearance
but actually use a powerful new movement. It can be said that the new wine in the old bottle is also very fragrant. Tudor draws inspiration from the historical products of its big brother Rolex. It is a mature and reliable solution, and it is easier for watch fans to recognize it. In addition, since Rolex does not launch re-engraved watches,
reproducing its own classic works through its brother brand Tudor can also greatly meet the expectations of Rolex retro lovers. I wonder if you like these two works?
