Tudor‘s reference to navy forces isn’t any secret anymore. Essentially the most well-known of those partnerships is, undoubtedly, the co-creation of particular dive watches for the French Marine Nationale, which resulted in a number of the most interesting mil-spec fashions ever made by Tudor. Revived in 2021 with the launch of the Pelagos FXD platform, initially developed with a French Navy specialist unit, the gathering has since expanded with a black Pelagos FXD model, the Alinghi Red Bull Racing watches and the FXD Chrono Cycling Edition. At this time, Tudor goes again to the roots of the gathering with yet one more collaboration with the Marine Nationale. However this time, it’s not a dive watch anymore, however a mannequin devoted to the French Naval Aviation, a pilot’s GMT watch that is named the Pelagos FXD GMT Zulu Time.
Similar to mom model Rolex, Tudor has lengthy been concerned with navy forces. Following the creation of the Submariner in 1953, Rolex began to develop more accessible models under Tudor branding (in 1954 to be exact), which shortly caught the eye of the Marine Nationale. The French Navy began early to collaborate with the model and used a number of variations of the Oyster Prince Submariner – first with ref. 7922 and 7924, then for the second batch some ref. 7928. And as of 1974, Tudor began to ship Submariner ref. 7016 to the Marine Nationale – the primary watches to obtain the emblematic signature on the again, the enduring ‘MN 74’ engraving and snowflake arms and squared markers.
Then adopted the much more iconic 94010 fashions, with blue dials and bezel inserts. One of many specificities of those MN watches was to function soldered lugs, and thus they had been worn on all types of straps… probably the most iconic one being the inexperienced elastic strap that was really constituted of parachute belts. For a extra detailed overview of this historical past, check the first part of this article.
In 2021, after a few years of absence, the Tudor x Marine Nationale connection was revived with the launch of the blue Tudor Pelagos FXD (an acronym for FIXED, as a reference to its mounted lugs). The Pelagox FXD Marine Nationale was a watch developed particularly in line with the necessities of precise fight divers – making it a reputable mil-spec watch. This watch follows a practice that lasted from the Fifties to the Eighties, and it was developed together with the French Navy’s fight swimmers, to be exact, the Commando Hubert – particular forces specialised in counterterrorism and underwater tactical assault missions.

Apparently, the Tudor Pelagos FXD Marine Nationale will not be a correct dive watch in line with the ISO 6425:2018 commonplace. As an alternative, it responds to a set of specs outlined by the French Navy in line with the true wants of those fight divers. As such, it makes use of mounted lug modules, a water-resistance of solely 200m (fight divers solely dive in shallow waters) and a bidirectional bezel with a countdown 60-minute scale. Then once more, all is explained in this article.
The brand new Pelagos FXD GMT
At this time, Tudor releases its second official Marine Nationale watch, the brand new Pelagos FXD GMT Zulu Time. And whereas the blue FXD model was devoted to the French Navy’s fight swimmers, this time Tudor presents a watch to reply the wants of pilots from personnel of the Aéronautique Navale, also referred to as the French Naval Aviation. And which means a navy pilot’s watch with a GMT perform – a primary for the FXD collection and the Pelagos range usually.
Whereas introducing a long-expected traveller’s complication to the Pelagos assortment, the brand new Pelagos FXD GMT doesn’t cover its navy roots and its reference to the remainder of the FXD assortment, beginning with its titanium case. Measuring 42mm in diameter, with a thickness of 12.7mm (in actual fact, it’s 0.1mm thinner than a Black Bay 58 GMT), the case is product of grade 2 titanium (central case) and grade 5 titanium (caseback), with solely brushed surfaces, giving it the required tool-watch look you’d count on. The principle design ingredient of the FXD assortment, which gave it its title, is retained, that means that you just’ll discover mounted lug bars machine into the case for optimum rigidity. Formed as an extension of the lugs, they’re key to the mannequin’s attribute silhouette.
What modifications largely from the basic FXD Marine Nationale is the bezel, which now has the all-important 24-hour scale you’ll want to trace a number of time zones, with after all a bi-directional system. The black insert is product of ceramic and incorporates a barely engraved and luminescent scale. Concerning the title of the watch, Zulu Time (also used by Longines), goes again to the navy roots of this watch. Zulu time is the navy title for Common Time Coordinated (UTC) and the usual reference time for all aviators. Zulu time corresponds to zero-meridian time or the time at zero levels of longitude, generally referred to as Greenwich Imply Time (GMT). Zulu time is tracked by the extremely legible shiny orange hand that completes a full lap across the dial each 24 hours. As soon as set, this hand sometimes will not be reset, permitting sailors of the French Naval Aviation to verify the worldwide aviation reference time at a look.
The remainder of the case is commonplace Tudor FXD, with a 200m water-resistance, a flat sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, a screw-down crown and a screwed caseback. The again is engraved with the brand of the Marine Nationale and “M.N.24” for “Marine Nationale 2024” indicating the 12 months of manufacturing of every batch of the watch.
Shifting to the dial, acquainted Pelagos and FXD traits are current, such because the blocky utilized markers and the snowflake handset. All are generously coated with beige Tremendous-LumiNova (the date disc is colour-coordinated) and have a blue luminescence, contrasting with the inexperienced luminous emission of the 24-hour hand and commencement on the 24-hour bezel. The principle novelty is, after all, the intense orange lacquered, arrow-shaped GMT hand. And relaxation assured that, as all earlier GMT watches by Tudor, this Pelagos FXD GMT Zulu Time is a real GMT with the crown adjusting the one-hour increment native hour hand (linked to the date) and the remainder of the features. No office-like GMT are allowed at Tudor.
Contained in the case is the manufacture calibre MT5652-U, produced along with Kenissi. It’s the identical base motion as what you’ll discover in a 41mm Black Bay GMT, but with notable upgrades this 12 months, particularly the Grasp Chronometer certification by METAS. As such, it could actually resist to magnetic fields as much as 15,000 gauss and its precision is licensed by METAS and the COSC, with the watch operating inside a tolerance vary of 5 seconds (0/+5) per day. The motion runs at a 4Hz frequency with a silicon hairspring and shops as much as 65 hours of energy reserve.
Traditionally the French Navy had Tudor watches delivered with out bracelets after which fitted them with their very own straps (typically inexperienced parachute belts), the brand new Pelagos FXD GMT in some way pays tribute to this previous with a inexperienced strap. This time, nevertheless, the color is matched to the particular color of the flight go well with worn by aviators of the French Naval Aviation. We’re right here speaking a couple of single-piece textile strap – 22mm, constituted of inexperienced polyester woven ribbon, closed by a grade 2 titanium pin buckle, with a inexperienced detachable keeper embroidered with the French Naval Aviation’s roundel.
Out there instantly and a part of the everlasting assortment, the brand new Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT Zulu Time x Marine Nationale (reference 2542G247NU) is priced at EUR 4,690, USD 4,625 or CHF 4,350. For extra particulars, please go to tudorwatch.com and wait a couple of days after we’ll have the chance to get our arms on a pattern.
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