Tudor has been devoting a great deal of attention to its vintage-inspired dive watches lately. Earlier this spring, we highlighted the handsome Black Bay Fifty-Eight 925, which combined classic design hallmarks like snowflake hands with a new silver case and an open case back—both firsts for the brand’s dive watches. But that was just the beginning: The brand also released the Tudor Black Bay Ceramic, a slightly larger timepiece that features a highly accurate movement and a sleek, blacked-out color scheme.
A nearly all-black watch might end up looking like a lump of coal on your wrist, but the Black Bay Ceramic uses different black materials and finishes to create a monochrome aesthetic that’s elegant and interesting. The 41mm case is made from matte black ceramic, and comes with mirror-finished beveled edges that provide a nice visual contrast from the sand-blasted surfaces of the rest of the case. The bezel is also ceramic, but it has a sunray finish that accentuates the dial and helps it stand out from the case. The bezel markings are engraved without any color, which makes this less useful as a utilitarian dive watch, but it does keep the focus on the matte black dial, where the off-white Super-LumiNova snowflake hands and indices take center stage.
That monochrome color scheme gets picked up on the straps, too: The watch is finished with either a black hybrid leather-rubber strap with white stitching or a black fabric strap with a cream stripe running down the middle. The end result? A black watch that does anything but fade into the background.
The Black Bay Ceramic also features some serious technical innovation. It’s powered by Tudor’s MT5602-1U movement, which is METAS-certified for exceptional accuracy. To achieve that certification, the watch was subjected to a round of intense testing to ensure it resists the influence of magnetic fields, water (up to 200 meters), and temperature changes, all while maintaining accurate time within a five-second variation range per day. And like the Black Bay Fifty-Eight, it features a “weekend proof” 70-hour power reserve, so you can park it on your desk on Friday and it’ll still be ticking on Monday.
The case back gives a peek at the movement’s internals, which are finished in black and feature sand-blasted and satin-brushed finishes. No matter which way you look at, though, the Black Bay Ceramic proves that subtle can be sexy.
[$4,725; tudorwatch.com]
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