Description

Compared to a traditional steel model, the main difference (obviously) is the case material. It is now made of bronze, and to be perfectly accurate, in an alloy known as aluminium bronze. The manufacturing process is also different from making a steel case – often stamped or milled. The alloy bars are cut into small cylinders, then heated before being stamped to adopt the rough form of the watch middle case. Then, no fewer than forty additional steps (milling, threading, drilling) are required to obtain a bronze case ready to be cased up. The result is a case that can still retain the 200m water-resistance of the steel models.

The other evolution concerning this Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze is the dial, which links this watch to other bronze models in the BB collection. Tudor reintroduces the distinctive layout with applied Arabic numerals at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, something that is exclusive to bronze editions. The dial itself is also new. Contrary to our first impression, the colour is unprecedented and different from the tone used on the 2016 BB Bronze with a brown dial. Named brown-bronze, the colour is more saturated, more pronounced and slightly darker too.