Tudor, no poor man’s Rolex

Remember Tudor?
The sister-brand of Rolex, Tudor watches were introduced by Hans Wilsdorf back in 1946 (having launched Rolex almost 40 years earlier), and for a long time, Tudor was seen as the budget alternative to Rolex. Understandably so, as the watches often were near-identical to their Rolex counterparts, apart from sourcing their movements from ETA. For many collectors, buying vintage Tudor watches has been a well-kept secret, as you could get the workmanship of a “Rollie” at a fraction of the price. Personally, I even prefer some of the design of especially the Tudor Submariners – the snowflake models specifically.

Now, Tudor has steadily been growing as its own brand with a more original profile for the last couple of years – even if it’s still sadly unavailable in the States. Rolex has sometimes caught a bit of flack for basically not renewing themselves too much for the last, what, 20 years? As much as I love them, the luxurious company does have a tendency to think that “new features” usually just means “white gold” or “ceramic” rather than a new model or design. However, their Tudor brand has far from stagnated, going far beyond just being a Rolex clone. The new models, like the GranTour or the Hydronaut, express Tudor’s development as a brand as well as keeping a touch of their origins intact. At a non-inflated price, too.

Tags: grantour, hydronaut, Rolex, snowflake, tudor

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Watches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.