Blue Tudor Pelagos, the ultimate industrial watch ?

Hello desk-divers,

• Intro-LL

Damn it ! I am running late for my first Baselworld 2015 rendezvous : I’ve got to be at Tudor’s at 5pm. The upside is that I’ll be able to test Interceptor IV up to 160km/h, one hand on the wheel, under a pelting rain. Too easy. A straight line, no cruel radars.

• I brutalise the right pedal , the ramjet goes off and I exceed mach 4, in levitation.

I almost get on time to the multi-level parking. It’s 5:03pm. Obviously, the only available parking spaces are on the ninth and last floor, wouldn’t be funny otherwise, would it ?

I take the 10 kilos of photo gear out of the car, jog over to the lift and go downstairs to the accreditations. There, I come across Madeleine. My dear, my sympathic, my friendly, my ignorant Madeleine. She doesn’t know my website. In fairness to her, though, in the pre-Basel rush, I forgot to seek accreditation…

They therefore rely on the Facebook followers to estimate my audience. This is a true story, that’s how they do!

I bet next year she will ask me for my number of Tinder friends.

As you don’t know, I have done nothing to make Foudroyance more dynamical. Indeed, I’m waiting for the whole website to be translated, with at least a hundred on-line contents, before the Facebook promotion.

I’ve been working according to terribly out of date methods : I create first, then I communicate on it.

So our friends from Baselworld accreditations rely on Facebook followers, the poxiest tool, as it’s quite easy to buy kilos of new fans for a nominal fee. Lacking time to negociate, I’m getting a temporary pass…

• Tudor! Well, it’s about time !

I run to Tudor’s, looking forward to discover the novelties, as the previews have already made me salivate.
I barge in the place and apologize (I’m pathologically late, I should undergo psychotherapy, but I prefer to spend 4250€ur on a watch).

Press conference, propanganda movies :
One on the yellow/red/green Fastrider, bohos riding on the beach, not so great.
One on the North Flag, well done, forthright, with climbers on the iced sea, nice picture .
And the last one, top class, straight out oneiric! Some guy dives from a cliff, and when he ascends to the surface he has a view on a column with « Pelagos » in Greek engraved on it.

The Pelagos « V2 », precisely, let’s talk about it.

The real reference is 25600TB, (looks a bit like a graphics card ref.), but it’s more convenient to keep using « V2 ».

A few years back, I had written up an article about Baselworld 2012 on the forums. For the launch of Foudroyance, I wrote this article in seconde line about the Pelagos V1.

• In summary : Tudor’s cold and germanic style would have made an inuit freeze.

In this article from December 2014, I underlined the IWC’s influence, the GST in paricular.

Now, in March 2015, it turns out that my article was more than visionnary, it was prophetic (80€ for the clairvoyance session).
Indeed, not only Tudor presents a new declension of Pelagos, but also North Flag, which appears to be the spiritual, even illegitimate Gunter Blumlein’s daughter, the former boss of Vendôme and IWC, a long time ago in a period of sobriety and precision.
I gravely ask the question : do the Tudor’s staff have to find a Ouija board to communicate with Gunter, like «great Sir of watchmaking, are you there ? »

• This new version of the Pelagos is less IWC and more Tudor. It bridges two of the three weaknesses we could detect on on the V1 (3 weaknesses is not a lot neither for a watch, nor for a woman).

First of all, the caliber. You will, of course, reply that « we don’t give a shit about it in a Tudor ».

That’s true, especially as the 2824 makes the job with a formidable precision, and it’s easily maintained. Nevertheless, Tudor has done more that create a homemade ETA 2824 or a new version of the 3135 Rolex.

• This MT5612 caliber is an inhouse design with a priori an original centring, which is no mean feat. Particularly as it corresponds to the ideal specifications for a non-specialized sporty watch : large size (31.28mm*6.5mm so 14 lines 1/3), 70h of RdM, bidirectional automatic, date without setting range, COSC. In my opinion, the only defect is the internalized balance-spring in silica, a material too contemporary for a traditional mechanical watch.

Besides, it is a beautiful caliber. Let’s be quite clear about it, it might not win any styling contest among a Greubel and a Lange. However, it’s the most stylish within the watches under 5000 euros, thanks to its brushed bridges and its sober cut of the bridges. A good synthesis of the early 2015 sport-chic.

The hit of the show is the blue dial/bezel set. This is a cold colour, but still it’s funkier than the austere black version. The contrast between the turquoise luminova and the blue dial gets musical given how coherent and almost warm it is, notably with the intermediate lightings. And moreover, it’s a great tribute to Foudroyantes’s colours.:D

A blue Tudor diving watch is obviously indispensable for the Tudors Marine Nationale (French…), especially the 7016 and 7021… Last thing about this blue, it varies a lot depending on the lighting, and most of the pictures we can see on the social networks don’t do it justice. The actual colour is classier. I tried to get the best tint with court shooting.

The only residual defect is the thickness. The flaw isn’t fatal, but it’s not as fine as the vintage cases used to be. It is worth noting that this version is less contrasted between the titanium of the case and the blue of the bezel, thus the thickness seems one or two millimeters lower than the black version.

• The titanium bracelet (I wouldn’t recommend the rubber) remains as magical as ever :

titanium confort and micro adjustment adaptable depending on the time of the year and the use. Unique in watchmaking and however essential for metal bracelets. It’s straightforward, the Pelagos’ bracelet reconciled me with metal, while I am pro-leather bracelet.

• The price, finally : 4250 (CHF/€ur), it’s quite a contained increase, considering the soaring franc. But if we take into account value for money, with the setting-up of the manufacture caliber, we can say it’s better than V1.

• Conclusion:

I have progressively abandoned industrial watches in favour of hand-crafted watches as Pascal Coyon’s or Habring²’s, notably because of my involvement in the project la Naissance d’une Montre, le Garde-Temps.

Nevertheless, this Pelagos reconciliated me with watchmaking industry’s watches, because it’s a « flawless » piece. Here’s the icing on the cake, the price : (4250CHF/€ur) which makes it affordable for all watch enthousiasts. According to me, on this 22 of March 2015, it’s the most exacting piece in industrial watchmaking.

Trolly yours.
Pifpaf.

• Outro-LL,

I go back to see Madeleine for the accreditation :

To prove my weight on the Internet, I must reveal the audience figures for Foudroyantes on Google Analitycs and shed tears to get my weekly press accreditation (and the right to take pictures, access the press room ect…). My tears must have moved Madeleine, as I eventually got my weekly door opener.
It might be absurd, but I almost want to buy myself immediatly a million Thai or Bengali fans, just to chat at Baselworld’s accreditation office at the end of the week…