Swiss luxury watchmaker Tudor has a long and storied history with the French Navy, better known as Marine nationale, having provided France’s seafaring military branch with watches from the 1950s through the ‘80s. Earlier this year, Tudor renewed their partnership with Marine nationale, and now we’re seeing the fruit of that union with the new Tudor Pelagos FXD dive watch.
The Pelagos FXD is a purpose-built Navy diver that’s quite unlike any Pelagos that came before it. The watch’s 42mm satin-brushed case is milled from a single block of titanium, including the fixed strap bars — hence the FXD moniker. This makes the case extremely durable and protects against any strap-related mishaps during missions. Rather than the usual unidirectional dive bezel, the Pelagos FXD features a specialized, oversized, bidirectional bezel with fully-lumed 60-minute retrograde graduation. This type of bezel is engineered for underwater navigation and works in conjunction with a magnetic compass, allowing Navy divers to find their way in the dark and icy depths by timing their own carefully planned routes. The lume found on the dial, hands, and bezel is gloriously-bright Grade X1 Super-LumiNova for supreme visibility underwater. The watch is powered by the COSC-certified Manufacture Calibre MT5602 automatic movement with a 70-hour power reserve, and the caseback features an engraving of the Marine nationale logo along with the year the particular watch was produced.
Sold with two single-pass straps — a rubber one and a woven fabric strap with a self-gripping fastening system that pays tribute to the homemade fabric straps worn by French Navy divers in decades past — the Pelagos FXD is available now from Tudor for $3,900.
