Big, black, and beautiful
Tudor’s new Black Ceramic Bay gets METAS certification
BIG, black, beautiful, and very, very, smart: we’re not talking about an ideal mate, but Tudor’s new Black Ceramic Bay.
The watch was unveiled in a press conference last week. On the outside, it displays a 41mm diameter case in matte black ceramic, a domed dial in the same material with applied hour markers, and snowflake hands. The snowflake hands are a signature of Tudor diving watches introduced in 1969. These are coated with luminescent material, making it stand out in the dark with the black matte ceramic material from which the rest of the watch is made.
On the inside, it’s powered with the Manufacture Calibre MT5602-1U. The watch’s dial bears the mark “Master Chronometer,” as certified by Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS). According to the brand, “This is the first time we submit a watch to one of the most demanding certifications there is, and it passed with flying colors.”
According to a statement, a watch must pass the following criteria to gain the METAS certification: “a watch must be able to function within a five-second range of variation each day (0 +5), that is to say five seconds less than the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) (-4 +6) carried out on a single movement and a second less than TUDOR’s internal standard, which is applied to the brand’s models with a Manufacture Calibre (-2 +4). The certification also guarantees the timekeeping accuracy of a watch subjected to magnetic fields of 15,000 gauss. Finally, it also guarantees that the waterproof capability claimed by the manufacturer conforms with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 22810:2010, as does the power reserve of each Master Chronometer watch.”
The Black Bay Ceramic has passed these requirements. It has a few extra features: precision at two temperatures, in six different positions and at different levels of power reserve: 100% and 33% (with a 70-hour power reserve), and is waterproof up to 200 meters.
A statement says how the new certification on the Black Bay Ceramic will affect the brand: “This certification, which requires a substantial number of changes to the Tudor Manufacture Calibre, will mean that Tudor will be able to offer accreditation by an independent body, confirming the excellent quality of its watches.”
Tudor is a subsidiary of Rolex, first created in 1926 (Rolex itself was founded about two decades earlier) as a more affordable alternative to its parent. — JLG
