M79230N-0009
Goldsmiths / Milton Keynes, 13th September 2021
So some of you saw a version of this post on Friday morning, before I took it down and replaced it with the 'Timeline of TAG Heuer Production'. The reason for this was that somehow, I thought I had tried on a Black Bay 58 and it seems that what I actually tried on was a normal 41mm Black Bay. Bizarrely I somehow managed to get all the details right, and every single picture I used was also the watch that I tried on, but none of them were a Black Bay 58.
I now know that the easy way to tell the difference is that the Black Bay 58 has a gilt bezel whereas the original Black Bay does not, and of course it is 2mm smaller. Honestly I don't think it would make a lot of difference to my opinion, though it does appear from photographs that the gilt numbers on the bezel do liven it up a bit.
But still, I couldn't leave a post up that was clearly wrong in every way (except that one that matters) and so I decided to rewrite it...
It's been a long time since I tried on a Black Bay (of any kind) and on this shopping trip I had already decided (since there wasn't that much new TAG Heuer available) that I would try out some different watches to spice things up. So on this day I also tried out a Bell and Ross BR-05 and a Brietling Pro Endurance Super Quartz, both of which will be reviewed at a later date.
I have no great love for the Tudor Black Bay, I tried one on many years ago and was kinda indifferent about it and I couldn't really understand then why everyone was losing their minds over it, other than it was a cheap way to own something akin to a Rolex. Nothing much had changed for me, but the Calibre 11 forum has since been overrun with people buying the Black Bay (albeit in the even more popular 39mm 'Black Bay 58' variant).
Even our Swedish friend Jim Dollares recently fell under its nefarious spell and placed an order for one with his local AD. Unfortunately for some bizarre reason he has to wait anywhere between 1 and 6 months until he can get his grubby paws on a Black Bay 58 on a bracelet, but here in Blighty we can just walk into a shopping centre in a mid-tier town and buy one off the shelf. Were it not for Brexit chucking a spanner in the works it would potentially have been quicker for Jim to send me the money and for me to 'export' it to him just like we did with the Carrera Heuer 02 160th Anniversary and his Carrera Heuer 01 titanium (which he has just sold, incidentally).
So availability certainly wasn't a problem, but it seems my lack of Tudor knowledge was and since I recall asking to try on the 'Black Bay' I can't really complain that the lady in the shop (who was very pleasant by the way) brought me the wrong watch. She didn't actually ask me to clarify which 'Black Bay' so I assume the black and gold on a bracelet is the go-to, and since she brought me something that looked like what I was expecting (and since I only saw one black Black Bay in the window) I didn't question it at the time...
The first thing I wanted to check was the bracelet, because in the photos I've seen online the 'retro' rivets on the side look absolutely hideous. However, truthfully, in real life they are so small you can hardly even see them.... and to be honest they look more like screws than rivets. So no biggie then... we can forget about that little problem.
So I slid the watch over my hand and onto my wrist and honestly I was surprised how much it just seemed to sit 'on' my wrist. It's actually very 'slab sided' and sits quite tall on the wrist, which is an odd thing to pick up on considering that I was wearing a 16mm thick Aquagraph when I went in to the shop!
Now you have to understand that I was looking at this watch thinking about all the comments on the Calibre 11 forum about how great it wears and everything, but of course they were talking about the smaller, thinner BB58, so to me it struck me as thick and bulky compared to what they had said. I didn't really have a problem with the thickness or the size for me, but for 'them'. But I can now understand why they basically made a smaller version of this because for a watch made to appeal to the 'Heritage' crowd it is a bit chunky.
One thing I never liked was the crown and I still don't; it looks way too big and just 'odd'. It may well be very well engineered, but I'm just not a fan and from memory when you pull the crown out it looks like it's wobbling about like a wooden spoon in a pot, which I'm also not crazy about!
But apart from that, there was nothing really to dislike. It's just that the Black Bay made absolutely ZERO impression on me. I looked at it from every angle, took it off and looked at the (blank) backplate, put it back on, stared at it really hard while trying to remember what exactly I liked about the dial in the photos and eventually took it off and handed it back to the lady saying 'I think I'll stick to TAGs'.
Honestly there was nothing, no impression, no emotion, no reaction. It might as well have been made of cardboard. It actually bored me. I can't ever remember any other watch leaving so little impression on me. It just did nothing for me, at all. And while I'll freely admit that I am kind of a contrary person when it comes to what I 'like', I went into this with a positive mindset because I didn't want to sit here slagging off a watch (similar to one) I know a friend has bought. In fact if anything I wanted to 'understand' what everyone saw in this watch that I hadn't and unfortunately I still don't get it at all.
I can see why it would be a good 'first' luxury watch for someone, because it is so 'middle of the road'. It looks well made and it has a retro-ness about it, without being too old-fashioned. It also looks like a Rolex, which doesn't hurt, especially since Tudor is connected to Rolex so this isn't just some throwaway homage from a factory in China.
But I am absolutely flummoxed as to how multiple people on the Calibre 11 forum can get so excited about it. The dial, which appears quite striking in photos with its black and gold colour scheme is so flat and lifeless, I mean maybe the lights in Goldsmiths weren't helping matters but I had no such problem with the Aquaracer or the Carrera Elegant so I'm guessing that wasn't the problem.
As we've established since, the BB58 has gold numbers on the bezel which might help a bit, but I can't honestly see that small detail changing my mind significantly overall.
I am floundering here; as I know from my days reviewing albums back in the 90s, when something is very good or very bad it's really easy to write about, but when it's just kinda average it's really, really hard to know what to say about it, and that's exactly how I feel right now. It's competent, it's solid, it's well finished, it's tasteful and maybe even the dreaded 'T' word (timeless), but for me it has no 'sparkle', it has no life, no energy. It just doesn't speak to me.
At all.
On the plus side, I'm glad the riveted bracelet turned out to be better than I thought, but above that, I literally don't know what to say about this watch. Clearly it's me who doesn't get it, cos the Black Bay (in its many varied forms) seems to be flying out of the stores, I mean I tried.... and it just completely failed to change my mind. Maybe I should have picked a blue one or the original red and black one.... I mean I did kinda like the Harrods edition (above) and also the Bucherer Black Bay (which I saw in Selfridges a few years ago), even though it was on a Nato strap! But neither of these watches are truly representative of the watches that are generally available to the public and the Harrods edition is currently selling about 50% over list...
Unfortunately, for me the Black Bay seems to be cut from the same cloth as the Rolex Explorer. A watch which is perfectly adequate in every way, but which utterly fails to illicit any reaction in me whatsoever. Well look, I gave it a fair go... and it came up short. I don't know what to say. I'm genuinely sorry Jim and I hope you enjoy owning yours when you finally get it, I'll probably even enjoy looking at the photos, but the long and short of it is that the Tudor Black Bay is definitely not for me.
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