Why Tudor’s New GMT Is the Watch I’ve Waited Half a Decade For

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Ever since the release of Tudor’s Black Bay GMT back in 2018—the brand’s analogue to the Rolex GMT-Master II—fans have been clamoring for a slightly smaller, thinner version. At this year’s Watches & Wonders Geneva, our prayers were finally answered in the form of the Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT, a 39-mm, 12.8-mm-tall travel watch with a rotating, bicolor bezel and the ability to track three time zones. When I saw it “in the metal,” as they say, I knew I wanted to spend some hands on time with it.

Lo and behold, not long after Watches & Wonders, I was greeted with an email from Tudor offering me exactly that—a few days later, a package showed up in the mail. My hands shook. The metaphorical clouds parted, and the voice of a chorus of horological angels—presumably of the type drawn by an animator for a Monty Python skit—erupted into heavenly song, announcing this highly anticipated piece’s arrival. Rejoice!

Would the Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT prove to be the ultimate travel watch? The Goldilocks-size travel watch? The “Coke”-flavored GMT watch upon which I would peg all my (watch-related) hopes and dreams? One week later, I think I found my answer…

What's It Made Of?

First things first—namely, some specs: Carved from a block of 316L stainless steel with polished and satin finishes, the BB 58 GMT is 2 mm smaller (in width) than the Black Bay GMT, and nearly 2 mm thinner than 2022’s Black Bay Pro, another Tudor travel watch. It comes on a “rivet”-style bracelet with Tudor’s excellent T-fit clasp for $4,600, or on a rubber strap for $4,400. At the moment, the newer Tudor 5-link bracelet, similar to a Rolex Jubilee model, doesn’t come in a 20-mm lug width and thus will not fit this watch. (Here’s hoping that the brand will offer one in the future—perhaps on the next iteration of the Black Bay 58 GMT?)

Within the watch is Tudor’s Manufacture Calibre MT5450-U (COSC- and METAS-certified) automatic movement. Boasting 65 hours of power reserve, it’s resistant to magnetic fields of up to 15,000 gauss. (Should you find yourself employed by CERN or trying to use an EMP to fight a platoon of Terminators, you should be in good shape.) In short, the BB 58 GMT provides, with respect to its construction, movement, and functionality, a very similar experience to that of the Rolex GMT-Master II, though of course there are aesthetic and other differences. (For example, the type of steel used in the case, the precise dimensions, the available colorways, etc.)

The Fidget Spinner Award: The Feature That Kept Me Most Occupied

The fun thing about wearing a classic, Rolex-style diver or GMT is the rotating bezel, which you can spin endlessly—much to your own entertainment, and to the detriment of your friends’ sanity. On the BB58 GMT, the bicolor red-and-black bezel is used to calculate a second (or third, depending on how one uses it) time zone in conjunction with the watch’s fourth hand. This system, developed by Rolex in the 1950s for use by Pan Am pilots and crew members, lives on to this day on that brand’s GMT-Master series, and in certain of sister company Tudor’s GMT watches.

Personally, I found calculating a third time zone difficult with this watch, as it involved a certain degree of memorization; instead, I tended to leave the bezel in place and simply read the GMT hand against it to indicate a second time zone. However, I did use the bezel to time things—much like on my Submariner dive watch—and the effect introduced by the rotating red-and-black 24-hour insert provided a fun degree of dynamism to the watch’s design. (Sometimes, depending on the position of the bezel, it felt like I was wearing a completely different watch.) Overall, I’d argue that the classic, Rolex-style bezel was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the BB 58 GMT.

Fits to Rock With This Watch

I suppose the classic fit to rock with the BB 58 GMT would be a midcentury Pan Am pilot’s uniform. However, as I lack the ability to fly a DC-3, I instead opted to wear it with pretty much everything else: jeans and a button-down around town; slacks and a jacket while out to dinner at a nice steak joint for my birthday; and shorts and a T-shirt to see Dead & Co. at the Sphere. (As mind-boggling as you heard it was, by the way.) With steel construction, 200 meters of water resistance, and a matching steel bracelet, the BB 58 GMT is a true tool watch, meant to be worn everywhere and abused. As a travel watch, it’s designed to accompany you across the world. And while I didn’t get to travel the world during my week with the BB 58 GMT, I did notice and appreciate its ability to look sharp no matter how I was dressed.

The one wild card here is, of course, this particular version’s black-and-red bezel insert, which is commonly referred to as a “Coke” bezel by Rolex (and now Tudor) fans. The black-and-red combination is an acquired taste, and might look a bit sinister with certain fits. The addition of “gilt” (brass and gold-colored) accents gives it an even more idiosyncratic look, which doesn’t quite jive with every outfit. I’d personally love a “Pepsi” version of this watch with a blue-and-red bezel, which I feel might work better with the absolute sea of blue jeans I own. But the black-and-red version is admittedly sharp as hell; indeed, I think the only thing I wouldn’t wear it with is a suit (and definitely not with black or white tie). Other than that, it always felt appropriate and complimentary to my largely casual wardrobe.

Props and Digs

The BB 58 GMT, while technically available for purchase at Tudor boutiques, hasn’t quite proliferated through the collector community yet by simple virtue of its newness. (Indeed, when I walked into my local Tudor boutique to have it sized for this review, I initially got a couple of questioning looks from the boutique staff!) But in wearing it around town, I got the sense that folks really seem to enjoy its good looks and comfortable sizing: I was wearing it when my buddy and I swung by Craft & Tailored, a vintage watch boutique, to hang and check out some cool inventory. These guys, being industry pros, were honest in their opinions: They loved the case size, and were split on their opinion of the “Coke” colorway. (To be fair, so was I.)

Elsewhere, civilians seemed to largely love it: I got a few compliments on its colorful makeup, its Rolex-like appearance, and its shiny new case and bracelet. This isn’t terribly surprising—the BB 58 GMT is a good-looking object, and even those who might prefer a different bezel colorway are quick to appreciate it for what it is. While wearing it around for a week—and explaining that it was on loan for review, to allow people to share their unbiased opinion without fear of offending my personal tastes—there wasn’t a single person who expressed dislike for it. Maybe just the preference for a tweak here or there.

Gettin' Handsy

It’s worth commenting briefly on this watch’s handset, as it’s unique to Tudor—and also, fairly iconic in the watch industry. The “snowflake” hands come from a couple of Tudor Submariner references from the late ’60s and ’70s that were requested by the Marine Nationale, the French navy. Military divers need a highly legible, luminous set of hands that can be easily distinguished when underwater—Tudor designed the snowflake handset, with its idiosyncratic hour hand, expressly for this purpose. When Tudor launched its Black Bay Series under the auspices of famed watch designer Davide Cerrato (now at Bremont) roughly a decade ago, it recalibrated its production to embrace this handset. Nowadays, most Tudor watches have snowflake hands, including the BB 58 GMT.

The snowflake design, in addition to forming a highly legible set of dive watch hands, quickly and easily distinguishes a Tudor watch from any other brand’s wares—including those from Rolex. Personally, it took me some years to come around to snowflake hands. (I initially preferred the “lollipop” hands of certain vintage Subs to the snowflake, and fellow nerds thought I was crazy. They may have been right.) These days, I quite like them, and they do indeed differentiate something like the BB 58 GMT from a Rolex GMT-Master II—which otherwise look very similar. My one issue is that, on this initially BB 58 GMT colorway, the seconds hand is the same color and shape of the hour hand. I’d personally much prefer this hand to be a different color, like on the steel versions of the Black Bay GMT. Maybe in a future “Pepsi” version the brand will leave off the gilt coloring, and change the seconds hand to red?

Wish List

For me—and for many folks, seemingly—the Black Bay GMT looked perfect, but was just a touch too wide, and too tall. The Black Bay Pro similarly looked like a million bucks, but at 14.6 mm was way too tall. The BB 58 GMT, on the other hand? Goldilocks watch, no question. It’s just right at 39 mm by 12.8 mm, and the rivet bracelet is perfectly comfortable. (I tried the watch on its rubber strap in Geneva, though I didn’t wear it for a week at home for review. It, too, was highly comfortable.) My one wish is that Tudor would make a 20-mm five-link bracelet—similar to the Rolex Jubilee bracelet—to fit this model. One of the joys of the Rolex GMT-Master II in steel is enjoying that brand’s Jubilee bracelet, which is highly elegant and comfortable. I’m hoping a future BB 58 GMT will have this as an option.

My other big wish regarding the BB 58 GMT is for a 24-hour track on the dial itself—ideally, on a rehaut, or inner flange beyond the minute track so that it wouldn’t interfere with the dial design. Why an inner 24-hour track? Because though this watch, with its independently adjustable local hour hand, can technically track three time zones, in practice this is difficult: When you move the 24-hour bezel to track your third zone, you no longer have a fixed 24-hour scale visible against the dial’s hands, which makes reading your second time zone tough unless you’ve memorized the positioning of the 24-hour indications. Certain timepieces, such as the Monta Skyquest, fix this by placing a 24-hour track on the dial itself. I’d love to see this in a future Tudor GMT watch.

The Bottom Line

I’ve been waiting for this watch for six years, and I have to say: I love the heck out of it. Is the black-and-red “Coke” bezel with gilt accents and printing my ideal colorway? It’s not—in fact, I’d prefer a “Pepsi” color, which jives a bit better with my wardrobe and looks a bit “happier,” to my mind—but I still found myself glancing down at it all week, appreciating its subtleties and quirks. Its sizing is ideal for me, and the bracelet is highly comfortable. I have no doubt whatsoever that this “Coke” version is merely the first of many colorways to come, and that next year’s Watches & Wonders will yield yet another compelling iteration.

For constant travelers like myself, the BB 58 GMT is the ideal everyday watch. Because it’s built like a tank and boasts 200 meters of water resistance, I never had to worry about it when on wrist, and I’d be perfectly comfortable swimming and even diving with it. (Though technically not a dive watch, you can use its bi-directional bezel as a dive timer in a pinch.) It also looks great with outfits both casual and even a bit more formal—though it’s perhaps a bit too colorful and chunky for, say, black tie. At slightly less than $5K and with a COSC- and METAS-certified movement and “flyer” GMT functionality, it’s by no means inexpensive, but certainly a lot of watch for the money…

Probably more than you’ll ever need, in fact.

Originally Appeared on GQ