An American Milsub? Reviewing the Tudor FXD Black

One could be forgiven for thinking that Tudor has set out to test the adage that all news is good news. A little over a week ago they announced the release of a new FXD with a black dial, titanium case and a unidirectional 60 click dive bezel. It even has a single line of red text. 

It is basically the FXD that many people have been asking for since the release of the original blue version produced in partnership with a unit of combat swimmers within the French Navy (MN). While a success, this watch was never without its critics. Several voiced the opinion that a direct MN connection in the current age could never be anything more than a marketing gimmick. Others believed that the bezel should have been in a standard dive configuration, rather than the countdown navigational type that the MN actually requested. Finally, I was surprised by the number of people who wanted to see it in black. 

These voices became even louder once the Alinghi Red Bull Racing collaborations were released earlier this year with their polarizing blue/black/red and white color scheme and enthusiastic embrace of product placement. Couldn’t Tudor just go back to its roots and produce a no-nonsense watch for professionals? Wasn’t that the whole point of the Pelagos line, and the FXD in particular. 

Tudor seems to have pleased no one by giving the fans exactly what they had been asking for. Despite an ongoing assumption that they can turn anything into marketing gold, the watch community is not having it.  Most of the reviews I have seen on YouTube have been mixed at best, and the only enthusiastically positive coverage I have seen comes from sources with a penchant for passing off advertising as journalism. The more independent reviewers all seem to begrudgingly explain that there is nothing actually wrong with the piece in question, and then unload on Tudor for having released it. Or maybe having released it in the way they did. This is going to go down as the most disappointing Tudor release since the Ranger. Or maybe since that METAS certified ceramic Black Bay with the display case back and the blacked out movement?  In truth Tudor’s late year releases are always hit or miss. Yet we keep talking about them anyway.

We talk about them because we expect an endless supply of new and innovative things from this brand. And we get rather disappointed when our personal expectations are not met. To be entirely honest this love/hate cycle is not always rational. That METAS certified ceramic Black Bay has got to be one of the coolest and most unique pieces in the Tudor catalog, and yet it was roundly panned at the time of its release because everyone was hoping for an MN Pelagos instead. Go figure.

In this review I want to discuss the somewhat clumsy launch of the new FXD and then talk about the watch itself.  Finally, I want to say a few words about how it compares to the original MN FXD and whether I think there is room for both in the same collection.

Distancing themselves from the previous MN origin story, these new black dialed FXD’s are said to be inspired by Tudor’s long running connections to the US Navy from roughly the 1950s to the 1980s.  During this time they produced a variety of milsubs, most of which looked a lot more like the BB58 than they do the titanium cased Pelagos on display at your local AD.

A nostalgia play is an odd strategy in this part of the catalog. And since a Pelagos was on the table many individuals expected to hear about some sort of tie-in to the modern US Navy, mirroring the relationship that Tudor has re-established with the MN. Instead a room full of watch journalists that had been flown to Florida were informed that these pieces were strictly an homage to the past and that no current unit of the US military had anything to do with them. That last point received a lot of emphasis. Obviously it let a lot of the air out of the room.  If nothing else, why would Tudor abandon a known marketing formula that had worked so well for the MN FXD for yet another round of mid-century Submariner nostalgia?

On closer inspection things start to look even stranger.  In an article that has since been taken down (I saw a cached notice while searching for it stating that this was due to operational security concerns) the widely read “Watches of Espionage” blog reported that members of Seal Team 6 had ordered and received a number of black dialed FXD divers and had been using them for about a year prior to the current release. 

These watches were very similar to what we have now except that their dials have only two lines of text at the bottom (this is the same as the military contract FXD’s offered to the MN) and that they could be ordered in either right or left hand configurations. These details were picked up by a number of other news outlets (the high points of the piece have also been reported by Fratello in their review of the FXD), but Tudor itself is saying nothing about any of this.

It is true that any group can approach Tudor about getting some customized watches made for their team. Usually this involves printing a logo on the dial of an existing model and calling it a day. But when it is member of the Navy Seals that are asking for your watch, and you are producing specialized versions of your purpose built milsubs for them, one would naturally have expected that a more formal licensing deal would have been drawn up and we all would have been blown away by the release of a US Navy Seals version of the FXD last week. Instead a room full of journalists were shown an homage to the important work done by the Sea Lab program...

So why didn’t this very obvious bit of marketing happen? One wishes that we had more aggressive and independent watch journalism as I suspect there is a very interesting story here. If I had to guess Tudor has been working on this watch for a while and originally intended a very different release that would not have revolved around carefully worded denials of any relationship with the modern US Navy.

Further, I suspect that Panerai’s release of an entire line of watches in partnership with the US Navy Seals (and the signing of a licensing deal with them) a few weeks before has something to do with this. It seems unlikely that Panerai would be interested in having another luxury brand share a spotlight that they no doubt paid handsomely for.  Again, this is all conjecture, but there must be a good reasons that Tudor is actively distancing itself from what would otherwise have been an obvious, and very successful, marketing strategy.

So what about the watch itself? Let me start by asking you two questions. First, do you like NATO straps? Second, do you like large milsubs? If you answered yes to both of these questions you are going to love this watch. If not, you would probably be better advised to look elsewhere. One of the strengths of the Pelagos line is that they know their purpose and don’t make a lot of compromises. Yet that is also a double edged sword.

The mat black dial and bezel on this watch offer incredible visibility in quite literally any lighting condition. There is no hint of the sunburst or shine that some see as marring the popular Pelagos 39. This is a pure tool watch but one mounted in a case that still manages to feel a bit refined.

The quality of the lume is top notch and the 12.75 mm height is surprisingly slim and comfortable on the wrist. The fixed lug design also helps to keep what would otherwise be a larger watch wearable. In person the olive green and red strap is a great color combination and the watch takes on an almost austere character when paired with its included black rubber strap. The dial does feature a single red line of text, but the color is so dark that under many lighting conditions it just fades into the black background. 

The case is basically identical to that of the original MN FXD with a dark grey color, brushed finish and polished bevels. It has no special engravings and instead features a sterile case back. There have been no notable changes to the movement which, on my example, is keeping time at a rate of +2 seconds a day. That said, I was disappointed that Tudor did not make good on its promise to start offering more METAS certified pieces now that their new production facility is up and running. One would have thought that a new Pelagos would have been the natural place to extend this roll-out.

The biggest departures from the original MN can all be found on the bezel. The countdown bezel which the French combat swimmers requested has been swapped for a standard dive bezel. This is going to make many consumers very happy as it was one of the most common points that I would see mentioned around the internet. That said, I find a bi-directional count down bezel to be a far more useful tool in everyday life. Who wants to know how long ago your meeting started? What we all want to know is when it’s going to end.

The new bezel features 60 clicks rather than 120, and in my hands I can definitely detect more black-play. It also has a slightly lower, more hollow, sound. The original MN bezel feels notably more premium, though I suspect that consumers are going to demand the orthodox dive configuration. 

Is there room in a single collection for both the black and blue FXD? Absolutely, if you are a person who likes a larger milsub type watches on a NATO. I suspect that this is not a huge market segment. But I am going to love being able to wear my favorite daily driver in either black or blue. If you had to choose just one I would say to just go with your favorite color. I like the bezel action and functionality on the MN FXD better, but I realize there are lots of people who are going to really want that unidirectional option.

Then again, it’s unlikely that this will be a burning question for many people any time soon. I think that the real issue is how many watches Tudor is actually planning on producing. Only in the last few months has the supply of MN FXD’s started to open up, but they remain a hard watch to get at most AD’s.  Mine can count on two fingers how many MN FXD’s they have received since the model was first released. Nor have they ever received any of the Red Bull racing models, even though those were supposed to be for general distribution. And their experience is far from unique.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that the black FXD is a safer color choice and will probably be more sought after by consumers than the blue. Still, in the short run manufacturing capacity is a zero-sum game. It is easy to imagine that more black FXD’s coming off the lines would mean less production capacity for blue ones, or vice versa.

The basic prerequisite for selling a ton of watches is that you must first produce and distribute them. Tudor never really seemed interested in making the original FXD a main catalog item. I thought this was a terrible shame as it’s a great watch at a relatively modest price (at least as premium divers go) which everyone should be able to have a shot at.  I do not want to see Rolex style scarcity invade this segment of the market.

The fact that my local AD actually received a black FXD for release day may signal that these models are about to become more widely available.  And that would be a great thing. While a niche product compared to the BB58, I think a lot of people would really enjoy these watches if they could get their hands on them. A watch this good should not need either current military connections or a nostalgia filled Cold War highlight reel to attract a following. Yet only time will tell how many of these are actually produced and shipped to the AD’s.