Tudor Black Bay GMT impressions - Had a great AD experience today

First time AD experience today with a good mate and fellow watch enthusiast. Had a really great day! Visited pretty much all the boutiques in my city and spoke to many nice SA’s, learnt a lot and tried many watches on. Rare day off from usual family duties, memorable day! Tudor AD was mega awesome, had the most fun, just plain down to earth guys who really are Watch nuts like myself. Totally awesome.

The Tudor Pepsi - What a watch this is in person! Pictures online don’t do it any justice, the blue is dark navy blue, the red is burgundy. This watch was not on my radar at all until I happened to see it in person in a recent trip away as a “Display Only” unit and instantly I fell in love with it. Its so classy, retro, classic, robust, extremely well made as you’d expect from Tudor but at the same time modern, fun and extremely useful (for me at least with the GMT function).

I bought this as a daily “beater” because I’ve discovered that I cannot always wear my grail watch 126613LB Bluesy submariner on every single occasion of my life as much as I want to. So comparing this to my Bluesy - it wears roughly the same size to my relief, it’s slightly larger overall but I don’t feel alienated with this on my wrist. The winding mechanism is oh so smooth Rolex feeling. The bezel clicks so nicely, I don’t mind the larger crown, it’s better and easier to handle for everyday usage. The domed sapphire crystal is oh so nice at acute angles, the coin edge of the bezel is perfection. Legibility is very very good, easy to read time and GMT time. That jumping hour hand!! Lets be honest it’s the small details in this hobby that make us watch nerds!

I‘ve looked at it under 10x loupe and the dial printing, applied markers, hand polishing is perfection. only spot very very small imperfections but honestly it’s not worth mentioning.

One worrying thing I did have about the watch was if it would fit me well, I have 17cm (6 3/4) wrists and these days I am leaning more and more towards smaller format watches like Longines Spirit 37, Orient Bambino 38, so I was concerned that the watch wouldn't wear well and that the bracelet wouldn’t work for me, but to my relief it works perfectly! The AD managed to equalise the lengths on both sides on the clasp so it is perfectly balanced on my wrist. The rapid drop off of the lugs helps with this. Wore it all day today and have nothing bad to report. It’s not the MOST comfy I’ve ever worn but it’s good enough for all day. Need more time.

One small thing, I wish it had quick adjust clasp, this is a must for modern watches let’s be honest. I use the one on my submariner every time I wear it.

Overall I feel this is 90% Rolex, this means fit finish is Rolex, movement quality is Rolex, robustness is Rolex, but the price is certainly not Rolex! Also I feel it is less pretentious in certain social occasions which is a big advantage - and a big reason for wanting this watch. Pepsi without pepsi negatives?

 I have ordered an Uncle Seiko jubilee bracelet without clasp, just for fun so look out for future posts. Thanks for reading!