Tudor Pelagos 39 - One Month On / Belated NWA

As I’ve dove back into watch enthusiasm the second half of the year, I expanded my collection by quite a lot - a Mühle Glashütte Panova Turquoise, a Seiko Solar Sumo GMT (SFK001), and a MoonSwatch Mercury. Those three have been entirely complimentary to my existing collection and while I like my collection a lot, I still felt like something has been missing. There’s an itch that I felt needed scratching, and I’ve been continually looking.

It took me a while - a lot of looking at a lot of watches, a lot of thinking a lot about watches, and lot of thinking about myself - to figure out what that itch was, though. What I concluded was that I wanted something light, on the smaller side, rugged, highly legible, subtle, versatile, and just cool (which, of course, is in the eyes of the beholder). Something I could wear anywhere and with everything, if I had to only wear one watch on a trip. I had recently revived my OG Tag Heuer F1, and found that I loved the wearing experience of something that basically disappeared on my wrist. The Tag didn’t fulfill that brief, though: it’s not the most legible thing around given the tiny dial and dead lume; it’s not as subtle as you’d think a 34mm watch would be because it’s become a hipstery statement piece despite being tiny (even more so than the average wrist watch is nowadays) because it’s gone through the full hype cycle; and it’s not the most versatile thing in the world. 

What I had settled on was that I’d wait until after Watches & Wonders 2024 to see if anything interesting was released then; otherwise, I'd buy a Tudor Black Bay Pro next year, since it’s the watch that I liked the most; other than not being particularly light, it pushed all the right buttons for me. I also had my name down on a couple retailers’ lists for an Explorer 36, which is the only Rolex I really like. I think I like the BB Pro better, but if I happened to get "the call" before W&W 24, then I’d revisit that Explorer and see if I really wanted to pull the trigger on that.

With that attitude, I wasn’t intending to buy a watch the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I happened to be at South Coast Plaza while visiting SoCal for the holiday and wandered into the Tudor boutique. After checking the displays, I asked on a lark if they had the Pelagos 39 or Black Bay 54, the former of which I hadn’t yet seen - none of the Bay Area Tudor AD’s or boutiques had it in stock whenever I visited, and neither did any of the ones in Tokyo I visited when I was there in September - and the latter of which I only saw only once and briefly (it didn’t really appeal at first impression, but I started to get intrigued by it again after watching several YouTube videos on it). 

They had both. So I tried both on. And I really liked both. 

The Black Bay 54 is awesome. It’s versatile, mixing the formal trappings of gilded text and a thin and compact case with the broad shoulders that 20mm lugs on 37mm case give a diver. To me, it’s the closest thing to the Breitling SuperOcean Heritage 38 from the late 2000’s/early 2010’s, which was a watch that I loved, especially in blue, but never pulled the trigger on (though I guess the new SuperOcean Heritage 57 Highlands line is now the closest thing to that line). Were I going to suggest to someone a first luxury watch, the BB 54 would be on the shortlist. It’s clear why the watch has been in such short supply this year - it’s just an excellent, small watch, and it hit a lot of buttons for me. I might have bought it … 

But the Pelagos 39. Sometimes when you know, you know, and I knew with the P39. The lightness (in terms of heft) and darkness (in terms of color) of the brushed titanium; the subtle, sunburst effect on the dial and bezel that add an elevated touch; the slightly larger size compared to the BB 54 while still being compact; the brutally legible dial with the snowflake handset; and the beautiful blue lume: it just connected with me. It really suited, especially how modern the watch felt.

And that's the aspect that closed the deal - the Pelagos 39’s modernity. Modern watch design - as far as I can tell, and I’m hopeful someone with an actual design experience will correct me - seems to be about maximizing visual impact through flatter design. Comparing the prior generation Seamaster Pro 300M to the current Seamaster Diver 300M is the clearest demonstration of this ethos to me - the wider font and deeper scallops on the bezel; the flat, engraved, graphic wave pattern on the dial; the larger indices and handset; more prominent crown guard and helium escape valve; and slightly wider lyre lugs (with the same interlug distance): they all conspire to give the new version a ton more wrist presence than the 1mm increase in size would indicate.

I think the Pelagos 39 is about as modern as it comes - it’s a graphic and punchy, with barely raised square lume plots, and a handset placed very close to the dial. The distinction really was apparent compared against the Black Bay Pro. The BB Pro's aged lume, slightly desaturated matte dial, yellow GMT hand, bright brushed steel, circular plots, and relative heft give it a vintage-ey watch. I’m certain both watches will age well. But once I realized that I wanted something that felt of now and not of then, it was a no-brained to go for the Pelly. 

5 weeks in, how do I feel about the watch? I love it. It’s everything I wanted it to be and feels very me.

The legibility is incredible, and the lume is awesome - if charged before I go to sleep, the lume is still visible when I wake up in the morning. The bracelet is phenomenal. I had assumed that I’d swap it out as soon as I could as I typically hate bracelets, but I have yet to do so, since it’s just so comfortable. The lightness and microadjustability makes the watch feel almost invisible on my wrist (I’ve also had trouble with the spring bars, as they don’t want to release 😄). The watch’s warmth was surprising - after wearing for a few minutes, the watch is warmer than other watches. It’s kind of nice.

The bezel action is addictive - one AD described Tudor bezels as like a safe, and I think that’s accurate. Omega - learn from Tudor. My Seamaster 300M Pro GMT’s action is awful, and modern Seamasters aren’t any better. I love how the sunburst on the dial and bezel are there when the light hits just right, but otherwise, it’s just a clean, beautiful, deep, inky black.

Negatives? While the lume is awesome, it’s a little weird that the lume on the hands is a little weaker than the dial and bezel. It still lasts all night, but it’s definitely a bit fainter. The bracelet clasp also picked up scratches instantly (probably from my laptop palm rest), but then again - even bracelets I wore less than this one have similar scratches. The clasp is also very wide. I don’t see why the diver extension needs to be covered by the clasp - it’s so well integrated and it needs a bit of intention to deploy that it would’ve been just fine to shorten the clasp so it’s exposed. And the lack of a date is kind of annoying as I can never remember the date, but I knew that when buying, so I can’t really complain about it.

This is just a belated NWA and collection of thoughts, not a full review - I’ll hold that off for later and after the honeymoon period has ended. But so far, I’m really pleased, and am looking forward to some new adventures with this watch! 

Hat tip to @Lufty_Luft, who pointed out that I’d probably have to go titanium, when I asked if there was anything modern that wore like the Tag F1. It seems you were right!