Tudor quality issues

I have had zero issues with my BB58 and its going on 4 years old

I used to be car guy, and would spend lots of time on car forums. There must have been 200+ posts raging about the unforgivable deficiency associated with all BMW M cars, in that they always start up in comfort mode!

Why??? Why can't you, BMW, just allow the car to start up in Sport+ mode with all traction control systems completely disabled???

I think my time on the car forums taught me that enthusiasts will find the tiniest nit-pickiest things in the world to rage about. Like this...

And, in the end, it's wonderful. Because it all just goes to show how rich and safe and wonderful our world has become!

I had QC issues with my BB58 when I purchased it even though they fixed it promptly for me. At that price point and being a brand which makes you wait for a quite a while to deliver a watch, I expect better quality control and to deliver a watch without any minor issues.

Few little things really take away the excitement of a costly purchase and it was one for me with Tudor.

Every brand puts out a small percentage of product that will have some sort of problem. People with problems tend to be more vocal.

If yours works fine, there is no reason to stress about the vocal unlucky 1% that received a watch with a defect.

I currently own 4 modern Tudors purchased over the course of 5 years.

I've had 0 QC and 0 service issues.

I'm very happy with each of them, and they take a beating!

My spouse and I have the 1926 no issues knock on wood!

I'd imagine the issues are real. No watch company can put out a perfect piece 100% of the time. I think quality control issues are amplified greatly with most higher end or luxury brands for obvious reasons. I make a point of not paying attention to the reports. What I do pay attention to, am pay VERY close attention to is what customer service the brand gave in response to the issue. If they make it right with the buyer I have no qualms about making a purchase.

For instance, I've been interested in Yema watches for a while and hear many stories about quality control issues. I also hear a lot of anger and dismay about how the brand handled the issue. Therefore, Yema will not be getting any of my money.

There are two things with my FXD, neither of which concern me tremendously, but might speak to QC.

1) Bezel misalignment, off by maybe 0.5mm, enough to notice it but not enough to take action as rotating it sometimes calibrates it right. I may take this in at some point but not in any rush to lose my watch for a few months.

2) Crunchyness when winding past a certain point, where it’s not at an op per limit of being wound, but it does feel crunchy when winding almost like the mainspring barrel is dry, if that makes sense.

Car forums are the best for finding the worst people in the hobby. Especially, when talking German cars. They are not perfect, sure, but how many issues are related to people out spending their budget and skip and or skimp on the maintenance required to maintain such a car? Nevermind the tasteless or unbalanced performance modifications.

6 Tudors, and one minor issue with a pip, which they quickly fixed. I would not say it was a quality issue as there could be a number of reasons it happened. Also note, more people will take to forums to complain vs. simply say “It works.” They had issues with the date wheel on early GMTs, but as a whole, I do not know many folks with many issues. Also have to give them props for their service

@Dsoeer has it right.

We talk about timekeeping accuracy on watches up to 20 or in some cases up to 40 seconds a day. But we don't demand every watch be at 0 seconds a day because that's impossible.

So is 100% error free manufacturing. Issues are gonna happen. It's part of life.

It's how the company responds that matters; especially in that price range & up.

I had a quirk with my BB36 - I’d pull the crown out to set the time and the seconds hand wouldn’t stop 😬 it happened twice the first week I had it, but I’ve not been able to replicate it again.

It will probably crap out on you, soon. 😂😂😂.

If it does I hope it’s within the 5 year warranty.

I had a major problem, just like many of the “anecdotal” reports in forums. At the one year mark, the movement completely broke down. My AD sent it back, it didn’t return promptly, 3-4 months I don’t recall exactly but they replaced the whole movement.

Yes there are some minor QC issues but most of posts on forums are the Kenessi movements crapping out. I don’t know the percentage of failures but it’s probably small compared to how many in house movements they’ve sold over the last 5 years. Still if it happens to you, failure rate doesn’t really matter. I don’t really read about other brands failing like that, even micro brands.

Hope you don’t have problems.

My Tudor is functioning as advertised.

C'mon its Rolex...of course, there are going to be quality issues...just kidding 😉

I've seen a few reports about issues with BB58 specifically but I think you need to take into account the enormous popularity of that model. There are simply more of them out there ergo you're going to see more reporting on them and a small percentage are going to be negative.

Clickbait bullshit is what it is …

Phantom date position

Of the seven I have, none have given me any issues, except those pesky too short straps, which is easily solved by a Tudor extra long. My oldest is a bronze bought pre-Covid and it still is kicking along. Runs absolutely fine. No quality issues at all.

My GMT started off at -2/day and eventually drifted to -13/day before I sent it back in for re-regulation under warranty. Haven’t had any issues since.

These aren’t individually made pieces…they are mass manufactured. There’s always going to be some issues here and there with that scale of production.

I’ve never owned one. Local watchmaker did say he has had a Pelagos have lume fall out of the bezel. (He volunteered that as I was looking at an FXD he himself was selling. Tends to be a straight shooter.)

I don’t know if it has one though. None of the reviews I’ve read had it brought that up. Maybe I didn’t pull it out enough 🤷‍♂️

Less than a year after I bought it, the lume fell out the bezel of my Pelagos, plus there was too much play in the bezel. Tudor took it in... and took nearly 5 months to replace the bezel.

When I finally got it back it wasn't as accurate as it had been before. It had been -2 seconds every single day - within their -2 to +4 regulation. But after it's more or less -3 seconds every day. I know most people wouldn't give two hoots about that, but for me it is very annoying 😒

One of main reasons I went for the Pelagos was its super accurate time keeping. For it to stray from those parameters AFTER sitting in the service centre for 5 months fills me with an at times totally unreasonable fury!

But I'm not sure I can insist on it being regulated for such a small deviation.

Any suggestions, crunchers?

My BB Pro had no issues despite the movemwnt had some date issues in first GMT itterations. Runs at around +1s/day for a year now with no deviation. I would agree with some other posts that negative experience gets well around and is very vocal, not the good ones. And given the number of watches produced it is a small % and expected from any well made product. Last but not least, some people just have unrealistic expectations from a mass produced watch for 4-5k, it's not a ALS afterall

1. Says nothing about the Ranger having one either anywhere but it’s got one 👆 . Not a problem as long as you’re aware its there I suppose. I believe you only know by the feel if the stem ?

Mine too! Since 2017.

Write them a letter stating how unhappy you are , I would ! At least there is some catharsis in that and possibly a better outcome from them . When your paying over 4 K for a steel watch you better bloody well get good customer service or else ….. time to litigate for aggravated dishonesty in fair trade dealings with them , more people need to not back down from bullshit business practices so services improve across the board from these megalithic corporations.

I am a massive fan of modern Tudor watches but it was the original brown dial bronze iteration that was my first purchase from a regular ad that hooked me after years of ignoring both Tudor and Rolex. The first BB GMT arrived in boutiques with calendar wheel potential problems that were well known, my sa warned me that one of the first that she sold had been returned for servicing within days of leaving the retail store. I hoped either to be lucky or Rolex Canada would fix any problem that might arise with my gmt watch. It took a few months to fail but fail it did. It was repaired expeditiously after some debate about period of warranty since I just left the broken watch unattended during the global pandemic. Another seller who operates a multi brand boutique feels that Tudor is top value with a few but some QC issues.

I own two Tudor watches and have never had any issues. I use one daily and it goes everywhere with me. I’ve had no problems with it.