The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
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Tudor's new 39mm watch is the latest in a line of watches that honors the old while bringing in the best of the new.
On July 8, 1952, a crew of twenty-five men set sail from Deptford, London on the south bank of the River Thames, headed into the unknown of the brutal and unforgiving landscape of the arctic for the British North Greenland Expedition (BNGE), one of the most daring expeditions of the 20th century.
For two years, these scientists, medical, and military personnel (and five other men who would later join the mission) braved temperatures as low as -87ºF on the remote Greenland landscape, their meteorological, geological, seismological, and physiological research setting the groundwork for future arctic expeditions and the burgeoning field of climate science. The mission was so important that its chief patron was Queen Elizabeth II, who had just ascended to the throne months prior to the expedition, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill its vice-patron.
That same year Tudor released the Oyster Prince, the company's first automatic and waterproof watch, and sent 26 of their watches, reference 7808 models, into the arctic with the BNGE. Tudor's advertisements hailed "the courageous men who wear these Tudor Oyster Princes [and] have unerring faith in their ability to withstand these tremendous hazards." No one could imagine exactly how hazardous the trip would be, but the ad promised that the explorers would make sure that "during the next two years, these wristwatches will undergo every ordeal a watch is heir to."
Today, Tudor paid tribute to the thirty men of the expedition and their contributions to science while unveiling a brand-new 39mm Tudor Ranger, a stripped-down tool watch built for the kind of expedition the BNGE undertook 70 years ago to the day.
The new Ranger follows in the no-date lineage of those Greenland Oyster Princes with styling taken from later 1960s vintage Tudor Rangers. The 39mm wide, 12mm-thick, steel case brings the model into a more modern and wearable dimension than the 34mm vintage models, with 100m water resistance. It has the fixed steel bezel you'd expect on a Ranger and the grained, matte-black, domed dial has the Ranger's iconic 3-6-9-12 hour markers painted in a slightly yellow-green-hued Super-LumiNova that matches the also-iconic Ranger handset. Updated from the last Ranger, the dial now features a Tudor shield logo instead of the rose.
Inside the watch is the brand's COSC-certified 4Hz Manufacture Calibre MT5402 running the hour, minutes, and hacking seconds hands with an approximately 70-hour power reserve.
One of the potentially overlooked features of the watch is the appearance (yet again) of the same "T-fit" safety catch on the Oyster-style bracelet that allows on-the-fly adjustment of the bracelet's fit. After releasing the T-fit design in Tudor's boutique-exclusive Black Bay 58 Bronze and this year's Black Bay Pro, I expect we will be seeing it on most of the brand's future releases, if not all. And, happily, for a lot of people, the bracelet has no faux rivets in sight.
Priced from $2,725 with strap or $3,050 on the steel bracelet, the new Tudor Ranger features the same Manufacture Calibre MT5402 seen in the Black Bay 58 line, giving you a rate of 4 Hz.
For tried and true Tudor fans, the announcement of a new Ranger probably wasn't much of a surprise. The discontinuation of both the old 41mm Ranger in 2020 and the North Flag, last year, gave Tudor an opening to revisit elements of what has become an iconic watch for vintage Tudor collectors and the brand alike. So when the company started teasing a watch with a design bolstered by the history of the BNGE, a lot of people guessed what was coming.
But Tudor already surprised us earlier this year with their Black Bay Pro, so as rumors swirled I tried to tune them out and carry the perspective that an "expectable" watch from a dependable brand probably won't be a bad thing. After seeing the watch, I can say it exceeded my (admittedly reserved) expectations by a wide margin.
My daily wear is the original Black Bay 58, so the case dimensions of 39mm wide and 12mm thick were immediately familiar to me, as is the movement inside. The satin-brushed case is perfect for a stripped-down, no-frills tool watch, the kind that has the type of immediate legibility and simplicity I'd hope for if I was reaching for a watch to take into a field expedition.
The bracelet options are all great and while I never truly was bothered by the Black Bay 58's faux rivets, seeing that the Ranger's bracelet design is so clean and the T-fit clasp is so slick, I immediately wished my BB58 had them. And despite being a "go bracelet or go home" kind of guy, I was shocked at how much I loved the jacquard fabric/James Stacey-style modified NATO.
My biggest concern was the dial. Tudor was quick to point out that the name Ranger goes back to the 1920s and for all the flack it might get as an "Explorer copy," the 3-6-9-12 Explorer-style dial is something that's long been a part of Tudor's history, including on some of the dials of the original Oyster Prince ref. 7808. What I didn't love about the original Rangers was the font and handset (sacrilege, I know). The shovel hand and font always felt a bit anachronistic and out-of-place versus Tudor's iconic Mercedes or snowflake handsets. It also can be a make-or-break thing on such a simple watch. If there's something you don't like, there's nowhere for it to hide.
In the end, I might need more time to decide how I feel about the dial. The design is so close to the vintage Rangers that it might just be that it's hard for me to shed those previous biases over a short time with the watch. Credit to Tudor, the size of the 3-6-9-12 numerals has been slightly increased, which I think gives more balance to the dial and, whether or not they are, the hands feel just slightly sharper and more modern and the little red-tipped second hand is a nice touch. For fans of the old dial, I don't think the changes are going to scare you off, but for someone unsure of the design, only time will tell.
You can learn more about Tudor's role in the British North Greenland Expedition in Jason Heaton's 2016 article on the harrowing conditions the explorers faced and what became of these watches. In the meantime, if you're looking to buy, Tudor told me these watches are already in the hands of dealers, worldwide.
Brand: Tudor Model: Ranger Reference Number: 79950
Diameter: 39mm Thickness: 12mm Case Material: Steel Dial Color: Matte Black Indexes: Painted yellow-green-tinted Super-LumiNova Lume: Hands and markers Water Resistance: 100m Strap/Bracelet: 316L steel, olive-green Jacquard fabric with red and beige stripes, or hybrid rubber and leather strap
Caliber: Manufacture Calibre MT5402 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds Diameter: 26mm Thickness: 5mm Power Reserve: Approx. 70 hours Winding: Self-winding mechanical movement with a bidirectional rotor system Frequency: 4 Hz Jewels: 27 Chronometer Certified: Swiss chronometer-certified by COSC
Price: $2,725 on fabric or hybrid rubber and leather strap; $3,050 on bracelet
For more information visit Tudor. The HODINKEE shop carries a variety of pre-owned Tudor watches.
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