Palms-On Debut: Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight Collaboration Watch

Though Rowing Blazers is finest often called an American clothes model and design home, the corporate has extra lately made a reputation for itself inside the world of watches because of a sequence of high-profile collaborations with a number of the business’s most well-known and historic producers. Following two profitable collaborations with Seiko and one other with Zodiac, Rowing Blazers has most lately teamed up with Tudor for 2023 to create a limited-edition model of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight. With that in thoughts, in contrast to earlier Rowing Blazers collaboration watches, the brand new Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight isn’t obtainable on the market to most people, and it’s as an alternative solely being supplied to family and friends of the model.

Designed by Rowing Blazers’ founder Jack Carlson in collaboration with Eric Wind from Wind Classic (the 2 have been mates since faculty and Eric helped design all the earlier Rowing Blazers watches), the brand new Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight was produced as a limited-edition run of fewer than 100 examples, and because it isn’t truly on the market to members of most people, it isn’t a watch that you will discover listed wherever on both of the model’s web sites. Primarily based upon the unique black dial model of the current-production Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, the brand new Rowing Blazers version incorporates a {custom} engraved caseback, together with a dial that showcases a brilliant pink “Neon Noir” Rowing Blazers brand instead of the standard chronometer-certification textual content and depth score that sits on the decrease half of the dials fitted to regular Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight watches.

The pink Rowing Blazers “Neon Noir” brand is impressed by Eighties t-shirt graphics and the film “Drive,” whereas the caseback engraving is a Latin inscription that reads “AVT VIAM INVENIAM AVT FACIAM” (which interprets to “I shall both discover a manner or make one”). Moreover, the middle of the caseback on every watch additionally options the initials of its proprietor, and since Eric Wind was variety sufficient to let me {photograph} his private Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight for this text, the middle of the caseback on this specific instance options his initials “EMW.” (Please word the serial quantity engraving has been digitally faraway from the pictures for confidentiality and safety causes.)

Apart from its dial and caseback, the brand new Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight could be very a lot the identical vintage-inspired dive watch that everyone knows and love, which signifies that you get the identical 39mm chrome steel case, domed sapphire crystal, and rivet-style bracelet that may be discovered on the standard-production fashions. Equally, apart from the neon pink Rowing Blazers brand, the general format of the dial is identical as the traditional Black Bay Fifty-Eight watches, with utilized luminous indexes, gilt-style markings, and a set of matching gold-finished snowflake fingers. For the reason that Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight itself could be very a lot a identified amount by this level, I’m going to skip the total define of its specs; nonetheless, in case you are searching for an entire assessment of the usual black dial model of the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, you could find that proper right here.

Whereas private-order Tudor watches with {custom} dials are objectively reasonably uncommon, they aren’t solely unusual. Along with having produced watches for numerous regulation enforcement and army teams, Tudor has additionally made particular “family and friends” version watches for a various assortment of different teams and entities, with notable examples together with Undefeated, Air France, Google’s “Watches for Good” charity, the State of Qatar, and even Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” tour. With that in thoughts, whereas the checklist of earlier Tudor collaboration watches is actually considerably eclectic, I can’t consider one other occasion the place Tudor has created a watch with an organization that additionally sells timepieces made by different bands, and based mostly on the data that’s at present obtainable, that is the primary watch from both Tudor or its guardian firm Rolex to ever characteristic pink textual content on its dial.

In contrast to a good variety of different custom-order Tudor Black Bay watches that retain their chronometer-certification textual content and squeeze the opposite entity’s brand above it, the Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight omits the whole lot of the writing on the decrease half of the dial, with solely the brilliant pink “Neon Noir” brand showing under the fingers. Personally, I believe it was a wise transfer to go away out the extra textual content, because it creates considerably higher steadiness, with the pink Rowing Blazers brand being roughly the identical dimension and total form because the Tudor title and defend emblem that sits reverse it on the higher half of the dial.

From Seiko, to Zodiac, and now to Tudor, Rowing Blazers’ collaborations are clearly shifting upmarket inside the higher world of watches, and identical to the trajectory of many particular person collectors, the American clothes model and design home is moving into more and more costly timepieces. Whereas this specific co-branded Tudor watch is probably going one thing that lots of people would need to add to their private collections, the two-digit sum of examples that had been created of the Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight had been all supplied to family and friends of the model, and every of the watches was engraved with its proprietor’s private initials.

Though lower than 100 items had been created, it hasn’t been disclosed precisely what number of examples of the watch had been produced, or how a lot patrons had been charged for this limited-edition collaboration mannequin. That mentioned, it’s pretty secure to imagine that they paid someplace within the basic neighborhood of the $3,950 USD retail value that corresponds with the usual model of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight. Though it’s not going that we are going to see a model of this watch that shall be obtainable to most people, the truth that Rowing Blazers has entry to blue-chip corporations comparable to Tudor ought to be taken as an encouraging signal of what we would have the ability to anticipate from the model sooner or later.

For extra data on both the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight or Rowing Blazers and its numerous different watch collaborations, please go to the official Tudor web site or Rowing Blazer’s web site