2020 Tudor 1926 36mm Opaline & Blue Dial Automatic 91450
Ref: 91450
Specification
Lugs : 19mm
Condition : Pre-Owned
Box & Papers : Box & Papers
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Warranty : 12-Months Warranty
Points of Mention
This watch is sold with its original Tudor Box, swing tag and Paperwork. The watch comes paired with its original polished and satin-brushed Tudor 19mm 7-link stainless steel bracelet with a signed folding clasp and safety catch; all links are provided. The watch is from March 2020 and is sold in worn condition; however, overall, it is in fair condition, as you can see from the photographs. A full case and bracelet refurb can be provided at an additional cost on request. The watch comes with our 12-Months Warranty.
For more photos see here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HBdP9VGfRVKEpPqCSO9Y8TaaThYriu7p?usp=drive_link
4K YouTube video, skip to 6:54 - https://youtu.be/UVwbW6pQBaU
The Watch
Here we have a 2020 Tudor 1926 Opaline & Blue Dial Automatic 91450, which captures the distinctive design cues found on their early watches; with a 36mm polished stainless steel case, the case gently curves over your wrist with tapered lugs and a lug-to-lug length of 43.5mm and a case thickness of 9mm ensures a comfortable fit. On the right side is a screw-down signed crown. A polished stainless steel smooth stepped bezel holds a flat sapphire crystal above an attractive Opaline and embossed honeycomb dial, an outer minute chapter ring with applied blue dagger and numeral indices mark the hours, and at 3 o’clock a colour-matched date window. Delicate blue leaf hands are complemented by a tapered sweeping second hand. As you rotate your wrist, the blue pops against the textured dial. A Tudor shield at 12 with text precisely applied to the dial with the smiley “Rotor self-winding” at 6 o’clock. On the reverse, a coin-edged screw-down case back, inside an automatic Tudor Cal. T601, 25/26 jewels, 28,800 beats per hour, this workhorse movement has a base of either the ETA 2824-2 or the Sellita SW200-1 with a bidirectional rotor and hand winding and hacking seconds for your convenience. The watch comes paired with its original polished and satin-brushed Tudor 20mm 7-link stainless steel bracelet with a signed folding clasp and safety catch; all links are provided and come with its Tudor presentation box, swing tag and paperwork.
Personal Note
When the opportunity arises to stock a modern Tudor that isn't a Black Bay I jump, whilst I do love the Black Bay range and feel it offers some of the best value for money in modern dive watches, I truly believe Tudor offers far more than that and these other models are often left under-appreciated and overlooked. This Tudor 1926, reference 91450, in 36mm and with its wonderful waffle opaline and blue dial is the perfect example of that. I would not hesitate on this watch if you want to experience what Tudor can offer but without breaking the bank, this comes in at not a huge amount more than £1,000!
The Brand
The Tudor trademark was first registered in 1926 by the Swiss watchmaking company “Veuve de Philippe Hüther” on behalf of Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex watches. Wilsdorf took it over himself in 1936. Just after the Second World War, Hans Wilsdorf, Founder of Rolex, knew that the time had come to expand and give the Tudor brand a proper identity of its own. The Tudor Rose started to appear on their dials from this time. Thus, on 6 March 1946, he created the “Montres TUDOR S.A.” company, specialising in models for both men and women. Rolex guarantees technical, aesthetic, and functional characteristics, distribution, and after-sales service. In 1948, we saw the first Tudor-specific advertisement. A few years later, they introduced the TUDOR Oyster Prince in 1952. Hans Wilsdorf allowed Tudor to use their waterproof Oyster case and the original self-winding Perpetual ’rotor’ movement. This was an exclusive arrangement that benefitted both brands. Development soon commenced with the introduction of the TUDOR Oyster Prince Submariner, reference 7922, in 1954. This watch was quickly adopted by the French Navy in 1956. Building on their reputation of robustness in 1961, the Rose was replaced by the shield. Later in 1969, we saw the design changes in Ref. 7016, where for the first time, square indexes and angular hands nicknamed “Snowflake” allowed for a greater amount of lume to be applied; this was appreciated by the divers of the French Navy. Today, these innovations can be seen in the Black Bay and Pelagos collections. In 1971, Tudor introduced the Oysterdate chronographs nicknamed “Monte-Carlo” due to it resembling a roulette wheel. Celebrating their 50th anniversary in 1996. In that same year, Tudor decided to shed Rolex-signed components such as the cases, crowns and bracelets in favour of Tudor-branded ones. Today Tudor uses their in-house movements developed initially in 2015 in collaboration with Breitling.