A Tudor with a Touch of Sinn: Introducing the Pelagos LHD

When I saw the new Tudor Pelagos LHD and the resulting slurry of posts, my first thought, which I imagine most people had, was simply “wow, that thing is gorgeous”. Sure, the crown went destro, but there were other tweaks to the semi-controversial 5-line Pelagos that made it better, meaner and more adventurous. And then I realized that part of the appeal, part of what immediately drew me into to was that it reminded me of one of my favorite watches. Another left-handed diver with creamy-green/beige lume and red accents: the Sinn EZM3.

Before I even get to that let’s take a look at the Pelagos and this new version. The Pelagos first came out in 2013 and was immediately met with adoration. A 500m titanium “sub” with a matte ceramic bezel, snowflake markers and hands, HEV and a very cool spring-loaded bracelet. Alongside the Black Bay, it was and still is the brand’s most technical sport watch and most true tool watch. In the years since, Tudor has focused more on the Black Bay, only updating the Pelagos once by adding a blue version and dropping in their in-house movement. The latter is no small detail, as you can read in our review of the Black Bay Black, their movement has some great specs and adds a ton of value to these sub-$5k watches. The former was met with mixed reviews as it’s a very bright blue.

But, with the new movement came a lot more text on the dial. From two to five mighty lines of text, adding a veritable paragraph above the marker at 6, cluttering up what was a perfectly balanced and restrained dial. It’s not just that there’s too much text, it’s redundant too. They put the name of the watch on there in case you forget, then two lines about it being a chronometer, then “rotor self-winding” and finally the depth rating. It just seems unnecessary.

Another smaller, less discussed difference is that the date window moved slightly farther towards the edge of the dial, so they dropped the marker at 3 that used to be next to the window. This, in my eyes, threw off the left/right balance of the watch and created a bit of a “hole” at three. It’s far from the most offensive date window we’ve seen, in fact it’s not really that bad at all, but the old date/marker combo was spot on.

Whether it was because of these details, or because of the emphasis on the Black Bay line, the Pelagos’ has seemed to fade in popularity in the last couple of years, at least from the position of buzz compared to the Black Bay, people sharing on IG, models seen in public, etc. Needless to say the Pelagos, which is a fantastic watch, was due for an update, but I really don’t think anyone saw the LHD coming.

Starting with the obvious, they flipped the 42mm titanium case around, putting the crown on the left, earning it the “Left Hand Drive/LHD” moniker. They imply this is to make the watch for lefties and others who wear watches on their right wrist, referring to bespoke models made in the 70’s for the French Navy. That’s all great, but I dare say having a left-side crown on a largish-watch actually can make it more comfortable on the left wrist as well. Regardless, this is quite an unexpected move as big Swiss brands tend to play it safe generally speaking, and destro watches are fairly uncommon and sort of odd to begin with.

Flipping the crown wasn’t the only change, and frankly it’s the other details that really get me excited. Playing off of the 70’s source material, Tudor switched the lume from bright white to a yellow beige, giving it the distinct look of aged tritium. Interestingly, it’s not the same beige lume used on the Black Bay, as it still glows ice blue. This just looks great. The beige plays beautifully off of the gray titanium and matte black bezel and dial, giving the watch a more aggressive edge.

Next, they left the five lines of text, but made “Pelagos” dark red. Everyone loves red-lined Subs, so that was a no brainer, but it also breaks up the text, making it feel more like a mere four lines, which is less obnoxious. Yeah, I wish they had cut it down to three vis-a-vis the Black Bay, but at least this is a step in the right direction and the red simply looks cool. Lastly, they replaced the black on white date-wheel with a roulette-date, which appears to have black numerals for the odd days, red for the even. This also refers to some early Tudor Snowflake Submariners dating back to 1969 and while totally unneeded adds character.

The details come together to change the personality of the Pelagos, bringing it more into their Black Bay world of vintage inspired divers. The Pelagos was previously very modern, clean and technical. The Black Bay, which is in their “heritage” line, went more for style. It wouldn’t surprise me if the sheer success of the vintage approach led them to these changes, but I’m not complaining. Sure, it sort of melds the two lines, but the result is very cool and will likely put the Pelagos back in the spotlight.

Back to the intro, in addition to giving the Pelagos a vintage feel, it reminded me of the Sinn EZM 3. After all, how many destro dive watches with red accents, red dates and pale green/beige lume are there? Not very many, that’s for sure. Intentional or not (almost definitely not), this is a fun association in my eyes. The EZM 3 is one of those underrated watches with a very cool and unique aesthetic. It’s a true no-fuss tool watch and the type of risky-er design that Sinn can pull off. To see Tudor do something that even brings that to mind is exciting to see. It shows that Tudor is perhaps willing to take more risks with their watches than typical Swiss brands, and do things that while available to the general public, speak more to the enthusiast community.

Anyway, the Tudor Pelagos LHD is a really exciting and attractive new watch. It’s easily become a personal favorite offering from the brand, as they took a great design and gave it a stylish and surprising makeover. There’s one last interesting detail about the LHD and that’s that it’s a numbered edition. Each watch will have its number etched into its otherwise plain caseback. This implies that Tudor is trying to build more collectability into their models and that there might a limited supply of LHDs. Perhaps this will also increase their resale value.

The Tudor Pelagos LHD is available now for $4,400, check out TudorWatch.com for more info.