Introducing the Tudor Black Bay Ceramic One for Only Watch

Listings for the biennial Only Watch auction are out, and in addition to mega watches from the likes of Patek Philippe and F.P. Journe, the comparatively accesible Tudor is once again participating with a unique Black Bay. Only Watch, over the course of 7 prior auctions, has raised over 40 million Swiss Francs to benefit muscular dystrophy research. Let’s take a closer look at the Black Bay Ceramic One.

Tudor Black Bay Ceramic One for Only Watch

• Case Material: Ceramic
• Dial: Black
• Dimensions: 41mm
• Crystal: Sapphire
• Water Resistance: 200 meters
• Crown: Screw down
• Movement: Tudor Manufacture Calibre MT5602
• Strap/bracelet: Hybrid black alligator leather and rubber strap
• Price: N/A
• Expected Release: N/A

Tudor comes to Only Watch 2019 with a first for the brand — a Black Bay in full ceramic. Not only that, but it’s fully, and I mean fully, blacked out. The case is the familiar Black Bay shape, but in a sleek, bead-blasted black ceramic. The dial, hands, and hour markers are black as well. Contrast for legibility, it would seem, is provided by a gloss finish to the lume-filled indices, but let’s face it: if you’re a serious bidder for this watch, legibility might not be your primary concern.

Taken together, the presentation is ultra modern and unlike any Black Bay we’ve seen before, although it could well be considered a cousin of the Black Bay Dark, introduced in 2016. Still, that was a PVD-treated steel case with bright-white hour markers and hands. It even had a touch of red text on the dial. The Black Bay Ceramic One is a whole other kettle of fish.

One of the nicest design touches on the watch is the open caseback, something we just don’t see much of  in Tudor’s tool watch lineup. It shows off the in-house MT5602 caliber nicely, which now, of course, features a black ceramic (and skeletonized) winding rotor.

While the Only Watch one-offs are very often just that, it’s worth observing that, on occasion, a unique piece making its debut at this auction serves as a springboard to a regular production model somewhere down the line. The use of ceramic as the primary case material by Tudor in this Black Bay certainly gets the mind working to dream up what they might have in store for consumers a year or two down the road.

The Black Bay Ceramic One is listed with an estimate of $4,500-$5,500. If you’re thinking of bidding and sniping a bargain, recall that the Tudor Black Bay One, the brand’s 2015 debut entry in the Only Watch auction, hammered at 375,000 Swiss Francs, about 120 times its original estimate.

The Only Watch auction will be held in Geneva on November 9. You can view all of this year’s unique pieces at the Only Watch website, right here.