[VIDEO] Is the Tudor Black Bay Pro the 39mm GMT of Your Dreams?

We’ve tried our hardest over the last couple of years to predict what Tudor would roll out to no prevail. Our failure at doing so has actually become a running gag on the podcast. Well, they finally made exactly what we wanted with the Tudor Black Bay Pro, maybe even predicted, and to quote Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka “you do know what happened to the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted, don’t you?.. He lived happily ever after.”

The Tudor Black Bay Pro is the watch many of us have fantasized about since the dual introduction of the Black Bay GMT and the Black Bay 58 back in 2018. A watch that mixes the in-house “true” GMT complication of the former, with the scale of the latter. But, in a very pleasant surprise (Tudor is good at surprises) the execution has more to it than simply being a scaled-down version of the original Pepsi-bezel GMT.

At a glance, the Black Bay Pro is a fixed bezel 39mm GMT with a matte black dial and a burnt yellow GMT hand, which is excellent to begin with, but the details are what make it really stand out. The bezel is brushed steel with the same typeface as the larger GMT in black fill, which takes on a distinctly Explorer 2 ref. 1655 character in this setting. The brushing radiates out from the dial with an appealing grain, terminating at a polished chamfer.

The dial has a subtle grain to it as well, and all of the markers and indexes, save the depth rating, are off-white. Neither a “fauxtina” tone nor a stark white, it’s nicely balanced to have a softness we perhaps associate with age, but also a warm and earthy quality. A keen eye might have already noticed something that is actually lacking from the dial as well – marker surrounds. Gone are the typical little polished containers, rather Tudor has utilized, for the first time, a lume/ceramic composite.

The result has two effects, first is three-dimensional markers with a noticeable amount of depth that glow from all angles. The other is a dial that, in general, has a more toolish, pad-printed quality to it, and a lack of any polished surfaces. This extends to the hands as well, which are matte off-white for the hour, minute, and seconds, with lume fill, much like that of the Pelagos models. Additionally, there is a date at three, which is a first for the 39mm Black Bay models.

The case looks and feels very much in line with Black Bay 58 models, fitting beautifully in width and span, though it is thicker. Coming in around 14.5mm, up from the lithe 11.9mm of the 58s, it is noticeably taller. We’ll have to wait until we can get some more time with it to see how that affects wear on a daily basis (in other words, we’re going to review the Black Bay Pro as soon as possible, so stay tuned).

The Black Bay Pro is available on the expected trio of strap options: a woven fabric passthrough, a leather two-piece, and a steel bracelet. Nothing has changed on the first two, both providing less expensive options, but the bracelet got a nice upgrade. It’s the same fantastic rivet style with stepped taper we’ve all grown to love, but with the Tudor “T-fit” clasp that was introduced on the Black Bay 58 Bronze boutique edition. This allows for several millimeters of on-the-fly micro-adjustment, more than enough to accommodate for variations in wrist size during the day.

Powering the Black Bay Pro is the new Manufacture Calibre MT5652 (COSC), which has the impressive feature set we’ve come to expect from Tudor’s in-house calibers. This includes a 70-hour power reserve, silicon balance spring, full balance bridge, free-sprung balance, a frequency of 28,800 bph, and chronometer rating. As this is a “true” GMT, it also features a local jumping hour hand.

So, why is it a Black Bay Pro, rather than a Black Bay 58 GMT? Well, the new designator seems to be associated with the fixed bezel and a step away from the vintage-inspired divers to a, well, professional concept. Perhaps this fills in the gap that a smaller Pelagos or Ranger would have filled, but it also further’s the reach of the Black Bay line, as did the chronograph, outside of the diver format and to one more associated with land exploration and adventure (not that diving isn’t both of those things). This also leaves us wondering what else might fall under this new branding, which we’ll be sure to add some bad predictions of in a podcast soon.

Coming in at $3,650 on fabric or leather, and $4,000 on the steel bracelet, the Tudor Black Bay Pro is only a little more than the 58 models, making it a very compelling option in the GMT market. Clearly, this is a winner for Tudor that is going to likely match the popularity of the original Balck Bay 58. After a year of unexpected and somewhat divisive launches in the 39mm Black Bay lines, it’s a very welcome addition that, I dare say, was worth the wait. Tudor