In recent years Tudor had been successfully reinventing itself by returning to it's successful historical pieces. The reissue of the Heritage Chrono Grey and the Black Bay diver, even the Pelagos diver - all are clever reissues of Tudor watches from the early 70s. For 2013, Tudor reissues its 1970s Monte Carlo Chronograph Blue. This watch took Baselworld 2013 by storm capturing much of the attention usually reserved for top end luxury models at the annual show. The first few shipments of these new watches started arriving in late August and for a fortunate select group of collectors (who placed orders on the announcement of the model). Having arrived on our shores here, does the watch match the hype?

The 42mm steel cased chronograph comes with a tri-coloured blue, yellow and red fabric strap and a steel bracelet made at a level of finish one comes to expect from Tudor or even Rolex. Although it is somewhat taller than most chronographs at 13mm, on the wrist it does not feel as if the watch is overly tall unlike watches with larger dimensions.



The dial of this Heritage is a well appointed with handsome hands laid on a familiar Tudor design that is reminiscent of the 70s Monte Carlo watches.  The colour combination of beige, orange and blue is a surprisingly handsome and attractive looking dial. Enhanced by the proportionate applied markers that compliments the design of the hands. The movement is the much respected ETA 2892 with a Dupuis Depraz chrono module. This combination makes the chronograph action much more sophisticated than the commonly available Valjoux 7750 found in many chronographs.



The case construction is a pleasant surprise - note the image below showing the quality of the knurl on the bezel and crowns. The two chronograph crowns have screw functions to release and lock the buttons in place.






The Tudor Heritage Blue Chrono easily achieves a "Highly Recommended" for its total package of being a well made, handsome watch that is not only distinctive in design but well executed and priced honestly. Click on the images to view them in larger resolution.

More images to come when WH makes a photographic comparison between this new Heritage Chrono with the original Tudor 1970s Monte Carlo.