The Development of Tudor Dive Watches - Tudor Submariner History
1967 Tudor Submariner ref. 7928 / Credit: AnalogShift
Tudor has always been Rolex's little brother, but by no means should the Tudor Submariner be considered objectively inferior to their Rolex counterpart. The watches share many similarities, even in their backstories, but there are also important distinctions that have led each collection to develop singularly.
1954 marked the year the first Tudor Submariner hit the shelves, the Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner ref. 7922 was designed for durability, accuracy, and of course, water resistance. Much like the first Rolex Submariner, which was released the same year, the Tudor had a depth rating of 100 m. It also featured the rose logo at 12 o’clock (that so many of us prefer over the current shield) and "Rotor Self-Winding" inscribed on the dial. Like many first Subs this one was adorned with both Tudor and Rolex logos and featured a Caliber 390. The second Tudor Submariner, the Tudor Oyster Submariner ref. 7923, was released in 1955 and featured an ETA 1182. It also dropped some of the script from the dial giving it a much cleaner look. Finally, in 1958, the depth rating was increaesed to 200m with the released of the ref. 7924, which also featured Rolex's famed 'Mercedes' hands. The following year saw the release of one of collectors' favourites, the ref. 7928, which was the first reference with a blue bezel/dial. And finally, replacing the famed 'Mercedes' hands, the first ‘Snowflake’ Submariner, the ref. 7016, was released in 1969.
Tudor also had a great history of military equipment production. The ref. 7922s were commissioned by the Marine nationale française, as were the subsequent ref. 7928s (which was also commissioned by the US Navy) and the left-handed ref. 94010s, along with many other models throughout the 1960s/70s. Unfortunately, the Tudor Submariner line came to an end in 1999 with the ref. 79190. It was eventually replaced by the Tudor Pelagos, which hopes to turn it all around and pioneer a new age of Tudor dive watches...but first it’s got to lose a couple lines of script on the dial.