An Overview of Tudor Chronographs and Their Relation to Rolex Daytonas
1971 Tudor Oysterdate ‘Montecarlo’ ref. 7169/0 / Credit: Watchonista
Tudor, forever to be treated like Rolex’s little brother. Its divers, although solid timepieces, often fetch a fraction of what the equivalent vintage Rolex Submariner would go for. The same goes for its other models like the Prince Oysterdate (although there is a noticeable difference in build quality in these cases). So, what about Tudor chronographs? How do they stack up against the likes of the Daytona? Let’s unpack.
The first Tudor chronograph was the Tudor Oysterdate ref. 7031/0, released in 1970 and featuring a hand wound Valjoux 7734. In typical 1970s fashion, it was a colourful chronograph, featuring orange markers and a slate grey and black dial. This was not far off from Rolex Daytonas, specifically the classic hand wound models that used a Valjoux 72. The difference between the two movements being that the Valjoux 72 was derived from the Valjoux 23, while the Valjoux 7734 was developed after Valjoux aquired Venus and based off of the Venus 188. The Venus 188 can be commonly found it Breitling chronographs; for comparison, many Enicar Sherpa Graphs also used the Valjoux 72. The next Tudor chronograph to be released was the Tudor Oysterdate ref. 7032/0, essentially the same watch as the first reference and released in the same year, the only difference being the satin-finished steel bezel (the first’s bezel was black). 1971 saw the introduction of the famed Tudor Oysterdate ‘Montecarlo’ ref. 7169/0, named such for the watch’s colourful dial, reminiscent of a roulette wheel at a casino. Apart from the colour configuration these new chronographs also featured the superior Valjoux 234 and a GMT bezel.
Towards the end of the 1970s Tudor got into more modern chronographs, the reference 9430/0 released in in 1976 now featured an automatic Valjoux 7750 and bore the inscription ‘Automatic Chrono Time’ instead of ‘Oysterdate’. With the advent of the modern era, the quality of Tudor chronographs definitively diverged from that of Rolexes, however, it’s not to say that they weren’t very close in make and quality during the Tudor’s heyday.