2021 Tudor Submariner Revival: Speculation, Opinion, and 2021 Watch News
Watches Tonight with Tim Mosso
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32m
Tim Mosso's "Watches Tonight" is YouTube's only live-audience evening show for luxury watch collectors and luxury watch enthusiasts. This episode tackles mounting rumors of a 2021 Tudor Submariner revival by the junior brand in Rolex's product universe. Should Tudor revive the Submariner to run alongside or in lieu of its Black Bay and Pelagos dive watches? And what would happen if both Tudor and Rolex once again market "Submariners" at the same time? Tim offers his views on these questions while sharing watch collector wrist shots.
The 1954-1998 Tudor Submariner was a junior member of the Rolex-Tudor Submariner family. From a period immediately following the first Rolex Submariner to a few months before the new millennium, Tudor built a budget-priced Submariner dive watch that frequently offered similar size, functions, and quality relative to Rolex but at a significantly lower price. Although Tudor used a combination of Fleurier and ETA customer calibers, it shared Rolex-branded cases and bracelets for over 30 years. After a period of decline in the 2000s, Tudor roared back in 2012 with the Heritage Black Bay and the Pelagos.
Now, on the cusp of 2021 watch releases, rumors of a Tudor Submariner revival are swirling online. But Tudor Watch Company should resist the temptation to tap the most famous model name in watches. Already, Tudor is burdened by a lopsided brand identity that stresses its dive watches at the expense of models like the North Flag, Heritage Advisor, Fastrider, Royal, and 1926 series. Tudor has become as reliant on the Black Bay as Audemars Piguet is on the Royal Oak or Blancpain on the Fifty Fathoms. What little air remains gets consumed by the Pelagos diver. Tudor needs to shift some of its marketing muscle and attention towards non-dive watch models.
Moreover, Tudor and Rolex have grown apart since the 1990s. The price of a Tudor watch against a comparable Rolex model has yawned to the point that a Tudor Submariner would create a nightmare for Rolex dealers. Imagine a world in which Rolex customers buying the Submariner at full list and waiting months or years to do so learn of a Tudor version by the same name at half the price. Do we need to complete this thought? What seemed appropriate when both brands made utilitarian articles becomes unseemly when the price of a Rolex Submariner Date 126610 is $9,150 and a Tudor Black Bay Fifty Eight sells for $3,700.
All things considered, Tudor's dive watch collection needs no additions; Tudor's other model lines need more attention; Rolex's Submariner has become so aggressively sought that a bargain watch of the same name would be a political challenge. For all of these reasons and others, Tudor should stick with its existing dive watches while recommitting to its other model lines.
Tudor should resist the temptation
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