Tudor announced the establishment of a new partnership with the French Navy. The deep relationship between the two can be traced back to the mid-1950s. This historically significant military connection helped shape the attractiveness of Tudor’s antique dive watches and laid the foundation for the continuation and development of the brand’s modern dive watches.
An Original Story of a Tudor Marine Nationale MN78 Submariner.
Since 1956, replica Tudor has worked hand in hand with the French Navy. And
just a few years ago, the brand just released the first dive watch. In
the next 30 years or so, Tudor has provided the French Navy with a
variety of tools to assist the execution of tasks, and the legend was
born.
These watches were used in the field, but even for a cilvilian in everyday life, the 6mm winding crowns were very small. Imagine trying to unscrew and set your watch with cold hands or with gloves on! To address this, Tudor introduced a larger winding crown that was 8mm and featured the word BREVET.
The extra 2mm made a big difference and was eventually used in the 200-meter depth-rated reference 7924, known as the Big Crown by collectors. What is less known, is that a prototype batch of 7922 was sent to the MN by Tudor that actually featured 8mm winding crowns. Over the years a number of these watches have surfaced and all of them can be traced back to the Marine Nationale. What makes these Big Crown watches unusual is that they are depth-rated to 100m, where all commercially produced Big Crowns had 200m dials in. The most interesting feature, however, is that the casebacks have 6538 inside that has been ‘crossed out’ and have 7922 stamped above. The cases are actually engraved as 7922 but have Rolex serial numbers and so we can presume that Tudor used cases from its older brother Rolex for this delivery to the MN.
An Original Story of a Tudor 9401 Marine Nationale MN78 Submariner
A Tudor MN-issued 7924 Big Crown (Pic: R Povey/Tudorcollector)
The Marine Nationale continued to order Submariners from Tudor right through until the early to mid 1980s. These watches were used, however, until as late as the 1990s. 7928s, 7016s and 9401s were all used by Navy personnel in active service. In fcat, it is believed that the snowflake hand design, that is still used by Tudor today in the Black Bay and Pelaogos lines, was as a direct result of French navy divers requesting a more legible hand set that they could read more easily in low light conditions. And which is the most sought-after MN-issued Tudor? Well, after the 7924 Big Crowns, I would say that the blue snowflake is the watch that gets collectors a little hot under the collar. A crisp blue dial, cream snowflake hands, a faded blue bezel all combined on a grey nato-style fabric strap is about as sexy as it gets! And as I said at the beginning of this article, it gets even better if you can find one from an original owner. And that’s exactly what we’ve managed to pull off here with a cool story from a French Commando.
From the Ref.7922 watch in 1958 to the iconic Ref.9401 watch today, the partnership between Tudor and the French Navy has bred many great watch designs, and both parties share a rich and long history. More details about the cooperation between Tudor and the French Navy will be announced later this year.
TUDOR 9401 MARINE NATIONALE MN78 SUBMARINER
The Tudor Submariner is perhaps one of the widely issued military dive watches, having been worn by troops in the French, United States, South African, Argentinian and Italian navies, as well as other forces such as the Royal Canadian Navy and the Jamaican Defence Force. But why did so many navies choose the Tudor?
In short, the watches had all the reliability and build quality of a Rolex Submariner, but were available at a much more accessible price point. This was exactly the vision that Hans Wilsdorf had for Tudor and the great man’s vision truly came to fruition with the Tudor MilSub and especially the Tudor Marine Nationale.
About the Tudor 9401 replica watch
The Tudor Submariner was similar with the Rolex Submariner. I though it was a vintage Submariner made by Rolex in the 50s, it has a very close appearance to Sub 5513 or 1680. However, the watch is Tudor, which is a sub brand of Rolex. Owning a Rolex is the dream of many people, but it is unreachable because most Rolex watches are sold at high prices, the appearance of Tudor makes their dream come true. Now this replica even makes these people easier to get a good Submariner watch at a very low price.
Black diving-style bezel is engraved with markers, the bezel is uni-directional rotating, the whole watch is brushed, while the two steel crown protectors are polished. Black dial is protected by domed plexi plastic crystal, the dial exactly reveals the inner vintage texture of this replica. There are oval-shaped hour markers except markers at 3,6,9 and 12 o’clock. It is printed “SUBMARINER” at 6 o’clock. In a word, the replica Tudor completely uses the vintage Submariner’s dial style.
The replica Tudor Submariner is equipped with an Asian clone ETA 2836 movement, which is one of the mostly used fake movements in our market which was very stable.
Now you can buy this replica watch with a cheap price on D4L.CO
Replica Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner Marine Nationale 9401 unisex Watch
Special Price $143.10
