Tudor: Black Bay “Orologi e Passioni”
3 May 2017It’s a bit strange wearing a Tudor wristwatch produced in a limited edition of 50 pieces for Orologi & Passioni, the watch forum I created in 2004 with four friends. We organized amazing initiatives throughout the years, but the last is always the one that is most exciting. Though we don’t want to forget the old ones which allowed us to achieve what we are doing now. There were watches created for all the forum members from brands like Levrette, Casio, Perseo… and the limited editions as well. Eberhard was the first and made us realize how amazing it is to wear a watch from a famous brand produced only for us. Then Zenith realized a masterpiece in 38mm. At that time the CEO of Zenith was J.F. Dufour who believed in the project. Also, thanking the enthusiasm of the brand manager Paolo Cappiello. Fate wanted Dufour to become the General manager of Rolex (and Tudor, of course). Luckily another good friend of mine is at the apex of the Rolex group, which also helped us convince the brand to produce us this limited edition.
I am thrilled when I think that such a famous brand wanted to release a special edition for an Italian forum. This Tudor Black Bay has truly unique features:
- Limited to 50 pieces.
- Backside of the case personalized “Laser engraved and hand painted” with number of the limited edition.
- Second hands red painted
- Writings on the dial in Italian and in red
The characteristic of the watch are the same of the normal production model:
- Iconic model of the Tudor Heritage collection
- Unique design inspired by the historical Tudor Submariner 1954
- 41mm steel case and bracelet
- 200 meters water resistant
- Manufacture caliber Tudor MT5602, silicon spiral and 70 hours power reserve
- Certified COSC
- Golden snowflake hands (introduced in 1969)
- Red triangle on the bezel and 12 o’clock (from 1958)
- Extra strap in Kevlar
- Several vintage aesthetics
- Winner of the “Revival” prize at the GPHG 2013
The watch has just been the top of the iceberg. Creating a limited edition for our forum has been exciting for many other reasons.
The topic I wrote when I first had the idea has been the most visited and commented topic since the forum started in 2004. In this moment it counts 34’400 messages and more than 1’936’000 views. For a single topic, this is just insane. Since the opening of the post, the 23rd of November 2016, the spirit has been so friendly and relaxed, everyone was just dreaming about different versions of the watch, drawing their favorite one or joking about possible dates and places of delivery.
And then the epic event, the night when the watch had been delivered to the lucky 50 owners, in Piacenza’s Rolex official retailer, Volta. We all noticed Tudor’s attention to details that night. It has not been easy to manage 50 crazy people impatient to get their watch. No one beside me saw it before, imagine! Marco Marini (responsible for the Italian market) together with Elena Rusinenti (marketing director) and Paolo Volta (Piacenza’s Rolex official retailer) realized something truly unique. I can never thank them enough for that.
By Giorgione OP