Why Tudor is going pink

WATCHES and Wonders Geneva 2024 is just around the corner, but one of its exhibiting brands, Tudor, is already making heads turn with a shock drop ahead of the annual luxury watch show. 

From (almost) out of nowhere, the brand unveiled a new iteration of the Black Bay Chronograph – its dial splashed in a shade of pink.

Unexpected? Yes, especially since pink is not a colour commonly found on a luxury timepiece even though Tudor’s big brother Rolex used it a few years ago on an Oyster Perpetual, while Grand Seiko slapped a similar shade on one of its Four Seasons pieces (Spring).

And going by the positive response so far, the watch community has given the Tudor Black Bay Chronograph Pink a collective thumbs up.

For those who follow Tudor releases closely, a hint of this daring direction was in the making from recent partnerships.

Just weeks before the watch’s release, Tudor announced a high-profile partnership with Inter Miami CF as its official timekeeper.

At all its home games in South Florida, the Major League Soccer team – which features the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets in its starting eleven – wears a jersey that is in, you guessed it, pink.

Inter Miami is also co-owned by another Tudor ambassador, David Beckham, and on match days, the former Manchester United legend wears a unique Tudor Pelagos model bearing the club’s crest on the dial.

Beckham himself made a pit stop in Kuala Lumpur earlier in February, when Inter Miami was in Asia to play a handful of exhibition matches. While in the Malaysian capital, the former English national dropped by Sentul Depot, which was transformed to resemble Tudor’s new state-of-the-art Manufacture in Switzerland.

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But we digress, and the Black Bay Chronograph Pink isn’t just a marketing stunt to steal the spotlight with its boldness and shock value. The watch was originally made with Tudor ambassador and Mandopop megastar Jay Chou, whose signature colour is also pink. This is the first time the watch will be made available to the public.

But “Blackpink” – as the watch has been christened on the Internet because of its contrasting subdials – isn’t made for everyone, and there are some haters who might say there is nothing new about remaking an old watch in a new colour.

In its press release, Tudor says that “the Black Bay Chrono Pink isn’t for the mainstream (so) only a small number of examples will be produced”. (Collectors, quick, go make that call to the boutique!)

Rebellious as that sounds, all we can say is Tudor’s choice to go pink certainly stays true to the brand’s “born to dare” motto and spirit.