The Shit that Killed Elvis - 1 / 12

While the other more well-heeled blogs, online magazines and print outlets gather their best of the year reviews, I figured I put my two cents in for what actually moved me this year.  I want to be really clear on that point - to make my list it is not about advertising money, wining and dining me, or being what I just happened to remember from a press release.  There has to be an actual emotional connection that made the watch stand out.  These are the 12 watches that spoke to me -

1/12 -

The Tudor Heritage Black Bay 36 mm -

Courtesy of Tudor

For all the hype and fervor about the larger Black Bay models (i.e. the little Submariner for the rest of us), it was the Black Bay 36 mm that caught my attention.  No, it does not have a manufacture movement, and it is decidedly smaller.  But sometimes it is not the obvious child that draws your attention.

Rolex does damn near everything right.  If the folks at Rolex told us it was a good idea to eat broccoli while standing on our heads, we would probably do it.  But the one thing that they did which I personally wasn't 100% on board with was to change the dimensions of the Explorer.  The Explorer was the very definition of wrist iconography.  When they increased the diameter, they lost me somewhat.  Now to be clear, the new Explorer is nice, but when it got bigger, it lost some of its appeal to me.

But this past March, Tudor introduced the Black Bay 36.  Unlike the Explorer it utilizes indices, dots and an arrow.  It is not massive, but as you can see, per the Goldilocks school of watch sizing -

 
You want this watch.  I know that I do!  Here are the pertinents per Tudor  -

• case
  Steel, 36 mm, polished and satin finish
• bezel
  Smooth steel bezel, polished finish
• movement
  Self-winding mechanical movement, TUDOR calibre 2824
• power reserve
  Approximately 38 hours
• winding crown
  Screw-down steel winding crown adorned with an engraved TUDOR rose in relief, with black anodised aluminium tube

• dial
  Black
• crystal
  Flat sapphire crystal
• waterproofness
  Waterproof to 150 m (500 ft)
• bracelet
  Steel bracelet or aged leather strap with folding clasp and safety catch