Tudor Takes to the Skies With the New Pelagos FXD GMT
Some brands are renowned for their diver’s watches and others are better known for their aviation watches, but very few can deliver on both fronts with equal credibility and finesse. This week, however, Tudor joined this extremely exclusive club with the reveal of the Pelagos FXD GMT. Fans of the Tudor universe will immediately recognize the watch as the successor to Tudor’s best-selling 2021 Pelagos FXD, a diver’s watch with a case made from titanium and unique fixed strap bars conceived in collaboration with the French Navy, aka Marine Nationale. This partnership has now expanded to include French Naval Aviation, the Aéronautique Navale, with a timepiece designed to stand up to the real-world conditions faced by these elite aviators.
What the Pelagos FXD represents for navy divers, the Pelagos FXD GMT does for pilots, with a 42 mm satin-brushed grade 2 titanium case that’s machined from a single piece of metal, with the same signature fixed strap bars. Waterproof to 200m, it features a grade 5 titanium case back engraved with the Aéronautique Navale logo and the inscription “M.N.24” (Marine Nationale 2024), inspired by watches Tudor supplied to the French Navy in the 1970s and ’80s.
What sets the Pelagos FXD GMT apart most noticeably, however (and makes it ideally suited for naval pilots), is its GMT functionality. The Pelagos FXD GMT can keep track of time in up to three time zones at once, including Zulu time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Named for the phonetic alphabet code word for “Z” or “zero” time, “Zulu” time is the standard reference time for military pilots who may cross multiple time zones in the course of a mission.
In addition to Tudor’s trademark “Snowflake” handset for hours, minutes, and seconds, the Pelagos FXD GMT tracks Zulu time with a bright orange arrow-tipped GMT hand that completes a full circuit of the dial every 24 hours. While most GMT wearers prefer to set their GMT hand to a fixed timezone (ie, home time when traveling) Tudor makes adjusting the time easy via the winding crown, with a hand that jumps in increments of an hour and a date that changes when the hour hand passes midnight backward or forward. Thanks to another benefit of the classic GMT design, you can also track a third time zone via the 24-hour luminous bi-directional bezel.
Other standout features include a Manufacture Calibre movement certified by COSC and METAS, with a weekend-proof 65-hour power reserve, and a silicon balance spring, along with a hearty daubing of grade A Swiss Super-LumiNova on the dial, hands, and hour markers.
In a finishing touch befitting of Tudor’s long history of supplying timepieces for military use, the Pelagos FXD GMT comes with a flight-suit green one-piece fabric strap including a removable French Naval Aviation medallion. As with all Tudor fabric straps, it’s woven in France on 19th century Jacquard looms by the Julien Faure company, who, as serendipity would have it, also happens to be a longtime supplier of ribbons to the French navy. It’s just one small detail among many that makes the new Pelagos FXD GMT a pilot’s watch with impeccable credentials.
Discover the Tudor Pelagos FXD GMT online.
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