Blending In This Monday Morning With The Tudor Black Bay Bronze In Slate Gray

I know, the Tudor Black Bay Bronze is a bit of a golden oldie — or a gold-looking bronze oldie. This version debuted on the Tudor “menu” in 2019, but why not have seconds almost five years later and find out if it’s still as tasty? What the watch does as soon as it comes to the table is grab your attention. There’s something about that mix of a ready-to-patinate alloy and the presence of gray. The warm tones of the bronze case with a slate-gray dial and bezel seem to produce a mysterious green hue — a layered flavor, you could say.

Remember Baselworld? Well, it was once the biggest watch show on earth. Those days are long gone, but the Tudor Black Bay Bronze with its slate-gray dial is still here. And it very literally is because we have the reference M79250BA-0002, the version on the fabric strap, here at Fratello HQ. The good thing is that even after nearly five years since its debut, the watch is still a surprising object.

Tudor Black Bay Bronze: this year, the gray “BBB” celebrates its fifth anniversary

There have been three different versions of the (non-58) Black Bay Bronze so far. It started with a version with a brown dial and bezel in 2016, and a dark blue version with a matching bezel followed a year later. This gray version took twice as long to appear, but since it has been almost five years since then, this year’s Watches and Wonders would be a great opportunity to present an “anniversary” version of this Black Bay Bronze. Let’s not speculate about a possible dial and bezel color (although oxblood comes to mind) and just focus on the version that’s present.

The Black Bay Bronze in the current lineup is a large one. With its 43mm bronze case, it sits on top of the 37mm Black Bay 54 in steel, the 39mm Black Bay 58 variants in steel, bronze, silver, and gold, as well as the 41mm Black Bay models in steel, ceramic, and steel and gold (S&G). The “BBB” is not a slim creature, but because of the 43mm case diameter, the case thickness of 14.5mm is proportional. The watch also has a substantial 52mm lug-to-lug length, a wide 23mm lug spacing, and a hefty weight of 94 grams on the fabric strap. Look at it like this: you certainly get a lot of watch for €4,540.

Since I’m going through the specs now, I’ll also mention that behind the bronze-PVD-treated steel case back with a brushed finish beats the Kenissi-made MT5601 caliber. That’s an automatic, chronometer-certified movement with a 4Hz frequency and a 70-hour power reserve. Oh yes, and the BBB is also water resistant to 200 meters.

What’s with the green hue of the slate-gray dial?

When I put the watch on my wrist, I got a bit confused. I know it’s a watch with a slightly gradient gray dial and a matching gray anodized aluminum bezel, but with the sunlight hitting it, it looked a bit green as well. It could have been my green camo coat that tainted my vision. But even Nacho, who took the pictures and edited them, noticed the mysterious green glow. What it also shows is that the bronze and gray watch blends in really nicely with what you wear. There’s no proof in pics of it, but when I wore the watch with a blue cardigan, the BBB looked more blueish gray.

If you want to avoid any color confusion, take the Black Bay Bronze deep underwater or only look at it in the dark. What you’ll see then is the gold-plated and lume-filled applied indices, Arabic 3, 6, and 9 numerals, and three hands. You will also notice the lume pip inside the inverted triangle at 12 glowing very clearly. It has a clear Oyster Prince Submariner vibe because of the dial design and the Snowflake hands, but I’m guessing there’s a whole generation of watch fans coming up that have no clue and think the Black Bay, which has been with us since 2012, is an original design.

Now that’s a comfortable strap

As I wrote before, the gray(ish) Black Bay Bronze does a good job of blending in with your attire. That may be surprising because of its generous size and bronze case. But bronze does blend in nicely. Some people see it as a prominent material, but I have to disagree. Apart from the fact that bronze patinates and tones down in color over time, the natural warm glow — bronze glows, it doesn’t shine — has this very “human” quality. It’s a tactile alloy, a soft-looking material that’s a good mix of luxury and functionality.

And do you know what is too? The striped single-pass nylon jacquard strap that Tudor put on this watch. It’s made by Julien Faure, a third-generation weaver and one of the last of his kind to use giant, ancient looms. Faure’s jacquard-weaving technique is outstanding, and it leads to equally outstanding straps. Just like the bronze alloy used for the case and the hardware, this strap is both instrumental and luxurious. It beats the look of a double-pass NATO because it’s slimmer and more refined, and it also beats it in terms of wrist comfort.

It was good catching up with the Black Bay Bronze again. Its 43mm case size might be not for everyone, and it might also feel a bit outdated. Still, it does complement the Black Bay collection quite nicely. And for a very large group of non-purist sports-watch enthusiasts, a 43mm diameter is certainly not a dealbreaker. What are your thoughts? Is the 43mm BBB a thing of the past, or are you looking forward to possible new versions in the future? As always, let us know in the comments.

You can also find more information on the Black Bay Bronze on the official Tudor site.