South Beach Vibes In Scheveningen With The Tudor Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue”
Pink flamingos have a very peculiar smell. The result of a strict shrimp-only diet will do that to a bird. Blue flamingos, on the other hand, smell like roasted peanuts. Do you know why? That’s because they feed exclusively on blue M&Ms, just like spoiled rock stars. Come on, give me a break. I mean, if Tudor can name a watch after a bird that only lives in its catalog, I can also share the crazy thoughts in my head. Still, I was happy to try on the Tudor Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue” to find out if the watch’s South Beach vibes also work in Scheveningen.
You could call Scheveningen the Dutch equivalent of South Beach, Florida. Sure, the climate is worse; there are no palm trees, and the colors of the water are not quite the same, but still. Just like South Beach, Scheveningen is a party place, and, uhm, well, that’s where the similarities end. For instance, the average seawater temperature in summer is a chilly 18.2°C. When you dip in the water in South Beach in winter, the temperature is 4°C higher. Still, would the imaginary blue flamingo fly in this beach town on the North Sea coast?
South Beach vibes in Scheveningen with the Tudor Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue”
Scheveningen is just a 10-minute drive from the Fratello office in The Hague. Is it worth a visit in February? Well, if chilling on the beach is what you’re after, not really. It will be “chill,” but not in the way you want. Bringing the Tudor Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue” (€5,990 / US$5,875) will not change that. But the chronograph’s dial color does have those South Beach-infused Miami Vice vibes that bring speedboats, linen suits, and pastel-colored T-shirts to mind. Tudor introduced those vibes with the pink-dialed Black Bay Chrono, a limited-run watch that perfectly fits the Inter Miami CF team colors. The new pastel blue watch would also not look bad paired with something pink, but this watch is not linked to the football team and is also not limited in production. It’s open season on the blue flamingo — sorry, “Flamingo Blue.”
What type of blue is the “Flamingo Blue” anyway?
If you’re wondering what type of blue an imaginary flamingo looks like, it’s turquoise. And if, just like me, you’re wondering if turquoise is a shade of blue or green, here’s the answer: turquoise is sits between blue and green on the color wheel. It’s a mixture of pale blue and green or blue with a small amount of yellow. When you give a watch a dial in a color like turquoise, it will be judged first and foremost (and possibly only) by the dial.
Now, I’m not saying that the watch’s dimensions — a 41mm diameter, 14.4mm thickness, and 50.1mm lug-to-lug — don’t count or that other details, such as the use of a COSC-certified, 4Hz MT5813 automatic chronograph movement delivering 70 hours of power reserve and adjusted by Tudor to run at -2/+4 seconds a day, don’t matter at all. Still, they mean very little if you don’t like the flamboyant dial color.
Can I ask you a personal question? Thanks. What’s your favorite color? Your answer is not open to discussion, but some colors are indeed more polarizing than others, and Tudor realizes that. The brand created a special category for watches with exotic dials, such as the “Flamingo Blue,” called “Daring Watches.” For now, there are just three watches in there. Apart from the “Flamingo Blue” and the aforementioned Black Bay Chrono “Pink,” you can spot the Black Bay Ceramic “Blue.” By the way, that black and blue three-hand watch does make me think of Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch, in which the rare Norwegian Blue is “resting” on the bottom of its cage. Anyway, I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of room for more exotic watches in the closed-off section of the catalog, but let’s not start speculating about possible future “specimens” and instead focus on the “Flamingo Blue.”
Shades of blue
The turquoise dial of the “Flamingo Blue” didn’t hit me like the pink dial did. The pink dial has a soft quality that the turquoise seems to lack. It’s a bit harsher and colder. And my brain, at least, had trouble putting the turquoise dial in the right color category. It kept going back and forth between green and blue. It made me wish for another color. No, two colors — either a light blue, like the sky over South Beach, or a color my fellow bike lovers might know as celeste. Celeste is a light, medium, bright shade of cyan made famous by Italian bike builder Bianchi. It’s a color I also associate with the Henley shirts Don Johnson’s character Sonny Crocket wore in the TV hit show Miami Vice.
I was surprised it wasn’t love at first sight with the Black Bay Chrono “Flamingo Blue.” Considering its specifications and price point, it doesn’t leave much to desire. It also wears well. The proportions are good, and the bracelet is comfy. But as I said before, with a dial like this, specifications come in a distant second place. I also felt the black bezel insert and black sub-dials contrasted too harshly with the turquoise dial, something I didn’t feel with the pink version. A brown bezel insert and sub-dials in that color would have worked, though. Oh, wait, I understand that color combination is out of the question for a Tudor chronograph.
What do you think? Is “Flamingo Blue” your shade of blue, or are you hoping there’s a shimmering pastel yellow, a sweet and peachy orange, or a juicy watermelon red on the way? There’s plenty of inspiration to be found in Florida.
