In the past 10 years, Tudor has been doing a fantastic job with its contemporary offerings.
Watches such as the Black Bay, Heritage Chronograph, and Pelagos collections have been flying off the shelves for their impressive looks, sporty construction and aggressive price points. But for sheer utility, sportiness, and integration of modern materials, it’s the Pelagos that has us most impressed.
Though it draws from Tudor’s back catalog of dive watches for aesthetic inspiration, the Pelagos brings a forward-thinking design to the tool watch arena. Constructed from titanium and featuring a unique, automatically-adjusting clasp, this is the type of timepiece that a saturation diver would happily strap on while working hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean.
This particular Pelagos, however, is something different. Released in November of 2021, the 'FXD' was designed in collaboration with the French Marine Nationale. If that sounds familiar, thats because Tudor Submariners had been issued to the Marine Nationale in the 1970s and are coveted by collectors today ().
The FKX (FXD for 'fixed') draws heavily on the design language from the traditional Pelagos, while making a few changes that allow it to stand out as the largest riff on the Pelagos, while still remaining a clear member with in the lineup. The FXD looses the date complication, the helium escape valve on the left case profile, and the unidirectional rotating bezel is swapped for a bidirectional unit. Perhaps most notably, the FXD utilizes an integrated strap bar system, which gives the 'FXD' its name. Additionally, it features a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, a new, luminous navy blue dial with a matching 'snowflake' handset, and a robust and Tudor's Calibre MT5602 automatic winding movement within.
We can’t overstate this enough: The Pelagos is one of the best dive watch designs of the 21st century — and very well the best in the Rolex family. The FXD is an unexpected and welcomed addition to the lineup that has delighted enthusiasts since its release.
