Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT

After a couple of sleep-deprived days at the fair, the general sentiment seems to be circling the idea that it’s a bit of a quiet year. That’s not hard to understand, either, as this year’s releases lack the pomp and circumstance of celebration dial Rolex, smaller divers from Tudor, a brand new chronograph from Lange, and so forth. From my perspective, this year feels more subtle – more about product and refinement. To understand that, you need look no further than the mid-level stoke following Tudor’s release of the highly anticipated Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT. It’s a smaller take on the brand’s travel watch ideology and a watch I know many of us have been asking for since the original Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT was launched at Baselworld in March of 2018.
Now, just six (admittedly long) years later, things are quite different, and the somewhat smaller 39mm platform of the 58 range has become the core enthusiast offering within the Black Bay lineup. Like the full-sized Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT, the Black Bay 58 was also released at Baselworld in 2018. This week, Tudor combined the two ideas into what I believe will now form the basis of Tudor’s GMT lineup.

With a new movement, black/red coloring, and nearly the same exact proportions as the standard Black Bay 58, I would argue this is a remarkable release for the brand – I know so many folks who were wishing for a Black Bay GMT with the ergonomics of the 58. After spending some time with the new Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT, I feel inclined to echo Ben’s sentiments from his hands-on with the 58 back in 2018: “This is the Tudor we didn’t know we needed – but it’s pretty damn close to perfect.”
Okay, let’s get the specs out of the way. The Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT comes in a single spec but can be had on a full steel bracelet or a fitted rubber strap. Thankfully, both mounts feature Tudor’s very useful T-Fit tool-less micro-adjust system (which I have on the bracelet of my Pelagos 39 and believe is crucial to my comfort when using the bracelet).

The Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT case is 39mm wide, 12.8mm thick, and 47.8mm lug-to-lug. That makes it essentially identical in size to that of a standard Black Bay 39, aside from being ~0.9mm thicker. Don’t forget about the pre-existing Black Bay GMT and its 41 x 14.6 x 50mm sizing, and let’s also not forget the Black Bay Pro, itself a dual time zone model that is also 39mm wide – but 14.6mm thick. If you were asking for a slimmer GMT from Tudor, they were listening.

The lugs are 20mm wide, the crystal is made of sapphire, the water resistance is 200 meters, and the crown screws down. If you want to shortcut this article, the 58 GMT wears just like a Black Bay 58. It’s a great size, wears so well, and manages to feel substantial and tough without doing so via the use of outsized proportions. Similarly, if you’re a fan of five-digit Rolex sport models – say, for an unprompted example, the 16710 GMT-Master II – the wrist presence of the 58 GMT should feel right at home.

The Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT movement is also not just a simple downsizing of the brand’s previously established GMT movement, the MT5652. Instead, the Black Bay 58 GMT uses the brand-new MT5450-U. It’s a 4 Hz movement that measures 30.3 x 6.14mm and has a non-magnetic silicon balance spring and a maximum power reserve of 65 hours. Being a modern Tudor movement, the 5450-U is a METAS-certified chronometer (it’s also COSC-certified). For those curious, the “U” in the name delineates the movement’s anti-magnetic properties (with the “U” representing the horseshoe shape of a stereotypical magnet). Just as the BB GMT established, the BB 58G MT is a flyer-style GMT with local jumping hours and a 24-hour hand that can be used in connection with the rotating 24-hour bezel. If you want to learn how to get the most out of a GMT, be it a new BB 58 GMT or otherwise, check out my quick primer on how to best use a 24-hour bezel. For travel, this is the ideal solution for easily jumping time zones while also keeping an eye on the time at home – and the date even advances/retracts if the local time crosses midnight.

With the specs out of the way, it all comes down to the in-the-metal experience, and for me (a bit of a Tudor nerd, especially in the GMT space), this is both an excellent watch in and of itself and an excellent hint at what might be on the horizon for Tudor. On the former consideration, it’s a flyer GMT that retails for $4,400 on the rubber or $4,600 on the bracelet and wears identically to the standard Black Bay 58. From a functional, proportional, and ergonomic consideration of an everyday sports watch, I think the BB 58 GMT is a knockout. Despite this, from a colorway execution, I think that much of the watch crowd is split by not only the use of the gilt-effect accents (on the dial and bracelet), but also by the black/burgundy bezel insert, which brings me to my latter point from the previous paragraph.