Not all dive watches are created equal, with some being better suited to daily kickaround duties, and others excelling at, well, actual diving. Given the small percentage of dive watch owners that actually dive, I generally view this genre as being more all-purpose tool watch, as the qualities that make for a good diver, also make for a good daily companion. Usually, that is. Sometimes a pair of watches comes along that perfectly captures the contrast between a great everyday tool watch, and a great dive companion. In this side by side we’re looking at two such watches from Tudor: the Pelagos 39, and the Pelagos FXD in black.
To be clear right up front here, both of these watches make for excellent everyday companions, and fill the role of go anywhere do anything tool watch with ease. They even look a bit similar in the process, with sparse black dials, high contrast hands and hour markers, rotating countdown bezels, and of course, the small bit of red text at the bottom of the dial. They are handsome watches to be sure, but a few key differences create a clear contrast between the two, and having worn both for extensive periods both on ground and underwater, I can speak to which I prefer for different scenarios. YMMV.
When the Pelagos 39 was released in 2022, it immediately raised eyebrows as a deviation from the Pelagos formula, which had been well established since it was first introduced back in 2012. This is a collection that has always been purely function forward and modern, without a hint of the throwback stylings we find in the Black Bay collection. The Pelagos was big and unapologetic, quickly becoming a favorite of the adventuring/DIY crowd. It also featured plenty of cool, modern features, like a spring loaded clasp and full titanium cases and bracelets. Stuff like in-house movements always felt a bit besides the point with watches like this, but it did indeed get Tudor’s own movements as they phased out of ETA ebauches.
The Pelagos 39 was certainly a welcome watch, but there’s no denying it was a bit out of character as a Pelagos. At 39mm, this was the smallest Pelagos, geared toward comfortable everyday wear, and even incorporated some stylish elements as well, a foreign concept to the Pelagos up to that point. But it was still a handy tool watch, no doubt. And its smaller stature made it more approachable to a far wider audience. It took the Pelagos from niche over-engineered dive tool, to mass appeal tool watch.
But how is it underwater? Well, this is where the contrast to the rest of the Pelagos family is laid bare. It’s a small difference, but it’s a noticeable one at depth. The dial opening of the P39 is 29.5mm in diameter, while the FXD opens that same measurement up to 32mm. Further, the dial and hands of the FXD appear to be closer to the crystal, so the light distortion underwater isn’t quite as dramatic with the FXD. Pair that with the flat wide bezel of the FXD and you’re left with a watch that’s all around easier to manage while diving.
Conversely, the FXD isn’t quite as tidy an experience as the P39 is when it comes to more mundane or formal activities. The smaller, 39mm case footprint paired with a bracelet doesn’t call as much attention to itself as the 42mm FXD, which can only be fitted to a fabric strap thanks to the fixed lug case. It’s perfectly fine in most scenarios, but it lacks the all around ease of use that the P39 enjoys. The difference between the two watches perfectly highlights the deviation from the norm that the P39 represents within the context of the Pelagos family as a whole. It’s something of an anomaly, but it’s a watch that opens a few new doors for Tudor.
There’s no denying that the Pelagos 39 is just as capable as the other Pelagos watches, but its smaller stature makes it a more casual option altogether, something the other Pelagos models would bristle at being accused of. But there is indeed a place for casual tool watches, and what’s more, the P39 in particular addresses one of the key niggles many have with the Black Bay collection, and that is the pairing of a snowflake (square tipped) hour hand with round hour markers.
The Tudor Submariner of old (well, into the ‘80s) sported a square hour hand, earning it the ‘snowflake’ nickname. These vintage references, classics like the 9411, paired that hand with block hour markers to match that hand. When Tudor first launched the Black Bay in 2012, the watch was introduced with a square hour hand as you might expect, but it paired it with round hour markers, something that Tudor introduced with the Submariner reference 79090 in the late ‘80s, though this watch used a rounded, Mercedes hour hand. The mixture of these two features in the Black Bay has always been a point of contention, though it clearly never held the Black Bay from success.
The Pelagos 39, on the other hand, corrects this misgiving, pairing its snowflake hour hand with block hour markers, and opens the door for Tudor to explore more of its history in the process. It’s easy to imagine a blue colorway coming to the P39, capturing the iconic look of the 7021 or 9411. In a way, this already exists within the Pelagos range with watches like the original FXD made for the Marine Nationale, but the P39 being the more broadly approachable platform would likely pull many would-be Black Bay buyers in a different direction.
So is their space for both the P39 and FXD black in the Pelagos family? Absolutely, and as far as I’m concerned they present markedly different use cases between them. The fixed lug case of the FXD alone is a huge point of contrast that keeps these two in distinct territories. The P39 is a healthy new direction for the Pelagos collection, and while it makes a few compromises to the formula, it’s still plenty capable, and paves the way to a more inclusive future.