Tudor A History of Speed

by Michael Satterfield - 09/07/2022

Watches and racing have always gone hand in hand since the beginning of motorsports, from recording lap times to calculating speed, a good watch is a tool no racer would be without. While there are some well-known watch brands in motorsports, nearly all watches have some connection to racing, including Tudor. I have personally owned a few classic Tudor watches over the years, but to get a better idea of what the new Tudor lineup was like, I headed over to our local Authorized Dealer, David Gardner's Jewelry to see the latest collection. 

Of course, the Heritage Chrono jumps out with its classic racing-inspired style, but the Black Bay Chrono on the stainless-steel bracelet with a white face and black subdials is about as pure a motorsports watch as you can get, and priced at around $5,325 it is a great value in the precision Swiss watch world. 

While it is certain that Tudor watches have been on the wrist of racers since the company's founding in 1926, their first official involvement would be in 1953 when Tudor strapped one of their watches with its new automatic movement to the wrist of a motorcycle endurance racer for one-thousand miles. By the 1960s Tudor sponsored the Tudor Watch Racing Team based in Japan. 

The team included legendary Japanese racing drivers Jiro Yoneyama and Tomohiko Tsutsumi who campaigned a Porsche 906 with Tudor livery, both the Porsche and Tsutsumi would appear in ads for Tudor throughout the 1960s. In 1969 the team would win the Suzuka 1000km endurance race, and both drivers would go on to storied careers including competing at Le Mans, Fuji, and Nürburgring. 

In 1970 Tudor would release their first Chronograph and rally driver Tim Wheatley would be part of a campaign that showcased a number of athletes from different sports. Tudor would take a break from motorsports officially for a number of years, before returning as the official timing partner of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Championship in 2010 and sponsor of Dutch racing driver Patrick Huisman. The following year Tudor would become the official timing partner of Ducati which resulted in the release of the Fastrider Chronograph. 

Tudor would become the title sponsor of the IMSA SportsCar Championship (now the WeatherTech series) for 2014 and 2015 which included the Rolex 24 Hour and Petit Le Mans. In 2015, Tudor would also sponsor the Historic Grand Prix in Zandvoort, which featured vintage racing cars in a number of classes, and winners would bring home a special edition Tudor Heritage Chronograph. Today Tudor has partnered with Alinghi Red Bull Racing taking racing to the sea in the quest to win the 37th America's Cup. 

Tudor is seeing a massive surge in popularity thanks to modern reimaginings of their classic timepieces like the Ranger, Heritage Chrono, and Heritage Black Bay Fifty-Eight, which offer all the timeless styles of a vintage watch in a contemporary package.