About the Watch

The third line of Tudor chronographs were known as "Big Blocks." When the first Big Blocks were introduced in 1976, there were several glaring aesthetic differences between them and earlier chronographs. The addition of a third chronograph register—an hour indicator—to the dial was the most striking modification. This was made possible by Tudor adopting the Valjoux 7750, a brand-new movement that was adapted to meet the high expectations of the company. The quick-set date feature of the Valjoux 7750 also helped save time when resetting the watch after a period of not wearing it. The largest innovation was the addition of an automatic movement, which made these watches the first self-winding chronographs from the Wilsdorf group, more than a decade before Rolex released its first automatic Daytona chronograph. This was a real coup for Tudor as it put the brand at the forefront of Swiss chronograph manufacture as well as this new advancement that led to the watches’ nickname. The presence of the self-winding mechanism and rotor meant that the watch case needed to be very deep, which resulted in the collectors’ term “Big Block”.

About the Brand

Montres TUDOR SA is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury wristwatches based in Geneva. Registered in 1926 by Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex SA, the brand remains a sister company to Rolex, both companies being owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. Over time Tudor became especially well known for its tool watches, producing watches for professional divers and the military. Between the 1960s and 1980s several navies issued Tudor Submariners to their divers, including the US Navy SEALs, and the French Marine Nationale (French Navy).