It’s Game on for Tudor at the Rugby World Cup 2023
The Swiss watchmaking house demonstrates its shared values with the sport as the global event’s official timekeeper.
In nine cavernous stadiums across France from 28 September to 8 October 2023, 20 teams from all over the world will pit themselves against one another in grueling contest of grit and gumption. Sweat and blood will be shed. Tears will flow. But regardless of the team that eventually gets crowned champion of the Rugby World Cup 2023, one is thing for sure: these athletes would have left everything on the pitch to deserve their victory.
Tudor is right in heart of the action as the Rugby World Cup 2023’s official timekeeper. Millions of rugby fans, both at the venues and at home watching the television, will count on Tudor to keep perfect time, as every second of each of the 48 games stretches to an eternity.
Tudor’s links with the sport runs deep, having joined forces with World Rugby in 2017. Since the partnership, Tudor has gone on to support the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cup, World Cup Sevens, the annual U20 World Cups, and has taken part in the annual World Rugby Awards, which recognises the season’s best teams, players, and officials. Tudor also salutes the legends of the game by supporting the Rugby Hall of Fame, an institution from the town of Rugby in the UK, where the sport was born in the 1820s.
However, the relationship between Tudor and rugby goes beyond that of event partnerships. Just as the sport demonstrates courage, discipline, and a desire to push oneself to the extremes, Tudor, too, expresses the same spirit and qualities in the watchmaking arena.
The revitalised Black Bay Chrono, for instance, is an example of how Tudor imbues strength, performance, and precision into its watches. Relaunched two years ago to mark the 50th anniversary of Tudor’s expertise in chronograph-making, the Black Bay Chrono brims with sportive dynamism and mechanical prowess. Housed in a 41mm steel case, framed by a matt black bezel with tachymetric scale, the watch comes in two versions: with a black dial with silver counters, or an opaline dial with black counters.
Anchored by the Black Bay’s signature features such as Snowflake hands and domed sapphire crystal, the watch’s striking appearance is complemented by top-notch technical qualities.
Powering the watch is Tudor’s Manufacture Chronograph Calibre MT5813. An in-house automatic chronograph movement, it features a column wheel for smooth activation of the chronograph, 70 hours of power reserve and certification from the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), which guarantees daily precision of up to -4/+6 seconds. Even so, Tudor ups the ante by ensuring that the watch surpasses the standards set by COSC, promising daily accuracy of -2/+4 seconds.
Another fine example is the Black Bay Pro. A travel tool watch made for fearless adventurers, the Black Bay Pro takes inspiration from similarly robust vintage watches made almost 70 years ago, when Tudor started equipping explorers with timepieces for their groundbreaking expeditions.
Encased in 39mm steel, the Black Bay Pro biggest technical draw is its GMT feature. With it, one can ascertain the time in two time zones at a single glance. The main hour and minute hands tell the time of your current location, while an additional 24-hour hand points to the reference (or home) time.
Like the Black Bay Chrono, the Black Bay Pro is a veritable workhorse, similarly powered by an in-house Manufacture Calibre. On top of its two-time zone feature, the automatic Tudor COSC-certified Calibre MT5652 that drives the Black Bay Pro also promises up to 70 hours of power reserve and -2/+4 seconds daily accuracy.
Tudor’s horological ethos is superbly articulated by its tagline, #BornToDare. As it is with elite rugby players in the uncompromising sport, the company strives for perfection in both form and function, placing an emphasis on performance, hardiness, and accuracy across all of its flagship collections. And this is how Tudor not only stays ahead of the game, but also elevates it to higher standards.
