The TUDOR Pelagos collection: the history and features
The TUDOR Pelagos collection brings together the most technical dive watches produced by the Swiss manufacture.
In the following article, we trace its history and the features that define each of its models.
The history of the TUDOR Pelagos: from the French National Navy to the modern tool watch
To understand the Pelagos, one must look back several decades before its launch, when TUDOR began equipping some of the world’s most demanding military diving units.
The origins: TUDOR and professional diving
In 1956, the Groupe d’Étude et de Recherches Sous-Marines of the French National Navy received references 7922 and 7923 of the Oyster Prince Submariner from TUDOR to evaluate them in real conditions.
The results convinced the group’s leadership, who rated their water resistance as perfect, and in 1961 the firm achieved the status of official supplier to the French National Navy.
In 1969 came another decisive milestone: the angular hands and hour markers known to collectors as ‘Snowflake’, which became the emblem of legibility on the brand’s dive watches and remain present across the entire Pelagos collection today.
The birth of the TUDOR Pelagos
The Pelagos was unveiled in 2012, the same year as the Black Bay, though with an opposite approach.
While the Black Bay reinterpreted the house’s aesthetic heritage, the Pelagos was designed from a blank sheet with a single objective: to create the perfect modern dive watch.
The evolution of the Pelagos collection
In 2015, TUDOR replaced the original ETA calibre with the MT5612, a COSC-certified in-house movement with a 70-hour power reserve, and introduced the first blue dial in the line.
In 2016 came the Pelagos LHD, with the crown on the left.
In 2021, the Pelagos FXD was unveiled, developed in close collaboration with the Commando Hubert, the combat swimmers of the French National Navy.
In 2022, the collection expanded with the Pelagos 39 and, in 2025, reached its ultimate technical expression with the Pelagos Ultra, water-resistant to 1,000 metres.
Features of the Pelagos collection
Although each model has its own personality, all share a series of traits that define the collection’s identity and explain its prestige among divers and collectors.
Titanium case and bracelet
Titanium is the hallmark of the Pelagos: this material combines lightness with great resistance to corrosion in marine environments.
In addition, the fully satin-brushed finish of the cases and bracelets produces a matt effect that limits sun glare underwater.
Extreme water resistance and helium escape valve
The collection ranges from the 200 metres of water resistance of the Pelagos 39 and the Pelagos FXD to the 1,000 metres of the Pelagos Ultra.
The Pelagos and Pelagos LHD models, water-resistant to 500 metres, incorporate a valve that releases the helium accumulated during saturation dives, thereby protecting the integrity of the watch during the decompression phase.
Legibility: luminescent ceramic bezel and ‘Snowflake’ dial
Legibility is an absolute priority in this collection.
The unidirectional rotating bezels carry ceramic discs with luminescent graduations, and the dials feature the ‘Snowflake’ hands and hour markers, whose generous volume of luminous material guarantees the reading of dive time in conditions of total darkness.
TUDOR Manufacture Calibres
The collection’s current models incorporate COSC-certified in-house calibres, with a silicon balance spring, a variable-inertia balance wheel and power reserves of between 65 and 70 hours.
The Pelagos Ultra goes a step further: its calibre MT5612-U also holds Master Chronometer certification from METAS, which guarantees precision of 0/+5 seconds per day and resistance to magnetic fields of up to 15,000 gauss.
Bracelets with adjustment designed for diving
For the Pelagos, TUDOR developed and patented a self-adjusting clasp with a spring mechanism that contracts the bracelet when the neoprene suit is compressed by pressure during the descent and expands it as the diver ascends.
The most recent models add the ‘T-fit’ clasp, with five micro-adjustment positions requiring no tools and an extension that allows the watch to be worn over a diving suit.
Models from the TUDOR Pelagos collection available at TheRedHouse
The current range is built around five propositions that share the same technical DNA, each geared towards a different use and wearer profile.
TUDOR Pelagos LHD
Named LHD after the English term Left Hand Drive, it places the crown on the left of the case so the watch can be worn on the right wrist.
It pays tribute to the watches the French Navy commissioned in the 1970s for its left-handed divers, and is distinguished by unique details such as the two-colour date disc.
TUDOR Pelagos 39
With its 39 mm case and water resistance of 200 metres, it is the most versatile proposition in the range, halfway between technical diving and urban sophistication. It incorporates the ‘T-fit’ clasp and keeps the collection’s aesthetic codes intact.
TUDOR Pelagos FXD
Born of the collaboration with the Commando Hubert, it is recognisable by its fixed lugs machined from the very block of the case and by its reverse-graduated bezel, conceived for underwater navigation by countdown.
TUDOR Pelagos Ultra
Its 43 mm titanium case withstands depths of up to 1,000 metres, and its two-colour luminescence, blue for the hours and green for the minute hand and the bezel, makes reading easier during a dive.
The clasp incorporates a luminous indicator of the bracelet’s adjustment, a first for the line.
Discover TUDOR at The Red House
The Pelagos collection distils seven decades of TUDOR’s experience in professional diving.
Each model answers a real need underwater, and that functional coherence is precisely what has made it a benchmark in contemporary technical watchmaking.
As the official TUDOR retailer in Gibraltar, we at The Red House invite you to visit our boutique to discover the TUDOR Pelagos collection at first hand and receive personalised advice from our specialists.
