It is one of the stormiest evenings in Bangkok’s recent history, but the room is packed. Presenter Cole Pennington praises the crowd for showing up tonight; fighting the rain and the traffic to get here. It speaks to the unwavering spirit of the watchmaker’s fans.
We’re inside Tudor’s symposium at Bangkok Watch Week, held at Siam Paragon. The guests tonight are comprised of watch collectors and enthusiasts, many of whom have long followed the brand’s various releases. Led by Pennington and his study of Tudor’s archives, the seminar follows the story of Tudor through the last 100 years, showcasing never-before-seen materials, alongside a few charming anecdotes.
Against the quiet trickle of rain on the ceiling above the auditorium, the crowd listens carefully, laughs occasionally, and chimes in with answers to Pennington’s trivia. It is an informative talk, for both newcomers and longtime followers. As the speaker notes, “stories imbue the watches with intrigue.” Here’s what intrigued us most.
A Century of Tudor: Everything we learned from a dive into the archive with Cole Pennington
The changing face of the Tudor logo
Tudor was founded in the 1920s by Hans Wilsdorf, who is also the founder of Rolex. The relationship between the two brands is key throughout Pennington’s talk, as both Tudor and Rolex were often positioned together in watch catalogues, especially in the beginning.
The company was first registered as “The Tudor,” and the name came from Wilsdorf’s fascination with royalty, and hence, the tudors. The brand has seen a few variations on their logo since these early days, including one with a long “T,” implying a sense of protection, as it stretches over the rest of the word, or the shield, which is the same logo used today. The collector favourite, Pennington explains, is the Tudor rose logo. He alludes to the rose as a global symbol for discretion, a confidentiality perhaps also shared by the watch and its wearer. This intimate sense of deep lore is a running theme of the talk.
Tudor’s connection to Thailand
Zooming in on Thailand, we are then shown a few interesting images from the archives. One of these is Bangkok’s historic SAB Building, then located in Pom Prap Sattru Phai. Founded in 1907, it was a rare space where luxury European goods could be purchased in Thailand. A few years after its opening, Tudor watches were among the items showcased in the store, proving Tudor’s decades-long relationship with Thailand.
Nonetheless, Pennington, who once lived in Bangkok, makes it clear that the watch market in Thailand has really exploded in recent years. Probed about how the country differs from others in the region, he smiles, “the level of deep nerdiness of Thai collectors rivals anywhere else.”
An emphasis on value and on mechanics
Back on the timeline, we now enter the 1930s and 1940s, and we get to one of the central reasons why watch lovers are so drawn to Tudor.
Even though the 1930s saw the advent of the Great Depression, Tudor watches excelled at this time due to their emphasis on value. In fact, the iconic Tudor Ranger was first registered during this time period. As Pennington describes it, Tudor made “the best possible watch at the best possible price,” and as we arrive at the 1940s, this delineation from Rolex starts to take shape.
We are shown clips and historic documents from various areas, including racing, diving, and even flight. Yet Pennington wants to make one thing clear: it wasn’t the big names and the familiar faces you may know from history.
Key figures
Tudor watches accompanied many missions, and they were worn by those who simply and genuinely sought out a highly wearable, technical, and functional timepiece for all kinds of conditions. The watch is sent to do something, and it achieves it. It undergoes hardship, but also speaks to those who wear it. Pennington starts to get a little emotional as we encounter these individuals.
The first is Marchesa Carina Massone Negrone, who was the first woman to fly in an open-cockpit biplane to 12,043 metres. The original watch from the 1930s was lost, but we hear from her grandchild about how her grandmother was a rebellious and active woman. The next is 93-year-old JD Walker, a captain in the British Royal Engineers, who kept a close record of how the watch operated in sub-zero temperatures, during his expedition in North Greenland. Later, we meet a mother and a daughter, warmly describing how their late husband and father wore a Tudor watch as one of the rescue swimmers, ‘Navy Frogmen,’ who pulled the astronauts from the capsule of every Apollo mission — including the moon landing.
Born to Dare
Throughout the talk, we are shown historic advertisements from Tudor’s archives. The presentation is fun to watch, especially as we examine the evolution of how we advertise watches, but also as Tudor begins to find a balance between elegance and adventure.
From the 1970s, Pennington shows us an advertisement in Cantonese, and another that features a woman dancing inside a jet engine. In a campaign from the 1990s, we see an SUV parked in a tropical setting, and a tagline that reads, “A Park No Avenue,” as a play on New York’s Park Avenue. The ads are playful, and full of unique character.
From towards the end of the 1990s, we then see a familiar face that has long been associated with the brand: Tiger Woods, and the iconic Tudor Tiger. Back then, still an up-and-coming golfer, Tudor took a real chance working with the young athlete, who served as an ambassador for almost a decade. In 2017, Tudor signs David Beckham, and it is the birth of the ‘Born to Dare’ campaign. Everybody nods in recognition.
This becomes our key takeaway as Pennington brings his symposium to a close. We admire fresh colourways, partnerships, and the new Tudor manufacture in Switzerland’s Le Locle in the final slides, before we are ushered out of the auditorium to face Bangkok city again. The rain has gotten heavier, but if anything, we know that the Tudor watch lover is up for any challenge.
Find out more at Tudor.
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
