Pre-Owned Tudor Heritage Chronograph J818326 / M70330N-0005

Why We Love It

For the better part of last decade it seemed as though there was no place in the watch world for the thoughtfully-crafted styles of yesteryear. “Bigger,” “sleeker,” “shinier,” seemed to be words that were on everyone’s mind. Brands catered to the prevailing trend, releasing watches so large that they only looked at home on the wrists of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sly Stallone.

But in the early 2010s something remarkable happened: brands did the unthinkable and looked backward, poring over their old catalogs, resurrecting old and discontinued designs and giving them new life on the modern wrist.

Tudor was on the forefront of this wave with the 2010 release of the Heritage Chronograph.

Since Tudor’s inception in 1946, the brand has struggled to step out of the shadow of its big brother Rolex. Explorers and combat divers carried watches made by Tudor to the Poles or to the deepest parts of the ocean. And yet, in the U.S. at least, the Shield never enjoyed as much success as the Crown.

But that all changed with the launch of the Heritage Chronograph. 

Based on a design from the 1970s, the Heritage Chronograph is something that we lovers of vintage chronographs go absolutely wild for. It has all the look and feel of the Monte Carlo, but with an updated style that’s completely contemporary.

With a case that’s just a hair under 43mm, the Heritage Chronograph isn’t the sort of watch you could forget is on your wrist — but with a dial like that, you really wouldn’t want to! Its vibrant colors — orange and black and grey — hearken back to the Monte Carlo design language on which it is based. Still, for all its sportiness, it wears well for its size. On a bracelet it’s substantial, but wearing it on a NATO strap (included here) slims it down considerably.

Offered in unworn condition with only slight handling wear, this Heritage Chronograph perfectly proves the truth in the motto “Everything old is new again,” something that we at Analog:Shift can get behind one hundred percent.

We’re sure you can too.

The Tudor Story

Although it started as Rolex’s gateway brand, the quality of Tudor’s products are by no means inferior to Rolex’s.

Tudors were in many ways Rolexes in all but name, with the same waterproof Oyster cases and similar styling. However, in order to keep costs down, Tudor used off the shelf Swiss movements rather than their own in-house calibres. What resulted were watches that were more affordable than Rolexes to the consumer, but still uniformly tough and reliable.

Hans Wilsdorf created Tudor for the everyman, for miners, construction workers and every sort of tradesman. Rolex was meant for the explorer and the businessman, where Tudor was to be a different creature entirely. For your everyday person Rolex was, and often still is out of reach.

But in creating Tudor, Wilsdorf wanted to offer “a watch that our agents could sell at a more modest price than our Rolex watches, and yet one that would attain the standards of dependability for which Rolex is famous."

Today Tudor has certainly defeated any impression of being the redheaded stepchild of the Rolex family, and their current timepiece collection – as well as their vintage counterparts – are getting the recognition and respect they most rightfully deserve.