Tudor Pelagos FXD

Overall Condition: Outstanding, like-new condition.

In the past 10 years, Tudor has been doing a killer job with its contemporary offerings — especially in the tool watch department.

Timepieces from their Black Bay, Heritage Chronograph, and Ranger collections have been flying off the shelves for their impressive looks, sporty construction and aggressive price points. But for sheer utility, sportiness, and integration of modern materials, it’s the Pelagos line that has us most impressed.

Though it draws from Tudor’s back catalog of dive watches for aesthetic inspiration, the Pelagos brings a forward-thinking design to the professional-grade watch arena. Constructed from titanium and featuring a unique automatically-adjusting clasp system for their bracelet models, this is the type of timepiece that a saturation diver could happily strap on while working hundreds of meters below the surface. And more recently, we’ve seen the Pelagos collection make a 10/10 splash with the introduction of the Pelagos 39, whose reduced proportions make the dive watch even more appealing to a casual wearer.

This particular Pelagos, however, is something special. Released in November of 2021, the 'FXD' was designed in collaboration with the French Marine Nationale. If that sounds familiar, that's because Tudor Submariners have been issued to Navies such as the Marine Nationale in decades past and are supremely coveted by collectors today.

The FXD draws heavily on the design language from the standard Pelagos, while making a few changes that allow it to stand out in the lineup. The FXD loses the date complication, the helium escape valve on the left case profile, and the unidirectional rotating bezel is swapped for a bidirectional version. Perhaps most notably, the FXD utilizes an integrated strap bar system, which gives the 'FXD' its name (shorthand for 'fixed'). They features a sapphire crystal, signed crown, and a new, luminous navy blue dial with a 'snowflake' handset. Powering this piece is the robust Calibre MT5602 automatic winding movement.

We can’t state this clearly enough: The Pelagos is one of the best dive watch designs of the 21st century — and very well may be the most sensible choice from the Rolex family for professional divers.

The FXD is an unexpected and most welcomed addition to a lineup that has delighted enthusiasts since its release.