Tudor Black Bay Chrono M79360N-0011«Reverse Panda»

Imagen: Tudor, web oficial

The storyWhy this reference matters

In 2017, at Basel, Tudor and Breitling announced something you don't see every day: they were going to lend each other movements. Breitling handed over its B01 chronograph, developed in La Chaux-de-Fonds across the years that followed the 2008 crash, and Tudor rebuilt it its own way — silicon hairspring, variable-inertia balance, Tudor finishing. The result is called the MT5813. Travelling in the opposite direction went the Pelagos's MT5612, which Breitling renamed the B20 and fitted to the Superocean Heritage II.

The 79360N of 2021 is the version most buyers end up with. It arrived with panda and reverse-panda dials and a black bezel, timed to the fiftieth anniversary of Tudor's first chronograph, the Oysterdate of 1970. Forty-one millimetres of case, a fixed steel bezel carrying an anodised aluminium insert with a tachymeter scale, sunken registers at three and nine, and a date window at six that caught a fair number of people off guard.

The MT5813 has all its papers in order: column wheel, vertical clutch, 41 jewels, a 70-hour reserve and a COSC certificate. It also has one oddity that gives away Tudor's hand on the Breitling base — the minute counter runs to 45, not 30. It sounds like a whim. In practice, being able to time three quarters of an hour without keeping track of how many times the hand has gone round solves more everyday problems than you would expect.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

The first thing that separates this from any other Black Bay: the bezel doesn't turn. It is fixed steel, with a black anodised aluminium insert and a tachymeter scale printed in silver. If a Black Bay's bezel is graduated in minutes and rotates, it isn't the Chrono.

Two registers: chronograph minutes at three, running seconds at nine, both sunken, with the date at six. This reference has the black dial with opaline registers, what collectors call a reverse panda; the white dial with black registers is a different finish within the same family. The hour hand is the usual snowflake.

The suffix matters. The 79360N launched in 2021 and the bracelet variants came later: a three-link riveted design that echoes the folded bracelets Tudor made in the fifties and sixties, and a five-link, both with the T-fit clasp and 8 mm of travel. Early examples were also sold on a jacquard fabric strap and on a leather bund.

CollectingWhat collectors check

An automatic chronograph is not bought the way a three-hander is: the service costs more, and the symptoms are easier to spot. Work the pushers several times. The start should be instant and clean, with no jump from the seconds hand as it sets off — that is what the vertical clutch is for — and the reset should plant all three hands dead on twelve, neither short nor past.

The bezel insert is aluminium with the scale printed on. It scratches, and the printing wears with age and with aggressive cleaning products; a tachymeter with the numbers eaten away drops the watch a grade on the spot. Look at the pushers too: lateral play, or a marked edge, means somebody has pressed harder than necessary.

Check which bracelet it comes on and whether it is the one the watch left with, because there are several and they don't all swap over with the same ease. The COSC papers and the purchase date still count while Tudor's five-year warranty runs, and that warranty transfers. And if the seller tells you the movement is a Breitling, he is half right: the base is the B01, but the regulating organ and the finishing are Tudor's.

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