Hands-On Debut: Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight Collaboration Watch
Although Rowing Blazers is best known as an American clothing brand and design house, the company has more recently made a name for itself within the world of watches due to a series of high-profile collaborations with some of the industry’s most famous and historic manufacturers. Following two successful collaborations with Seiko and another with Zodiac, Rowing Blazers has most recently teamed up with Tudor for 2023 to create a limited-edition version of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight. With that in mind, unlike previous Rowing Blazers collaboration watches, the new Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight isn’t available for sale to the general public, and it is instead only being offered to friends and family of the brand.
Designed by Rowing Blazers’ founder Jack Carlson in collaboration with Eric Wind from Wind Vintage (the two have been friends since college and Eric helped design all of the previous Rowing Blazers watches), the new Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight was produced as a limited-edition run of fewer than 100 examples, and since it isn’t actually for sale to members of the general public, it isn’t a watch that you are going to find listed anywhere on either of the brand’s websites. Based upon the original black dial version of the current-production Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, the new Rowing Blazers edition features a custom engraved caseback, along with a dial that showcases a bright pink “Neon Noir” Rowing Blazers logo in place of the usual chronometer-certification text and depth rating that sits on the lower half of the dials fitted to normal Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight watches.
The pink Rowing Blazers “Neon Noir” logo is inspired by 1980s t-shirt graphics and the movie “Drive,” while the caseback engraving is a Latin inscription that reads “AVT VIAM INVENIAM AVT FACIAM” (which translates to “I shall either find a way or make one”). Additionally, the center of the caseback on each watch also features the initials of its owner, and since Eric Wind was kind enough to let me photograph his personal Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight for this article, the center of the caseback on this particular example features his initials “EMW.” (Please note the serial number engraving has been digitally removed from the photos for confidentiality and security reasons.)
Aside from its dial and caseback, the new Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight is very much the same vintage-inspired dive watch that we all know and love, which means that you get the same 39mm stainless steel case, domed sapphire crystal, and rivet-style bracelet that can be found on the standard-production models. Similarly, aside from the neon pink Rowing Blazers logo, the overall layout of the dial is the same as the normal Black Bay Fifty-Eight watches, with applied luminous indexes, gilt-style markings, and a set of matching gold-finished snowflake hands. Since the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight itself is very much a known quantity by this point, I’m going to skip the full outline of its specs; however, if you are looking for a complete review of the standard black dial version of the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, you can find that right here.
While private-order Tudor watches with custom dials are objectively rather rare, they are not entirely uncommon. In addition to having produced watches for various law enforcement and military groups, Tudor has also made special “friends and family” edition watches for a diverse assortment of other groups and entities, with notable examples including Undefeated, Air France, Google’s “Watches for Good” charity, the State of Qatar, and even Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” tour. With that in mind, while the list of previous Tudor collaboration watches is certainly somewhat eclectic, I can’t think of another instance where Tudor has created a watch with a company that also sells timepieces made by other bands, and based on the information that is currently available, this is the first watch from either Tudor or its parent company Rolex to ever feature pink text on its dial.
Unlike a decent number of other custom-order Tudor Black Bay watches that retain their chronometer-certification text and squeeze the other entity’s logo above it, the Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight omits the entirety of the writing on the lower half of the dial, with only the bright pink “Neon Noir” logo appearing below the hands. Personally, I think it was a smart move to leave out the additional text, as it creates significantly better balance, with the pink Rowing Blazers logo being roughly the same size and overall shape as the Tudor name and shield emblem that sits opposite it on the upper half of the dial.
From Seiko, to Zodiac, and now to Tudor, Rowing Blazers’ collaborations are clearly moving upmarket within the greater world of watches, and just like the trajectory of many individual collectors, the American clothing brand and design house is getting into increasingly expensive timepieces. While this particular co-branded Tudor watch is likely something that a lot of people would want to add to their personal collections, the two-digit sum of examples that were created of the Tudor x Rowing Blazers Black Bay Fifty-Eight were all offered to friends and family of the brand, and each of the watches was engraved with its owner’s personal initials.
Although less than 100 pieces were created, it hasn’t been disclosed exactly how many examples of the watch were produced, or how much buyers were charged for this limited-edition collaboration model. That said, it is fairly safe to assume that they paid somewhere in the general neighborhood of the $3,950 USD retail price that corresponds with the standard version of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight. Although it’s not likely that we will see a version of this watch that will be available to the general public, the fact that Rowing Blazers has access to blue-chip companies such as Tudor should be taken as an encouraging sign of what we might be able to expect from the brand in the future.
For more information on either the Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight or Rowing Blazers and its various other watch collaborations, please visit the official Tudor website or Rowing Blazer’s website