The Black Bay 58 lost 0.2 mm. Here's why I care
By Hannah Lindqvist, Stockholm · · Tudor
Small numbers matter on a small wrist. That's my whole job here, really.
Tudor has updated the Black Bay 58, which for years has been the watch people point me to when I complain that dive watches are too big. The diameter hasn't changed, still 39 mm. The case is now 11.7 mm thick instead of 11.9, the lug-to-lug is listed at 47.8 mm, and the movement inside has gone from COSC to METAS Master Chronometer, which means 0 to +5 seconds a day after casing and resistance to 15,000 gauss.
Two tenths of a millimetre sounds like nothing. On a 15.5 cm wrist, under a running jacket cuff, the height of a watch is the thing you notice most, because it decides whether the case catches every time you reach for something. Every bit helps. I'd have liked them to go further, but this is a 200 m diver with a domed crystal and I accept that physics exists.
The 47.8 mm lug-to-lug is the number I'd actually think about. It's fine for me, just. It's the upper edge of what my wrist will take without the lugs hanging over. If your wrist is smaller than mine, look at the Black Bay 54 instead, which is 37 mm and about 46 mm end to end and the better fit for most of the people who write to me.
Tudor also tidied the dial text, reshaped the base of the hands and redid the bezel and crown. You get a five-link bracelet, a three-link riveted one or rubber. I'd pick rubber, because I'd actually swim in this, out at Grinda in August when the water is finally bearable.
My real complaint: the power reserve has dropped. The old MT5402 was rated at 70 hours. The new MT5400-U is quoted at 65. That's a tradeoff for the certification, and nobody will be caught out by five hours, but it does mean a watch that sits in a drawer from Friday night to Monday morning has less margin than before. It's the kind of quiet step backwards that marketing never mentions.
At $5,350 on the bracelet in the US it costs noticeably more than the old one did, and I'm not sure 0.2 mm and a certificate justify all of that by themselves. Still, if you have a wrist like mine and you want one proper dive watch, this is still near the top of the list. It just got slightly better at the thing I care about.
Hannah Lindqvist is a pen name of The Watch Quest editorial team. Opinions are based on the published specs, the brand's own information and the watch's reputation, not a long-term test.