Teddy Baldassarre
Tudor Pelagos FXD: The Complete Guide
When Tudor released the Pelagos FXD in late 2021 an important element of the brand's heritage was brought to light with it. A rich history of working with the French Navy, or Marine Nationale, was now being tied to a modern creation from Tudor in a new partnership. While the history brings an unusual depth to this watch (no pun intended), it’s the manner in which the Tudor Pelagos FXD has been executed that has made it truly interesting to a modern audience. This wasn’t a throwback design commemorating the past. Rather, this was a function-forward, modern design, built to spec for a niche group of divers in the French Navy. The FXD is a natural evolution of the Pelagos ethos, and its slightly unconventional approach has cemented its place in the hearts of many enthusiasts. Tudor took a slightly different route with the FXD when compared to the existing Pelagos references. The watch was designed with input from the Marine Nationale’s Commando Hubert unit in order to better suit its combat divers' needs for a specific maneuver they employed while traversing underwater. This maneuver would have them swimming segments in a set direction for a set period of time, before adjusting time and direction to tackle subsequent sections. To better assist in this exercise, the fully indexed bezel is bidirectional, and counts down rather than tracks elapsed time. This allows for fast, precise movement (this is a 120-click bezel), and no ambiguity when measuring a pre-set lengt...
