Tudor's newest creation—the 39mm Ranger watch—celebrates a key moment from the annals of the great post-war explosion of scientific exploration. The British North Greenland Expedition set out in two ships from the UK 70 years ago in 1952. The majority of the team members were serving military men and 30 of them went equipped with the then-new Tudor Oyster Prince, the first Tudor that was both waterproof and automatic. As well as gathering a host of valuable scientific information over the three-year survey, the team also recorded for Tudor the performance of the watches they had been issued in the harsh conditions of Northern Greenland.
The Ranger as we know it today didn’t appear in Tudor’s collection until 1962 but its name goes back as far as 1929, when the founder of Tudor (and, yes, Rolex, too) Hans Wilsdorf registered the name Ranger just three years after he registered the Tudor name itself, to add a sense of adventure to certain Tudor watches.
The new Ranger features many of the robust, functional-looking hallmarks of its predecessors, with matte effect brushing and an easily read black-dialled, three-hand display with numbers only at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock. Inside the case beats an in-house movement: the caliber MT5402, certified for accuracy by the independent Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, or COSC. (The MT5402 in fact surpassed the rigorous parameters set by COSC.)
The watch comes with a unique woven jacquard strap made exclusively for Tudor in France, a brushed steel bracelet, or one in textured rubber, and starts at a compelling £2,107 for the woven strap version/ Which makes it something of a steal and a perfect daily beater—even if the furthest you'll be venturing is from the front door to the corner store.
Nick Sullivan is Creative Director at Esquire, where he served as Fashion Director from 2004 until 2019. Prior to that, he relocated from London with his young family to Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He has styled and art directed countless fashion and cover stories for both Esquire and Big Black Book (which he helped found in 2006) in exotic,uncomfortable, and occasionally unfeasibly cold locations. He also writes extensively about men’s style, accessories, and watches. He describes his style as elegantly disheveled.
