Tudor Announces New Partnership With French Navy

Following an official post to the brand's Instagram account, Tudor has announced a newly re-formed partnership with the Marine Nationale (aka., the French Navy). As many of you are likely already aware, this could be big news as the two outfits shared a long-standing relationship that dates to the mid-'50s, and this historic military connection has helped to shape appeal surrounding Tudor's vintage dive watches (especially those with MN histories) and to establish a sense of legacy for the brand's modern dive watches. What we know so far about the partnership is mostly that it's been announced. Moving forward, Tudor will be working with the Marine Nationale, and I've been told that there will be more specific news coming later this year. What that could mean is really anyone's guess, but it will almost certainly involve dive watches and military diving teams (go on...). While I think it could be hard to build on the success of the fan-favorite, MN-inspired Black Bay Fifty-Eight Navy Blue , a direct collaboration with the MN could lead to a very cool new model. Maybe something in the Pelagos family? Let us know in the comments what you would want to see. And hey, if they are looking for inspiration, all they have to do is dust off some of the old family photo books. Tudor started working with the French Navy in 1956, only a couple of years after releasing its first dive watch. For the next 30 years or so, Tudor supplied various elements of the MN with toolish watches for their missions – and a legacy was born. From early examples like the reference 7924 of 1958 to the now-iconic square markers of the 9401 (both above), there's a ton of great watch design and history shared between Tudor and the French Navy. We'll just have to wait and see what is in store for this partnership, so why not fill the void with some other great stories about Tudor and the world of the military with our two-part series The Long Return ( Part II here ) or this episode of Talking Watches with the Navy SEAL (and all-around hero) Moki Martin ?Back at it again with the Marine Nationale.