Tudor Oyster Prince

Hans Wilsdorf created Tudor for the everyman, for miners, construction workers and every sort of tradesman. Rolex was meant for the explorer and the businessman, where Tudor was to be a different creature entirely. For your everyday person Rolex was, and often still is out of reach. But in creating Tudor, Wilsdorf wanted to offer “a watch that our agents could sell at a more modest price than our Rolex watches, and yet one that would attain the standards of dependability for which Rolex is famous." He achieved this affordability in an innovative way. Essentially, Tudors were Rolexes in all but name, with the same waterproof Oyster cases and similar styling. However, in order to keep costs down, Tudor used generic Swiss movements made by ETA rather than Rolex’s own in-house calibres. What resulted were watches that were more affordable than Rolexes to the consumer, but still uniformly tough and reliable. Though vintage fans first flocked to the sports models such as the Monte Carlo or the Submariner, watches like this one prove that Tudor didn’t waste either style or substance on its other models. The Oyster Prince is Tudor’s answer to the Oyster Perpetual, Rolex’s entry-level model. With all the refinement of a Rolex, but all the rugged versatility of a Tudor, the Oyster Prince inhabits a middle ground between luxury and sport. However, the sportiness of the model is more apparent in later models from the 1970s and 1980s. This model, a Reference 7995/0 dating from a slightly earlier period, is unmistakably stylish. The silver radial brushing of the dial (capped with a “small rose” logo) is subdued on the surface, but when the light hits it just right, catches the eye in a delightful way. The Oyster case, though compact, still feels solid and comfortable on the wrist. On a leather strap, it’s just the kind of watch that can carry you from day to night—everything you need in a watch.