So let's explore what Tudor Brand is or means? Rolex founder, Hans Wilsdorf experimented like a mad scientist when it came to watch design and marketing.
As I have said so many times before, Rolex has always thrown everything at the wall, and watched to see what stuck. The best way to understand this notion is to examine Hans Wilsdorf's own words:
For some years I have been considering the idea of making 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. I decided to form a separate company, with the object of making and marketing this new watch. It called the Tudor Watch Company." –Hans Wilsdorf, Founder Of Rolex [March 6, 1946].
Early Tudor History Mystery
Early Rolex and Tudor history still remains a bit of a mystery, and I try, as best as I am able, to put together the pieces of the historical puzzle. The Tudor brand was first registered in Geneva, Switzerland by Isaac Blumenthal on December 13, 1906 and was awarded the registration number of 21383.
In 1926 it was formally transferred to Veuve Philippe Huther de Colombiere, and was purchased formally by Hans Wilsdorf in 1936. I have also heard, and I don't know if it is true, that Hans Wilsdorf originally started the Wilsdorf and Davis (W&D) name in 1905 but wanted a better name, so in 1906 he started Tudor, but a few years later in 1908, decided to develop his brand under the Rolex name.
The original logo for Tudor was of a the decorative Tudor rose. It appears Hans Wilsdorf wanted to build a brand that payed homage to the long reigning English Tudor dynasty. The Welsh House Of Tudor also known as The Tudor Dynasty ruled the Kingdom Of England and its realms which included The Lordship and Kingdom Of Ireland, from 1485 to 1603.
The first monarch of the Tudor Dynasty was Henry Tudor who descended patrilineally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth and maternally from the English Royal House of Lancaster. The Tudor family rose to prominence as a result of the Wars of The Roses, and thus came about the Tudor Rose Logo.
Henry Tudor successfully defeated The House Of York, and captured the throne to become Henry VII. Henry Tudor then married Elizabeth Of York which served to unite the former warring factions and unite them under a new dynasty.
The Tudor Brand Comes To Life
Hans Wildorf took over control of developing the Tudor brand in 1946 and named it Montres Tudor SA in 1946. From 1947 to 1952 Hans Wildorf worked on introducing the Tudor line to the public.
It has been argued, and it makes perfect sense that his strategy with the Tudor line was to take advantage of utilizing the tooling that was already paid for but would become obsolete as Rolex moved forward. In other words, Rolex would invest a great deal of capital in new tooling and machinery to make state-of-the-art Rolex watches.
In order to stay at the forefront of innovation, Rolex had to continually push the envelope and continuously build new tooling equipment to make next generation Rolex watches. The challenge was when Rolex would move from one generation the the next, the tooling from the last generation was still in excellent condition and Hans Wildsdorf wished to intelligently utilize the older tooling and equipment to optimize Rolex ROI (Return On Investment).
So Hans Wilsdorf came up with The Tudor Brand which would be manufactured on the previous generation of Rolex tooling. Also, the Tudor Brand watchmakers were typically not as experienced as the Rolex master watchmakers. In other words, Hans Wildorf brilliantly came up with a system in which newly trained watchmakers would begin by making Tudor watches and once they became master watchmakers, they would graduate to becoming Rolex watchmakers.
Tudor was also Rolex's experimental brand, in the same way that Sony used to do the same thing with their second-tier Onkyo brand. Tudor also created a brand around Tiger Woods named The Tiger Tudor which made some very interesting chronographs using last generation Rolex Daytona tooling.
Tudor through their history was able to experiment with doing things Rolex would not, in doing so it arguable ended up making several beautiful mistakes. I will be candid with you and let you know I never liked Tudor watches. I always considered them to be inferior to Rolex–almost like a poor knock-off of Rolex.
I have NEVER wanted to own or wear a Tudor, but that somehow magically changed this week at BaselWorld 2010 in Basel, Switzerland when Rolex/Tudor introduced this all-new chronograph based on a long-discontinued Tudor watch that was named the Monte Carlo or Home Plate by vintage Rolex collectors.
In the photo below we see the original Monte Carlo that was introduced in 1970 next to the all-new for 2010 Tudor Heritage Chronograph.
The original Tudor Chronograph was 4omm and the new version is 42mm which is the perfect size. This retro-styled Tudor is just mind-boggling cool!!!!!! I have been a voracious student of design excellence for more than a quarter century as well as a designer and I have never liked retro design for marketing sake, but I will say there are examples in the world, just like the all-new Tudor Monte Carlo, where a company goes back to the future to design great products.
Often times this process works best when a company has long ago discontinued a product and they are forced to start from scratch as was the case with this new Tudor.
2010 Chevy Camaro Coolness
The Return Of The American Muscle Car
A Great Example of Meaningful Retro-Design
Another example of a discontinued product that was brought back to life and is much, much better is the all new Chevy Camaro (pictured below) which is based on the 1969 Camaro. Of course, the idea with meaningful retro design is not to copy something that came before, but to go back to where the product design was discontinued or took a turn for the worse, and pickup where the design left off and take it in a better and more meaningful direction–while incorporating all the best new design, technology and manufacturing techniques.
In many ways this design process could be referred to as reclamation. Reclamation being a re-caliming of a strong value proposition from the past that was lost or abandoned. Often time in design, as in life, you can only appreciate something after you have lost it.
"We seek not to imitate the masters; rather we seek what they sought." –Dr. Stephen Covey
