La vie en rose - The Remarkable Story behind Tudor

The well-known Swiss watch brand Tudor has been active on the watch market since 1926. Originally, founder Hans Wilsdorf introduced the brand as the "little sister" of the Rolex company, which he had set up 15 years earlier. But this was not due to simple boredom, but rather a brilliant idea: Tudor was to cover a completely different target group with its cheaper range. The alternative to the "brand with the crown" was to offer cheaper watches with the usual high quality and thus above all represent a suitable option for newcomers to the luxury watch sector - a real challenge. But Wilsdorf dared to try and was enviably successful. This is thanks in part to his special strategy: the marketing professional waited a full 20 years after registering the brand before finally introducing Tudor to the masses with a perfectly developed range and well-considered advertising strategy. And this at a time when marketing as we know it today did not even exist! Wilsdorf was a pioneer in this field, recognizing early on how essential the right brand presentation is for the success of a company.

One year after the end of the Second World War, the first Tudor models were presented, which, like Rolex, had a sporty design and were extremely robust. However, Tudor wristwatches used movements from suppliers to save costs and thus enable the lower price. Thanks to outsourcing, Tudor can maintain the price difference and still offer excellent quality. To this day, the company cooperates with ETA, one of the best Swiss movement producers. Tudor quickly made a name for itself in the watch industry as the "Rolex for the little man" with robust and reliable timepieces, and the company has actually been able to maintain this reputation over the years - almost a century later, the products are still celebrated by fans all over the world. The vintage models in particular, which feature Rolex cases and straps, are still immensely popular. However, the clear demarcation from the “mother” company was also an important step for Tudor: Through meaningful advertising campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s, which showed the watches to road and mining workers, Tudor was able to successfully differentiate itself from Rolex and its luxury image.

Wilsdorf chose the Welsh royal family of the same name as inspiration for the company name. The Tudor dynasty is best known for King Henry VIII, who opposed the Catholic Church, appointed himself head of the church and married a total of six times. He famously had two of his chosen ones executed. Even during the reigns of his children, there were repeated power struggles and revolutions. The Tudors thus stand for power, uncompromisingness and change, which Tudor ideally represents. The rose as a symbol of the famous royal family also became the brand's company logo a short time later.

Little Sister, Big Show

Over time, this image of Tudor was somewhat lost and the brand began to focus more on "Mama". However, with the change in management, there was another rethink and the company returned to its original, independent core idea. Tudor recognized its value in this uniqueness and ultimately stayed on this path. With the Heritage collection, the brand managed to make a fresh start by looking back into the past: the renaissance of the popular vintage models from the 50s and 60s brought the remarkable history of the brand into focus and successfully brought it back on the personal path. The success of these models was so enormous that a whole wave of vintage reinterpretations from other brands followed. Each of the Tudor models has its own character. To this day, these vintage editions in particular, as well as their original models, are highly sought after by collectors. No wonder, then, that the value of well-preserved examples has been steadily increasing for some time!

Since then, Tudor has consistently maintained its own style without being in the shadow of Rolex. The watches have long been known for their high quality and durability, but also for their innovative solutions in the areas of design and technology. With these features, Tudor was able to make a name for itself worldwide and hold its own in the highly competitive timepiece market. In 1996, the brand celebrated its 50th anniversary and marked this triumph in a very special way: the links to Rolex that had appeared on the watches up to that point were completely removed from the cases, crowns and straps. In 2009, Tudor took another big step towards independence and designed a new collection with a focus on motorsport. Until 2011, the brand cooperated with Porsche as a "timing partner" for sporting goals. Tudor thus had a big fish on the hook and success was assured from the start. The collaboration also ideally represented the new direction. The brand already had its own identity before – but now the “umbilical cord” had been completely cut and Rolex’s child had fully grown up.

In Eternal Bloom – Tudor’s Success Continues

Since 2013, Tudor has been the official timekeeper of the World Enduring Championship (WEC), a challenging long-distance racing series. The sporting goals of the competition and the company values ​​have the same denominator, because both the precise timepieces and the fast cars require performance, reliability and passion. Through this collaboration, Tudor once again emphasizes its close connection to the world of motoring. The great importance of technology and style, which have always been the focus of the collections, can also be clearly seen in the models themselves: the clear lines and the sporty design of the watches leave no questions unanswered. In 2015, Tudor had a new hammer ready at Baselworld: the company presented its own specially developed manufacture movement for the first time. The MT 5621 is an automatic movement with a stop-second function for the most precise time setting and with a power reserve of up to 70 hours. Once again, no expense is spared on innovation and quality. The MT 5621 embodies the brand's strong pioneering spirit, which has even grown over the years. Hans Wilsdorf hit the bullseye with Tudor a long time ago and the brand still stands for performance and robustness today. Tudor appeals to a wide range of target groups and many celebrities are also fans. We are excited to see what the brand will surprise us with next - after the last few years, expectations are naturally high. But we are confident that Tudor will not disappoint us in the future either.

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