The power & history of the Tudor Ranger
Could be a story fit for Netflix.
The British North Greenland Expedition left Deptford, an area on the banks of the Thames in London on July 8, 1952. This was a two-year scientific mission to study ice sheets in Greenland. The members of the expedition — composed of 25 British scientists and sailors — were each given a brand-new Oyster Prince timepiece, which was Swiss brand Tudor’s first automatic, waterproof watch. They were to report on the performance of the Oyster Prince watches while roughing it in Greenland.
Of the 25 watches, most have been lost in the voids of history. One, though, was found in the back of the kitchen drawer in a house in England. According to www.hodinkee.com, the watch still “bore the scratches of its tough tour of duty,” but it was intact and was later turned over to Tudor. Oh, the stories conveyed in silence by that watch and its wanderer-wearer: blinding snowscapes, hostile weather conditions, crashed four-engine airplane, survivalist instincts kicking in, and all.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the expedition, Tudor presents its Ranger model, which is “a tool watch celebrating the spirit of this daring adventure, complete with Manufacture Calibre MT5402, a 39-millimeter case, and a clasp with rapid adjustment system.”
During the opening of the Tudor’s “The Spirit of Daring Adventure” exhibition on view until March 15 at The Podium, Lucerne managing director Emerson Yao said, “Today’s highlight is to share the story of the expedition. The story that has brought us the much-sought-after Tudor Ranger watch that (host) Marc Nelson and I are wearing right now.”
Emerson enumerates the reasons why these Tudor Ranger watches are must-haves. “(Because of their) classic vintage design, how comfortable they are on the wrist, the heritage factor, and their affordability.”
What are the key features of this powerful Ranger watch? Its grained, matt-black domed dial featuring hour markers painted with grade A Swiss Super-LumiNova luminescent material; its Satin-brushed case in 316L steel, 39 mm in diameter, with a fixed bezel in 316L steel; its Manufacture Calibre MT5402, certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC), with a silicon balance spring and a 70-hour power reserve; and its three-bracelet options: olive-green jacquard fabric with red-and-beige stripes, hybrid rubber and leather, or 316L steel with Tudor “T-fit” rapid-adjustment clasp.
At the exhibition space, one of the key pieces on view is a scaled-down version of a World War II tracked-vehicle designed for operations in the snow, called the “Weasel” painted in bright orange. Mounted are accumulated data, photographs (the negatives of which had been kept in a shoebox for 60 years), testimonies, visual diaries of what the explorers endured day in and day out: lounging around a tent in a middle of an icy landscape, the weasel being navigated across an expanse of whiteness, and such. One writer commented that the pictures reminded him of Star Wars scenes set in Hoth. Of course, photographs were posted of the robust Tudor watch during extreme weather conditions.Life, even for some of us who live the most humdrum of lives, offers a range of many adventures. Some are doomed to prefer a spell of ordinariness; while some — the ones with exploratory, vagabond hearts — are born to dare.
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Tudor is distributed in the Philippines by Lucerne. Tudor watches are available at The Watch House C1, High Street, Bonifacio Global City, and Tudor at The Podium Mall, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
