Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue Watch Review by Frank Geelen

In order to review it for you, I've been wearing it for a full week and that has been a very! pleasant experience. The Heritage Chrono Blue is a cool looking, 'summery' watch that attracts many positive responses. It looks like the summer and it feels like the summer. I guess the advertisement that Tudor created for it, with the speedboat and the water skier behind it, only adds to that feeling. While wearing it, a song composed by Gershwin keeps coming back to my mind: "Summertime and the livin' is easy…"

Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue on the wrist

Since summer finally arrived, the review of the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue was timed just perfectly. The review version came on a blue fabric strap with white and orange stripes. Tudor delivers the Heritage Chrono Blue with a steel bracelet and the additional fabric strap. The stainless steel bracelet is not part of this review. The fabric strap features the same color scheme as the dial and bezel and is closed with nicely finished steel buckle.

Perfect design for the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue
 

It has never been so easy to describe the overall appearance of a watch: summertime! That's only possible because everything about the Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue was just perfect. The design is incredibly nice, the case is extremely well-made and the movement runs perfectly. That leaves nothing to complain about and all attention goes to its looks.

The new Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue

While Tudor has been the affordable alternative for Rolex - it was created to be exactly that, Tudor set itself a bit more apart with the introduction of timepieces like the predecessors of this Heritage Chrono Blue in the early 1970's. Other Tudors of that time also feature a designed that give the brand more of an own face, like the vintage dive watch with so-called 'snowflake dial' that served as inspiration for the Tudor Pelagos.

Chronograph and date indication features
 

The Heritage Chrono Blue features a chronograph and a date indication, besides the hours, minutes and small seconds. The elapsed time is indicated on a 45-minute counter, instead of the usual 30-minute or 60-minute counters that can be found on virtually every other chronograph. That makes the Heritage Chrono Blue of course a good tool to measure the two halves of a football match.

The chronograph pushers have to be unlocked before they can be used to start, stop or reset the chronograph. This is one of the features that we know from the Rolex, which featured this first on their Daytona reference 6240 that was introduced in 1965.

Customers can choose between steel bracelet or fabric strap

Heritage Chrono Blue's dial and hands
 

The dial features a very distinct composition of colors and shapes and comes extremely close to the design of its predecessor, the Tudor ref. 7169/0 from 1973. The dial is grey with a hint of beige, while the chronograph registers have a squarish dark blue back-ground color. Around the dial's perimeter is a blue chapter ring with white painted minute and seconds markers. Every five minute interval is printed with the minute's numerals in orange on the chapter ring, starting with "60" at the 12 o'clock position.

At the 12 o'clock position is the Tudor shield logo applied and just below that it reads "Tudor" and below that "Geneve". On the "inner" grey/beige dial are applied stick markers at every hour. The markers and hands are filled with luminescent material, which makes it easy to read the time when it's dark.

New Tudor Heritage Chrono and the Tudor reference 7169 (Monte Carlo)

The Heritage Chrono Blue does't feature a magnifying cyclops on the date, like its predecessor. While the little plastic bulge is something that you either love or hate, it does improve legibility of the date. Especially dates between 10 and 19 were not so easy to keep apart from dates between 1 and 9, because the first "1" came extremely close to the framed date window.

Chrono Blue case and strap reviewed
 

The stainless steel case measures a very nice 42mm in diameter. While that would have been considered large, at least back in the 1970's when its predecessor was introduced, now-a-days this size looks and feels like a very comfortable size. The case is waterproof to a depth of 150 meters (500 feet) and both the crown and chronograph pushers have to be screwed down to secure the case against water.

Using the chronograph needs preparation, because the screw down pushers have to be released/unscrewed before they can be pushed in. This means that a quick time measurement is no option, unless you have unscrewed the chronograph pushers in advance. I would not recommend to keep the pushers unscrewed, because that compromises the watertightness of the case. Both the crown and the chronograph pushers have a knurled surface, that offer an easy grip. The crown is adorned with a blue lacquered Tudor shield logo.

Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue fabric strap

The bezel has the same knurled pattern on the side, which here as well provides a perfect grip. The bi-directional bezel has a blue bezel insert has a 12-hour graduation. The Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue comes with a stainless steel bracelet and an additional fabric strap, that you can change yourself.

The ETA 2892 calibre - movement of the Tudor Heritage Chrono
 

When you're familiar with looking for the specifications of watches, you probably have seen many, many different caliber references. And often these calibers are made-up names, while the actual engine is one of the well-known ETA or Valjoux calibers that are used by many watch brands. Tudor on the other simply tells us which caliber is inside their watches and I applaud this openness!

Inside ticks the very reliable ETA 2892 with an additional module for the chronograph function. This movement ticks at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, and a total of 55 jewels make sure that all pivots rotate without friction. The movement has around 42 hours of power reserve when fully wound.

The Heritage Chrono Blue : A good choice

The pros and cons of the Tudor Heritage
 

The Heritage Chrono Blue is a brilliant timepiece. For collectors it adds a desirable timepiece that is know from history book and has reached a collectible status. For those who are not that much interested in watches, but do like to select a nice watch with their outfit, the Heritage Chrono Blue is the perfect summer watch. It wears comfortable, it looks great, everything about it feels rugged and solid so no need to worry or be extra careful. Yes, this is the perfect summer watch for a carefree day, enjoying the good life and looking very stylish. And when the summer is gone, you simply change the strap and attach the steel bracelet. It also makes a great autumn, winter and spring watch.

Pros
 

• case, bezel, crown, everything is of the best quality and you can feel that
• very nice dimensions, the case is not too big or too small, just fine with 42mm in diameter
• the choice of straps is a very nice extra
• the movement, ETA 2892, is a proven workhorse that will tick the time away for many decades to come
• the extremely likable design!

Cons
 

• it is not easy to see the first "1" in the dates from 11 to 19
• to operate the chronograph, the chronograph pushers must first be unlocked