Tudor Revives Discontinued Northflag Watch With Upgraded Mechanical Specifications

There are watches everyone loves instantly. Then there are watches that have to disappear before people realize how good they were in the first place. The Tudor Northflag is surely the latest entry into the latter category. Introduced under the name “North Flag” (two words) in 2015, it was an unusual watch for Tudor then and remains an unusual watch for Tudor now. It was angular, modern, and built around an integrated bracelet at precisely the moment the brand was finding enormous success with watches, like the Black Bay, that looked like they were dusted off from yesteryear. The North Flag was cut from a different cloth. It was also the first Tudor to be powered by one of the brand’s own manufacture calibers, the COSC-certified MT5621, something Tudor made a point of showing off through an exhibition case back. You can understand why: It came with a silicon balance spring and a 70-hour power reserve—impressive specifications in 2015 (and now) and a sign of where Tudor was heading. But the watch never became a mainstream hit. Its integrated construction was unconventional, its black-and-yellow dial was divisive, and the power-reserve indicator at nine o’clock gave the whole thing a slightly strange, too-technical, retro-futuristic appearance. In short: at a time when buyers were enthusiastically embracing Tudor’s heritage designs, the North Flag arguably looked a bit too modern

A decade after it first debuted , Tudor has revived the Northflag . Originally a 1970s-inspired sports watch to showcase Tudor’s first-ever in-house movement, the Northflag has been upgraded inside and out. The rebooted Northflag gains a GMT function plus refinements all round, ranging from superior detailing on the case to lume blocks on the dial. And the movement is now a Master Chronometer, while the price stays true to Tudor’s value-oriented focus at just over US$5,500. The original North Flag was a bit quirky with its power reserve indicator, and also probably ahead of its time; a Tudor with an in-house movement seemed like an odd concept back then. I liked it then, but the North Flag wasn’t a commercial success, so it is surprising that Tudor has revived the model. But the new Northflag is an immediately appealing watch, reflecting Tudor’s advancements in design, manufacturing, and branding. In fact, the Northflag is one of the most interesting watches in the current Tudor catalogue, alongside the equally recent Monarch . Although practically everything Tudor makes is well priced and an easy recommendation, almost all of Tudor’s best watches are variations of the Oyster case and Black Bay diver. The Northflag, on the other hand, is something else entirely. The angular, 1970s-style case is different, as is the dial. But all the elements are harmonious, and the design works