Description
Tudor has reworked one of its most distinctive watches: the Black Bay Chrono is now a 39 mm watch, and it arrives in a loud, joyful yellow-and-black colourway that the watch world has already nicknamed the "Bumblebee." Reference M79310N-0001 sits in Tudor's Daring Watches collection alongside its "Pink" and "Flamingo Blue" cousins, and it is the model that finally makes Tudor's in-house dive-chronograph genuinely easy to wear.
The headline isn't really the colour — it's the diet. The case shrinks from 41 mm to 39 mm and, more importantly, slims to just 13.1 mm thick (down from 14.4 mm), while keeping the column-wheel COSC Manufacture calibre and 200 m of water resistance. At USD 6,725 (GBP 5,270), it remains one of the most movement-for-money mechanical chronographs in its class.
Design
The 39 mm steel case mixes polished and satin finishes and carries a fixed steel bezel with a black anodised aluminium insert and a silver-printed tachymetric scale — the racing cue that has defined the Black Bay Chrono since 2017. The domed yellow dial is the star: vivid, glossy, and offset by circular black sub-counters in a classic two-register layout, with a 45-minute counter at 3 o'clock, running seconds at 9, and a domed date at 6. A domed sapphire crystal completes the vintage-leaning look.
Function is pure tool-watch: a screw-down winding crown with the Tudor shield in relief, screw-down pushers at 2 and 4 o'clock, and 200 m water resistance that few chronographs match. It comes on a 3-link steel bracelet, polished and satin-brushed, fitted with Tudor's excellent "T-fit" rapid-adjustment clasp for on-the-fly sizing.
Specifications
- Reference: M79310N-0001 (Black Bay Chrono 39, "Bumblebee")
- Case diameter: 39 mm
- Case thickness: 13.1 mm (previous generation: 14.4 mm)
- Lug width: 20 mm
- Case material: stainless steel, polished and satin finishes
- Bezel: fixed steel with black anodised aluminium insert, silver tachymetric scale
- Crystal: domed sapphire
- Dial: yellow, domed, with black sub-counters; 45-minute counter at 3, small seconds at 9, date at 6
- Water resistance: 200 m (660 ft)
- Movement: Manufacture Calibre MT5813 (COSC) — self-winding column-wheel chronograph, vertical clutch, silicon balance spring, bidirectional rotor
- Power reserve: approximately 70 hours
- Crown / pushers: screw-down crown with TUDOR shield in relief; screw-down pushers at 2 and 4 o'clock
- Bracelet: 3-link stainless steel, polished and satin-brushed, with TUDOR "T-fit" rapid-adjustment clasp
- Guarantee: five-year transferable, no registration required
- Price: USD 6,725 / GBP 5,270
What's Exciting
The real story here is wearability. A 41 mm Black Bay Chrono always wore like a serious slab; at 39 mm and 13.1 mm it becomes a watch a far wider range of wrists can live with daily, without giving up the 200 m rating or the proper column-wheel, vertical-clutch architecture. Tudor didn't water anything down to hit the smaller size — that is the impressive part.
And the value remains hard to argue with. The MT5813 is a COSC-certified Manufacture chronograph with a silicon hairspring and a ~70-hour reserve, in a 200 m dive-chrono, for USD 6,725. Plenty of rivals charge more for less movement. The "Bumblebee" yellow won't be for everyone — it is deliberately bold — but that is exactly the brief of the Daring Watches line, and the black-and-yellow contrast is genuinely striking in the metal.
History
Tudor was founded in 1926 by Hans Wilsdorf — the same man behind Rolex — as a way to offer Rolex-grade reliability at a more accessible price. The Black Bay line, launched in 2012, distilled the look of Tudor's 1950s "Big Crown" Submariner divers into a modern hit, and became the engine of the brand's revival.
The Black Bay Chrono arrived in 2017 as Tudor's first in-house chronograph, powered by the Manufacture Calibre MT5813 — a movement developed on the base of Breitling's B01 under the celebrated movement-sharing agreement between the two houses (Breitling, in turn, used Tudor's MT5612). It has since appeared in panda, reverse-panda and bright "opaline" variants. The 2026 Black Bay Chrono 39 is the most significant update yet: a new, smaller, slimmer case that reframes the whole proposition.
