Tudor Prince Watches

About Tudor Prince

The Prince made its debut in 1952. Tudor launched the now iconic model with an ad campaign that was innovative for the era. Instead of simply showing and describing the watch, the ad highlighted the Prince’s strength, reliability, and precision both through text and illustrations of men working in particularly difficult conditions while wearing the watch. In addition, the inventive ad featured Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of both the Tudor and Rolex brands, which gave the watch a certain credibility.

Later that year, the Prince started making a name for itself. A group of British scientists traveled to the northernmost point in Greenland for an expedition organized by the Royal Navy. Each of the twenty-six participants were armed with a Prince.

In 1953, Tudor rolled out another ad campaign for the Prince showcasing the robustness tests performed on the model and the watch’s ability to withstand extreme conditions. The ads featured coal miners, stonecutters, construction workers, and motorbike racers all wearing the Prince. Each put emphasis on the durability of the watches from their efficient winding systems to their waterproof capabilities even in the most demanding and harsh circumstances.

The ad campaigns that introduced the Prince helped distinguish the model from others produced by the brand’s parent company by appealing to the everyman as opposed to the man who has everything. The Prince was a tough timepiece built for a rugged man. But into the mid 1950’s, Tudor began to expand the Prince collection. Two of the most notable variations are the Prince Submariner and Prince Tuxedo.

In 1954, Tudor released the Prince Submariner, the brand’s first ever dive watch. The model adheres to the Prince’s original standards of strength, dependability, and accuracy with specific requirements to serve the needs of divers. The original model includes features a case with a screw-down back, a crown with waterproof capabilities up to 100 meters, large hour markers and luminous hands for maximum legibility, and a bi-directional rotating bezel graduated in five-minute intervals to measure dive time. Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, Tudor continued to develop and refine the Prince Submariner collection with the release of several additional versions.

One version was the Prince tuxedo, debuting in 1955. The Prince Tuxedo was a dressed-up alternative to the original model. It features a two-tone dial with a black and white design that mimics the sophistication of a classic tuxedo.

For years, the Prince collection was the backbone of the Tudor brand. As new models have evolved over the past several decades, many draw inspiration from the early Prince models. Today, the Tudor Prince watches continue to be some of the most highly sought after by fans of the brand and collectors alike.