Ultra-light carbon fiber and titanium encasing high-precision machinery ready to perform in the most demanding scenarios using only human power — these words can describe both the Alinghi Red Bull Racing America's Cup sailboat and the new Tudor Pelagos FXD watches created to celebrate the Swiss sailing team's attempt to reclaim the world's oldest international racing title. Tudor is now a sponsor of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing team, marking a new chapter for the storied Swiss watch brand.
The physical similarities between the high-tech boats and these new Tudor Pelagos FXDs in carbon lend the partnership a tangible edge over the mere sharing of brand logos, which can feel spurious to us watch enthusiasts. After spending two days watching the Alinghi Red Bull racing boats in action as well as studying the boats up close, I came to view the new Pelagos FXDs as small horological versions of these fascinating sailing machines.
The two sporty, feather-light, high-precision chronometers (rated to the COSC spec of -4 / +6 secs/day but Tudor regulates to -2/+4 secs per day) seem to float on the wrist. These watches feel physically connected to the enterprise of pushing technology and knowledge in the service of the highest performance possible, which is exactly what the America's Cup is all about. But, as a watch enthusiast first and a sailing fan second, I can also say that these carbon Pelagos FXD models are super cool watches even if we ignore the sailing connection, and they extend Tudor's Pelagos range in daring new ways.
These are the first carbon fiber watches from either Tudor or its parent company Rolex, and the 43mm chronograph is the first Pelagos to feature the stopwatch complication. Impressively, the chronograph measures just 13.6mm thick, which is quite thin for a chronograph with 200m of water resistance. The 42mm time-only model is just 12.75mm thick, foregoes the date complication, and feels on wrist like a lighter version of the original Pelagos Titanium FXD of 2022, which Tudor created for the French Navy's combat divers.
FXD is short for "fixed," which refers to the fact that the case has slots for the pass-through strap, rather than holes for mounting flimsy spring bars. Watches configured this way date back to WWI military units with welded lugs in order to stay put in the most demanding conditions. Further distinguishing the Pelagos FXD models is the countdown timing scale on the bi-directional rotating bezel. (To be clear, though the Pelagos is conceived for diving, these are not technically dive watches, which require unidirectional bezels that count up, not down.)
Where the previous titanium FXD for the French Navy was focused on timing legs of an underwater navigation route set with a compass, the countdown bezel of the new Alinghi Red Bull carbon Pelagos FXD can be used for various timing tasks when sailing, most notably the start of the race, a notoriously tense 10 minutes. Some may wonder why Tudor didn't include a "yacht timer" 10-minute countdown complication, and the answer is that the sailing team maintains no pretenses of using a mechanical watch to time the start of the America's Cup.
To get a sense of how off-base such a pretense would be, consider that these sailors are tucked into tiny cockpits while wearing helmets equipped with noise-canceling radio headsets for all communications while racing. In other words, these sailors are long past the days of start guns, stopwatches and yelling times out across the deck.
As one Tudor representative told me, the Alinghi Red Bull team asked for an excellent watch that could withstand the daily abuses of working toward the goal of winning the America's Cup. Those tasks range from actually sailing for a couple hours each day, to sanding down fins and blades, deconstructing and rebuilding the boats, stepping the carbon fiber mast, tensioning the rig and enduring rigorous daily physical training.
The larger boats that contend for the America's Cup are powered only by humans and wind. What the wind does is obvious, but where human power formerly went directly into winching the sails, today's teams use their legs to pedal power into elaborate hydraulic systems that not only trim the sails but also lift, lower and adjust the hydrofoils on which the boats rise out of the water and ride at over four times the speed of the wind. Like today's watches, today's sail boats have come a long way.
The boats are high-tech marvels that rival Formula 1 racing cars in terms of pushing the boundaries of speed through material science, computer-aided performance analysis, aero- and hydrodynamic design and more. The technology and know-how is so advanced that one of the racing team's representatives told me: "Some people don't even consider it sailing anymore." But out on the water cruising alongside these boats with their impressive hulls, masts and sails, I find it difficult to call this anything other than sailing — however untraditional the boats may appear when skimming at remarkable speeds up on their foils.
This is why the watches seem so compellingly aligned with the boats: both are pushing material science and precision machining to the limits, and both are coming up with very modern versions of machines that have been a big part of human endeavors for centuries. The basic mechanical concepts remain the same, but the technical execution is downright avant-garde.
While much of Tudor's catalog celebrates the brand's heritage with retro-inspired models (most notably the Black Bay series), the Pelagos has always seen Tudor looking forward. That's not to say the Pelagos doesn't incorporate essential elements of vintage Tudor – the snowflake hands and square markers are derived from 20th-century Tudors, for example – but there's no question that the Pelagos is Tudor's platform for pushing design and technology, and no Tudor has been as tech-forward as these two carbon Pelagos FXD models.
The two watch designers who I met with in Barcelona confirmed that the design brief for these new Pelagos models was to move beyond anything Tudor has done to date while still maintaining the core ethos of the brand. It's not an easy design brief, especially when one factors the Alinghi Red Bull team into the equation.
I was curious how closely the watch designers work with the manufacturing team responsible for making the final technical drawings, and it turns out everyone works together closely in an open work space. The mechanical viability of an aesthetic idea can be checked in a moment by simply calling to a colleague across the room. Working closely in this way, the team took about eight months to get the design ready for production. Not bad for a first go with carbon fiber.
On the wrist, both models feel exceptionally light, and the excellent Velcro straps by Julien Faure, a famous French ribbon maker, are the perfect compliment to these ultra-light watches. I've often found carbon watches with rubber straps a bit unbalanced because the rubber is heavy. I've also found carbon and ceramic bracelets to rattle like plastic. The textile solution Tudor has extended across many of its watches is ideal. The watch stays put, and it looks just as good as it feels wrapped around the wrist. Very light and very sporty.
It's worth noting that both the 43mm chronograph and the 42mm time-only models wear much smaller than their diameters might suggest. The relative thinness of both models is an obvious boon to comfort, as is the light weight, but the shape of the case, the flat crystal and the snug fit of the strap all combine to make the watches exceptionally easy to wear.
Some have complained about the chapter-ring timing scale being interrupted for the "Alinghi Red Bull Racing" text, but for me it's a far better solution than, say, slapping a logo on the dial. This text is similar to many Rolex watches that feature text on the chapter ring, and I find it to be a sporty reminder of why this watch exists. Maybe we'll get a standard-issue carbon FXD without that text one day, but until then this one serves its specific purpose excellently.
Some have also questioned the brand alignment between Tudor (a storied Swiss watch brand) and Red Bull (an energy drink company). This strikes me as a snap judgment based on tired notions of luxury, and this concern also overlooks the fact that Red Bull Advanced Technologies has become one of the most prestigious technical solutions companies on the planet, a company to no small degree responsible for the accelerated advancement of racing technology across various sports for over two decades.
My sense is that Red Bull Racing syncs quite naturally with both Tudor and Alinghi, the eponymous Swiss sail racing team with more than a few prestigious titles to its name already. Witnessing the technicians tweak these racing machines and then watching the boats whizz across the water on their foils, I kept glancing down at the machine on my wrist as an undeniable material confirmation of just how well aligned these enterprises are.
The Tudor Pelagos FXD Alinghi Red Bull is available now. The time-only model (left) is priced at $3,675 and the chronograph (right) is priced at $5,075.
