Month: September 2019

We know, the word "bandwagon" appeared in English vocabulary around the middle of the 19th century and has been used alternately as a noun and verb since that time, with derogatory meaning. To be fair, there's still a large number of space on the Tudor wagon, but let's not forget that, just like everyone's current favorite team or band, there's an awesome lot more to this brand than a single-player or hit single. Which is to say that Tudor, for the better part of the last decade, has quietly shown immense depth and character - releasing compelling and innovative elements like the Heritage Advisor that ultimately laid the solid foundation for not just the mass-market appeal of the Black Bay and its huge iterations, but the current heritage re-issue trend as a whole. You could count on one hand the number of mechanical alarm watches that come in under 10,000 bucks. The cheap swiss replica watches perennial classic Master Memovox by Jaeger LeCoultre is perhaps the best known, though a lesser-known alternative would be a hand-wound Cricket President from Vulcain, which retailed for around $5,000 — but whether or not that brand or its distributors are still in the game isn't immediately clear. Pricing or value aside, what is obvious is that a mechanical alarm is far more of a novelty than even a mechanical watch - a quirky analog handshake to a bygone era extended by precious few brands in watchmaking, past or present. The original dual-crown Advisor was a pretty featureless, four-handed affair: it measured 34mm and featured a red alarm-setting hand, adjusted by the crown at 2 o'clock. Nevertheless, there was little to give away the fact that something so unique hid beneath its silver dial. The modern iteration flips the script a bit - an Advisor in name and typography only. The watch is powered by an automatic ETA 2892 base that has been heavily made with an in-house mechanical alarm module. It's actually worth noting that, back in 2011 and before the MT-series of manufacture calibers, this was Tudor's only in-house designed movement. Like most any other traditional automatic watch, you can wind, set the date, and set the time on the Advisor using the push crown at 4 o'clock. The crown at 2 o'clock is marked "Advisor," and is used for all of the Alarm-related functions. Pop it into the first position to wind the alarm, filling up the red reserve indicator at 3 o'clock in the same manner one might wind a hand-wound high-quality replica watches. Pull it to the second position and adjust the red alarm time setting pointer. Note that the chapter ring only indexes 10-30-50 minutes per hour, so if your goal is to wake up at 6:03 a.m., the process of setting an alarm clock is a bit imprecise. For those of us who don't have OCD, simply set the watch to the nearest 6, put the crown back in place, and press the button to push the watch at 8.