With the new Tudor Pelagos FXD Reference 25717N, Swiss luxury watch brand TUDOR pays tribute to its iconic Milsub timepieces created for US Navy divers. This 42mm diving watch in titanium features a high-performance Manufacture Calibre, unidirectional bezel with ceramic-insert, black dial and fixed strap bars.
The TUDOR Pelagos FXD Reference 25717N is a modern, high-performance and robust take on the famed “Milsub” (short for Military Submariner) of yesteryear.
Inspired by the aesthetic style of a late ‘60s-era TUDOR Oyster Prince Submariner reference 7016, this new model incorporates elements from the US military specifications for diving watches, such as fixed spring bars, as well as details inspired by other generations of issued TUDORs, like pointed crown-guards typically found on early TUDOR Submariners.The US Navy issued TUDOR diving watches for decades starting in the latter years of the 50s. The watches were famously used by SEAL teams from their commissioning in 1962 all the way the late 80s.
These robust instruments have also served sailors in all types of underwater roles, including TUDOR Pelagos FXD Reference 25717N , Seabees and Navy dive school instructors.
The issued TUDOR Submariners have played a role in teaching the basics of scuba diving at the Underwater Swimmers School, all the way to aiding in underwater submarine maintenance at submarine bases in the US and abroad. Issued TUDOR watches also played a role in pioneering innovative underwater technologies under the surface of oceans across the globe.
Throughout the decades, TUDOR has supported the US Navy as a supplier of issued watches.
In the 1965 “First Edition” of the Underwater Demolition Team Handbook, a TUDOR Oyster Prince Submariner ref. 7928 is pictured next to the “Diving Watch” paragraph. The handbook was an essential piece of literature for new operators as they studied UDT operational procedures.Later, in 1973, the US Navy Diving manual lists the TUDOR Oyster Prince Submariner references 7016 and 7021 as “Navy-approved” diving watches. In 1974, the National Stock Number system was introduced to track the supply system of the US Department of Defense.
From 1978, under code 6645-01-068-1088, a supply officer could purchase and issue a TUDOR Pelagos FXD Reference 25717N Oyster Prince Submariner reference 9411, or later 76100, to an approved sailor or operator in need of a reliable Navy-approved dive watch. This specific supply catalog entry was only retired in 2004.
Watches issued to members of the military are typically engraved with specific inventory codes, but the US Navy-issued TUDOR watches didn’t follow this pattern. There was never a force-wide, consolidated marking system.
Instead, the issued watches were either sterile, or marked at the unit level, with many different coding typologies, most of which were used for inventory purposes. Since many of these watches issued by the US Navy remain unmarked, it makes it quite difficult for watch scholars of today to determine the military provenance of a given TUDOR, even though official records indicate that very large quantities, in a number of references, were delivered over a span of multiple decades.