A Week On The Wrist The Tudor Pelagos 39: Compromising With Confidence

I would argue, yes, it does. And to that point, I am entering the last of what I have to say about the Pelagos 39. I covered the release here, went hands-on here, penned a cheeky comparison here, and explained the 39's selection as Hodinkee's Tool Watch of the Year here. If you're looking for a blended mix of objective understanding and subjective taste when it comes to the Pelagos 39, I can save you several thousand words worth of reading. It's a wonderful dive watch. Useful, well-made, nicely sized, modern, subtle, toolish, and totally wearable. It's the kind of watch that will make others in your collection irrelevant. You should get one, and so should I. 

If you want to know why – keep reading.

In an attempt to not re-state too much of what I've already covered, let's get the specs and siblings out of the way. The Pelagos 39 is a titanium dive watch that measures 39mm wide, 11.8mm thick, and 47mm lug to lug. It weighs about 107g on the bracelet (unsized), and also comes with a rubber strap. So far, the Pelagos 39 is offered in a single spec, with a black dial and a brushed grey/black ceramic with luminous markings. It has a sapphire crystal, 200 meters of water resistance, 21mm non-drilled lugs, a screw-down crown, a closed case back, and the included titanium bracelet features Tudor's T-Fit micro-adjust system. All in, you're looking at a recently-raised price of $4,600 (it was $4,400 when the above video was shot).

Competition is covered below, but the context for the Pelagos 39 is and was largely set by its older siblings, the three current offerings of the standard Pelagos, all based on a 42mm all-titanium dive watch that measures 14.4mm thick and 50mm lug-to-lug. Offered in black, blue, or the vintage-effect LHD, the original Pelagos is a top-spec 500-meter dive watch with a helium escape valve (HeV), a fully-matte aesthetic, and a bracelet with a trick self-adjusting clasp. 

Since it was originally released in 2012 and later evolved for the military-specific FXD, the Pelagos has represented both the flagship in Tudor's dive watch offering, and – by my measure – one of the absolute best dive watches on the market.

Then, in August of last year, Tudor announced the new Pelagos 39, which offered a still-titanium evolution of the form, one with smaller and more generally wearable proportions. But those proportions, as part of what is a clear attempt to market a Pelagos to a wider and less predominantly-male audience, came with technical compromises, including lesser water resistance, no HeV, no self-adjusting sprung clasp, and less of the ultra-matte execution in terms of finishing.

So, if you were in need of a recap of the previous episodes, there it is. All of those factors set the stage for a watch that surprised many and delighted even more, especially when Tudor made it clear that the new Pelagos would not replace the current trio of 500-meter apex dive watches. As a line extension, the Pelagos 39 offers a blend of the looks and aesthetic appeal that made the Pelagos so distinctive with the easy-to-wear conviviality of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight.

As I, and many others, have stated since the 39 became a reality, this is a broad market take on the Pelagos. A rethinking that trades outright diving specificity for a watch that doesn't cut corners on its way to being an incredible everyday dive watch. The standard Pelagos has a niche appeal. Speaking specifically for my wrist, it's a bit big, both in terms of thickness and, more importantly, lug to lug. Furthermore, it's a bit serious. Especially for someone like me, who is at best a casual diver.

If you don't dive at all, the Pelagos might feel like too much. I see the Pelagos 39 as Tudor's casual alternative of a conventional dive watch crossed with a Pelagos. The specs and sizing don't really diminish its ability to be a good dive watch, but the compromise makes it less hardcore than a standard Pelagos. And that's the point. If you've ever felt like the Pelagos was great while at the same time being a bit extra, the Pelagos 39 makes a lot of sense.

Being a modern Tudor creation that is offered only in a no-date configuration, the Pelagos 39 uses the brand's MT5400 automatic movement. It's a COSC-certified chronometer movement with 70 hours of power reserve and a rate of 4 Hz. Backed by a five-year warranty, this is the same movement we have seen put to use in watches like the darling Black Bay 925. 

After having months to think about it, I've come up with a metaphor that I believe makes sense, but may upset a few folks. The Pelagos 39 is a dad (or mom) diver.

On one of my fav Youtube car channels, The Straight Pipes, hosts Jakub and Yuri have a term for a car that is good and appealing, but not the top performance spec for the given model. They call it "dad fast". The idea being that the car is fast enough to feel entertaining and powerful, but isn't meant for someone who wants to run laps and shave tenths at the track. I kind of think of the Pelagos 39 in a similar way.

Putting aside the gendered nature of "dad" (shoutout Pelagos moms), if you dive a lot and love the idea of having a truly excellent dive watch with more specs than you'll ever need, the standard Pelagos is a great choice. But what if, like me, you dive a lot less than you used to, because you have kids and work, and you know, life stuff? Heck, what if you don't dive at all, but you like the format for its raw capability and casual charm? That's where the Pelagos 39 fits. It's not an RS4 or a GT3, it's an S4 or a Carrera T.

Sure, it's a bit of a compromise towards general practicality, but it still beats going full minivan and just getting an Apple Watch, no?

And please take that – the part about the Pelagos, not the silly jab at the do-it-all Apple Watch – as I mean it. As simple praise for making a solid watch that makes as much sense diving as it does on dry land. When you're not on vacation. When you're just at home, living your life.

I've covered this a few times, but for my seven-inch wrist, the Pelagos 39 is essentially perfect. You'll need to fiddle with the sizing and the setting of the T-Fit, but it's light, sits flat, and wears really really well on the bracelet, which tapers to 16mm at the clasp. I found myself greatly preferring the bracelet to the included rubber, and of course, I fell in love with the Pelagos 39 on a NATO.

The T-Fit system is easy and quick to adjust and offered a wide enough delta to manage any wrist swelling that I experienced. No, I don't prefer T-Fit to the OG Pelagos clasp, but given the softened focus on diving, I think that T-Fit fits the brief and works well.

I also found that the Pelagos 39 worked with a variety of other straps, with the only possible holdback being the 21mm lug sizing, which is a pain, but also means I can share straps with my Mido Ocean Star GMT Hodinkee LE (which is also 21mm). Do I wish both were 20? Deeply, yes. But speaking specifically to the Pelagos 39, this is one of the few watches I might actually prefer on the bracelet. It just feels complete.

Legibility is excellent, the bezel is smooth and feels great, and the more simple dial design, without the complex rehaut, date, and additional text of the other Pelagos, gives the watch a somewhat more traditional feel. Which is only bolstered by the red name and Tudor's iconic snowflake hands.

I can't mention rehauts and text and not get into one of the biggest aesthetic changes made for the 39, the brushed ceramic bezel insert that trades the matte appeal of the original for a shinier finish that feels decidedly non-Pelgagos. In-person and on-wrist, it's a big change and I'd say that while I definitely prefer the full matte treatment of the original models, the 39's bezel grew on me and it certainly adds a distinctive character.

If wearability ranks highly among your watch-buying priorities, and I'd argue it should, the Pelagos 39 is definitely worth trying on.

Close, but no. There are a few considerations to keep in mind. First is the aforementioned 21mm lugs, which might be a big deal for some. Second is the lume, which was lacking in brightness for the hands when compared to the bezel and markers. This was the case on both of the two examples I've had the chance to photograph for a lume shot. 

It's not that the lume isn't bright, it's that the hands are not as bright as the rest of the treatment. While I found this to be most noticeable when shooting a lume shot, in night-to-night use, the lume is functional and long-lasting. Hopefully, this is something Tudor rectifies in the future.

Finally, and this may seem obvious, but the nature of titanium is worth considering if you don't have previous experience with a titanium watch. Yes, it's lighter and stronger than steel, hypoallergenic, and much more resistant to corrosion (making it great for a dive watch). But, on the greater topic of compromises, titanium is also a softer metal and tends to scratch and ding much more easily than steel.

Tudor uses grade 2 titanium for the Pelagos 39, rather than the somewhat more premium grade 5, which is Ti 6AI-4V, representing an alloy with 6% aluminum and 4% vanadium. 

Grade 5  is rated to be stronger than grade 2 and while I cannot comment specifically on the practical scratch resistance of one titanium over another, I can assure you that your Pelagos will definitely show scratches. It's best to see that as part of the fun. One or two scratches are a bummer, sure, but a skin of patina formed by wearing the watch day in and day out is something special and anything but a bummer.

Considering competition for the Pelagos 39 is a bit of a brain teaser as there is very little in terms of titanium dive watches in the premium space. Factoring for the $4,600 price point, the Pelagos 39's closest competition is one of the three 42mm Pelagos, which offer higher on-paper appeal at a modest increase to $4,925.

If you don't want (or feel as though you don't need) titanium, then a Black Bay Fifty-Eight remains a winner and the class-leading Sinn U50 offers a loosely similar (yet larger) modern take on a dive watch, but in steel and for even less, starting at $2,520 on a bracelet. Yet, neither feels like a direct cross-shop in my mind. I figure you either want the titanium enough to cancel out steel options, or you wouldn't want to pay the premium to go non-steel, right?

At a lesser price point Citizen and Baltic offer titanium (~$1,000), or you can go all the way in the other direction in terms of size and price for something from Grand Seiko, where something like an SBGA463 costs $7,300, and comes in at 44.2mm. Again, I feel as though we're moving away from the same sort of appeal as the Pelagos 39.

I put the question out to the best watch community in the whole dang world (the TGN Crew Slack) and some of the responses latch on to the appeal more than simply the price, with many folks suggesting the Seiko SPB143 (or similar), pre-co-axial Omega Seamasters (41mm, examples like the ref. 2231 or 2232), or the Tag Heuer Aquaracer, which comes in 40mm for the Solargraph but is quartz-powered and costs $3,050. 

Finally, Seiko's up-market SLA-divers, like the SLA017, also got a handful of mentions, being 39.9mm, and in a price point much closer to that of the Pelagos. But now we're no longer in titanium and are considering watches where nostalgia is a large part of the appeal.

As I said, aside from some other Tudor, it's not an easy bit of math to figure out the competition to the Pelagos 39. Tudor has managed to make something uncommon in terms of its placement, sizing, and execution, while also essentially following the script when it comes to the basic idea of a dive watch. See why folks get excited over just another dive watch? Remember when I said I could save you all that reading? Well, you had your chance. Let's finish this together.

Given the decade-long success of the Pelagos, the Pelagos 39 is a smart, well-executed, and entirely appealing evolution of the format. One that gives up some dive-specific acumen in a welcome trade for a more wearable and casual watch that makes the most out of the titanium while also ensuring it won't need to leave your wrist when you find the time in your schedule for that long-planned dive trip.

It's a Pelagos for the rest of us.